Ask A Services [Was: "Re: [WEB4LIB] Re:next big thing?"]

[Robert Tiess]

Tony Barry wrote:
> Increasing numbers of Ask A ..  services competing with library
> reference services.

This has been a growing trend.  Even Yahoo offers
this <http://experts.yahoo.com>.  Not only can you
"ask an expert" there, you can "become an expert"
too; great if you have legitimate information and
qualified experience to offer, but not so great if
you don't (as you can imagine); hence disclaimers
such as http://experts.yahoo.com/addendum

Libraries don't have to compete with this.  Their
resource selection and catalogs of definitive works
can provide possibly more collective expertise than
any "Ask A..." service might promise.  Getting the
public to realize that is another thing.

Some "Ask A..." services are good (such as Ask Dr.
Math - http://forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math) others
might dangerously limit researchers to potentially
biased or outmoded perspectives of self-baptised
"experts."  Librarians have no profit motive and
can recommend a healthy variety of perspectives:
contrasting opinions, contradictory theories
and studies, a diversity of interpretations.

Well, just to keep things real, The Onion (a
parody of newspapers) has a thoroughly irreverent
section lampooning "Ask A..." services:
http://www.theonion.com/archive/archive_aska.html

Robert

rjtiess at warwick.net
http://rtiess.tripod.com