one last v-ref note

[Debra Shapiro]

A few weeks before the Charleston Observer article on virtual 
reference, and Steve Coffman's AL article on virtual reference, Joe 
Janes had a piece in Library Journal that was pretty much a Whoa!, or 
cautionary, article regarding virtual reference, but rather than 
Steve Coffman's slam of the collaborative service model (begging the 
question, "What do we do instead, Steve?), or the Observer's article 
fear-mongering that online will replace in-person, badly, Joe's 
article instead points out what so many people on Web4Lib (& Digiref) 
have been saying -- virtual reference is not our only tool, and is 
not always the right tool. It can be very very good in some 
situations, and not the right thing in others. That's the Whoa! 
caveat.

Joe also describes the real or imagined librarian 
jump-on-the-virtual-ref-band-wagon phenomenon very well as "we're 
finally cool!"

debra

LJ 10/15/2002
http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA251681 

-- 
dshapiro at slis.wisc.edu
Debra Shapiro
Continuing Education Services
UW-Madison SLIS
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