#34...Is it a Competetion? Online answer Sites
I loved the : 100 Places to Go for Good Answers online. I bookmarked it in my "Delicious" site and will also run it off for my staff - good training sites for them.
I also read the "future of the reference desk". As our library never had a "reference desk" there will be no changes in staff. One librarian "jack of all trades". But I can definitely see the difference in "help" that is needed by students doing reports, papers etc. There is definitely more use of research on their own, on the computers. I like it when their research has to include more resources than the internet. We still find that in our small community and schools. I like the name change suggested in one of the interviews "research help desk".
I also read Librarian 2.0 - Interviews of the future of libraries. The interview by Laura Solomon was very interesting. "Holds being delivered to your front door"?? Are people really getting that "lazy"? I do see that we need a better way to "market our libraries". And I don't think it should be locally, but state wide..
I took a look at "answer bag"..some pretty ridiculous questions. It looks like a waste of valuable time taken to answer some of these questions.
So I see this hurting libraries? Yes, but there is so much more available in libraries than just the "reference desk". That's why marketing is so important!!!!