job description

[The Big Glee Bopper]

On Fri, 19 Jan 1996, Geoff S Brown wrote:
> 
> I'll give my "two cents worth" on this topic (I'm new to the list as well 
> so I'm not certain whether or not the question has been dealt with 
> already!). I think a much overlooked role of a "web librarian" is to 
> provide one-on-one reference services. I have been developing a web page 
> for the Dalhousie University Libraries and a feature that I feel very 
> strongly about is a mail option where people can directly submit 
> a reference question to our reference staff.  This in my opinion is no 
> different than a reference question over the phone (a type of question 
> that we frequently are faced with).  It deserves just as much attention 
> and is just as valid!

George is obviously right when he says that is is _no different than a 
reference question over the phone_  I've been working on a project for 
the Monroe County Public Library which has been generalized to the 
_Public Web Project_ and we are also following this line but will be 
trying something a little different. We will be putting someone on the 
other end at specific times to see what happens. The times will be 
advertised. What we will be doing is keeping complete logs to determine 
if types of requests, who requests, if there are more requests during 
wo/manned times, what ever else seems to evolve. We are not putting up 
MOD-MOO-MUSH-MBONEs, just plain old ascii email, so as not to create a 
_tech_ barrier to communication which is what MOD-MOO-MUSH-MBONEs do at 
the moment. ( Yes, there is also a _Public World Project_ which will put 
up an avatar based MOD-MOO-MUSH-MBONE supported help world. )

The eReference librarian will be based _in_ the public library where most
of the info sources are along with the most valuable resource _other
librarians_. The plan at the moment is to cover 10 hours a week for
starters, between adult and children's reference. As this develops we'll
add action logs, meetings, discussions, results, and new directions to 
the PWP project document below.

______The Public Web Project_________
http://www.indiana.edu/~slizzard/pwp/pwp.html

--Thom