Role of librarians

[weibel at oclc.org]

Thom writes:

> You'd find that what your friend and most people want is a dialog with
> the author as to what they meant. With books this is impossible. With
> the net it is very possible.

Nope... what my colleague wanted was a canonical reference to cite for
the purpose of establishing  scholarly linkages.   Please spare Tim the
burden of having to converse one-on-one with everyone who has an idea
about the Web and how it should work.

Part of the point of citation linkages is to remove the need to find
the person in order to get access to their ideas.  A resource should be
accessible irrespective of the person or place that is the custodian at
some time or another.  These links are much more convenient in the
electronic world, but also more labile, and must be maintained.  Stay
tuned for Uniform Resource Names, coming to a server near you soon.

stu