(no subject)

[gwynhefar]

Has anyone else gotten an email introducing Amazon.com's new Askville? Looks like their attempt at Yahoo!Answers. I haven't looked very closely, but it might be interesting to see if it works out, where the others didn't.

Of course as a librarian I'm skeptical of these kinds of things because there's no guarantee of accuracy on any of the answers you receive. Besides, why use something like this when thousands of libraries around the world have free chat reference where you can get a *librarian* answering such questions for you.

Comments

[juuro.livejournal.com]

Actually, not quite. Not everywhere in the world is the reference librarian considered to be ask-me-anything-and-I'll-find-the-answer-for-you kind of service. In my country, and in Germany, the reference librarian will dig up promising-looking references for you, but you will have to read yourself and judge for yourself which information is applicable to your question.

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. But what's stopping you from using one of the services elsewhere that *will* answer such questions for you? I know my library at least, and many others, do not require you to be local, or even in the same country, to use their services.

[darth-kittius.livejournal.com]

Because asking a librarian would involve actually knowing what a librarian does. It's amazing the number of people I've spoken to (who all went to school after me, I might add) who think the librarians are just there to help find books if you're having trouble with the LOC numbers... or to supply IT help if you can't get the online searches to work right. Do they not learn what a librarian does anymore?!?

Even when I was in college people had no clue. I once found a gem of an article on a research project and my group was amazed that I had found it. When I said I had found it because the librarian pointed out a new reference I had never discovered before, they were all shocked that you could ask a librarian to help with your research. Um... hello!

/ random tangent

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. It's very frustrating. A lot of students here have no idea that the library is anything other than a house for books. *sigh*

[harkalark.livejournal.com]

...and a place to talk on their cell phones and eat pizza while they study.