Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2008-05-28 11:45.
Webrary 2.0? You can't be serious! No self-respecting professional should use such gibberish to refer to their work. Secondly, the public question/answer product you propose is a horrendous idea. Why would anyone find any value in a collection of recorded reference transactions? Useless to library users (what would motivate them to search such a collection?) and embarrassing to librarians. When reference products are not targeted with precision and accuracy to the specific need of the user, the whole notion of professional reference service is severely diminished. The last thing librarians need is to push more crap onto the already overwhelmed. Let's get over this ridiculous 2.0 nonsense and start delivering quality, custom-built materials that provide an analysis and viewpoint of the state of knowledge on the topic of interest as it pertains to the user's need. Innovative delivery of these products may satisfy the 2.0 fetishists, which is fine, but the quality of the content is what matters. Librarians will gain status when they understand the user's need, expertly evaluate the pertinent literature on the topic, and deliver the goods in a timely and convenient fashion. The problem is shitty, superficial, "neutral" pseudo-answers. This will be the issue even when we're beyond this embarrassing 2.0 drivel - telepathic delivery still won't cover the abominable quality of so many librarian answers.
nonsense
Webrary 2.0? You can't be serious! No self-respecting professional should use such gibberish to refer to their work. Secondly, the public question/answer product you propose is a horrendous idea. Why would anyone find any value in a collection of recorded reference transactions? Useless to library users (what would motivate them to search such a collection?) and embarrassing to librarians. When reference products are not targeted with precision and accuracy to the specific need of the user, the whole notion of professional reference service is severely diminished. The last thing librarians need is to push more crap onto the already overwhelmed. Let's get over this ridiculous 2.0 nonsense and start delivering quality, custom-built materials that provide an analysis and viewpoint of the state of knowledge on the topic of interest as it pertains to the user's need. Innovative delivery of these products may satisfy the 2.0 fetishists, which is fine, but the quality of the content is what matters. Librarians will gain status when they understand the user's need, expertly evaluate the pertinent literature on the topic, and deliver the goods in a timely and convenient fashion. The problem is shitty, superficial, "neutral" pseudo-answers. This will be the issue even when we're beyond this embarrassing 2.0 drivel - telepathic delivery still won't cover the abominable quality of so many librarian answers.