Role of librarians

[Martin Cohen]

Surely one of the reasons people write books and articles and technical 
reports is so that they can express what they have to say clearly, 
concisely, at length, and with documentation of their thought process and 
logic. It's my experience that authors when asked a question about their 
work would rather that the questioner have read the work first. Perhaps 
that perception is weakened where talk shows give the impression that the 
reason for writing a book is so that you can go on TV and radio.

Being able to query an author may supplement having access to the work. 
It is not a substitute for it.

Martin J. Cohen                                 mcohen at stmarys-ca.edu
Head of Systems and Media                       voice: (510) 631-4229
Saint Mary's College of California              fax:   (510) 376-6097
Moraga, CA 94575                                ars longa vita brevis


On Wed, 18 Oct 1995, The Big Glee Bopper wrote:

> On Wed, 18 Oct 1995 weibel at oclc.org wrote:
> > 
> > > Remember we already agreed that the real content of the internet is 
> > > people.
> > 
> > I didn't agree on this... nope... not a bit.  Finding and communicating with
> > people is a very important component of the net, to be sure.  Fashioning a
> > reliable environment for selecting, organizing, accessing, and preserving the
> > cultural, technical, and scientific record is another dimension.  
> 
> _was_ another dimension. Remember old McLuhan: the medium is the message? 
> Same as it always was, same as it always was ... if the medium changes so 
> does the message ... and maybe more importantly for you, so does oclc!
> 
> > BTW, my colleague was not pointing to TimBL, but rather to his paper... that's
> > the link that was broken.
> 
> I know that was my point, find the person find the paper. If you actually 
> sat your friend down and did what is referred to as an old fashioned 
> reference interview: What would you like? What are you trying to do? When 
> do you need it by? How are you going to use it?  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.
> 
> --Thom
>