Thing 34 ~ Is this Our Competition? Online Answer Sites

I started by reading the articles on the "future of the reference" desk.

The Future of the Reference Desk: I think more and more students are going away from the books but it takes someone to help them find the information whether in a book or on the Internet. Students still need to be guided to help them find reliable resources. Just because it is on the Internet does not make it a valuable resource. Librarians need to be as accessible as possible whether behind a desk or out in the open to answer any question.

That Thing You Do: I looked around my library and tried to access what was going on. I found students working at computers, playing games, emailing, studying at desks, playing chess, and overall just visiting. Then I had to ask myself, Is the library an important place? My answer: yes! Students come down everyday to check out reading material, whether fiction or nonfiction. Are we important? Yes! Students have a safe environment to study, hang out, get information or whatever the need is. I order my materials around my students and classroom support. I find that I cater to the students. What do they want to read? What is the latest and best books for the year? All things that are researched through students or websites. Librarian are important because we are here for students to help them in anyway possible through instruction, guidance and interaction.

Librarians 2.0-Interviews of the future of libraries: Tim Spalding - Future of Librarians Interview, What he said about tagging is true. LibraryThing is very user-friendly. I like that I can interact with other readers who have read similar things. I think that more libraries should have places for students to put their thoughts out on books. Our library catalog allows students to recommend the books to others. Important for students who don't want to take my word about a book.

Evolution to Revolution to Chaos? Reference in Transition: Libraries have indeed changed. Libraries used to be quite places of study. Now they are more interactive places for students to hang out. We need to be more personable.

Slam Boards: I think this is a neat place to give accurate information to users. I think if the person identifies themselves and gives the location of their information it becomes more creditable.

I found a lot of the questions to be quite interesting. You can find questions for academics to how to treat an injury. I did read a lot of the questions but was not interested in answering any of the questions.

What I found most important for this thing was reading the articles. I feel that libraries are important to people if they serve a purpose. Libraries need to learn to change with time. My library does not have a high check out rate but we serve a lot of students and staff everyday. We are accessible to students or staff for anything. We look for information, help with the everyday problems (How do I find a book?, My computer won't print., Can you order me a book?, etc,) and maintain a user-friendly environment. If your main goal is to have really high check out rates and that is it, is it really an important place for users? I think we have to look past the number of books that are checked out and look at the ways that we are helping students.