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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How long did riots last in Watts in 1965?

2. When were the coffeemakers banned that librarians used in their workrooms?

3. When was Teen'Scape, the teen section of the library, inaugurated?

4. What temperature did McDonnell Douglas use in their vacuum chamber to try to dry the first batch of books?

5. When did Central Library create the division of Engagement and Learning?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was Paul Bieber, and what was his opinion about the library fire?

2. What was the conclusion of investigators who first questioned Harry?

3. What was "negative corpus" (275)?

4. What happened when investigators showed librarians a photo lineup that included Harry's driver's license photo?

5. Why did economics favor destroying the Goodhue Building?

6. What fire violations were noted at the library in 1973, and why was Barton Phelps suspicious of some of the violations?

7. Who was Todd Wilingham, and how was he falsely accused of starting a fire?

8. What law suits were filed after Harry was released from jail?

9. In the 1960s, what measures were taken because of the building's fragile electrical system?

10. How successful was the book-drying project to restore the Central Library collection?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Orlean considered the topic of shared memory. What were Orlean’s thoughts about shared memory? What did that have to do with identity and culture and libraries? How were libraries able to preserve a culture’s collective memory?

Essay Topic 2

Personification is a type of figurative language that assigns human characteristics to inanimate objects. How does the author use personification in the book? How does the use of personification assist readers in imagining scenes and objects?

Essay Topic 3

For nearly 15 years, there was a struggle between those who wanted to preserve the library and those who wanted to tear it down. What were the pros and cons of preserving or tearing down the library? Why did the preservationists win and the Goodhue Building was saved?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,048 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample