[WEB4LIB] Re: Google Answers questions

[Richard Wiggins]

Devil's advocate: doesn't this necessarily vary based on the relationship
between the questioner and the librarian?

A friend who worked for a congressperson in the late seventies told of the
astonishing quality of reports that came back from the Congressional
Research Service at the Library of Congress.  VERY complex questions, VERY
thorough reports done rapidly.  (And before a lot of online databases)

Medical librarians know that bad searches can literally be a matter of life
and death.

My wife fields queries from physicists and astronomers that require some
very detailed searches and I know she takes the responsibility very
seriously.

But....

How well does this translate into the completely general, wide open, shared
virtual reference desk on the Web environment?  For many reference
librarians in person, there is a "teach to fish" mentality, which is good I
think, but the anonymous Web questioner just wants answers. I believe it's
possible that the paid Google model can lead to compiled results superior to
what the free Web-based desk will deliver -- and in much less time.

I went to two virtual reference services today to try out my Grand Canyon
query.   Both told me it'd take a few days to get the results that I got in
a few hours for my $20.  In a few days it's irrelevant.  We'll see what
quality of answers I get.  (And if the one that demanded my library card
answers me even though I don't have one...)

And by the way, I bet a bunch of the Google Answerers ARE reference
librarians, earning money on the side...

/rich



On Wed, 22 May 2002, "Karen G. Schneider" wrote

> 
> 
> This is the absolute tragedy. Quite often we have the best services to
> offer, and we offer them from the heart, informed by our professional
> ethics, with public service as our bottom line.  Then we watch while the
> McInfo people sell the same service, make money from it, and exploit
> folks, too.  
> 
> ----------------------------------------------
> Karen G. Schneider kgs at lii.org  http://lii.org 
> Coordinator, Librarians' Index to the Internet
> lii.org  New This Week:     http://lii.org/ntw 
>       lii.org: Information You Can Trust!
> ----------------------------------------------   
>  

Richard Wiggins
Writing, Speaking, and Consulting on Internet Topics
rich at richardwiggins.com       www.richardwiggins.com