I’ve had mixed reactions to the forums that I have visited over the years. In some cases, I’ve been surprised by the usefulness of the answers particularly if someone provides their personal experiences, makes a recommendation in my area or provides expert/trade knowledge. In other instances, I’ve been very disappointed by the often unintelligible answers. I’ve often found that fellow users are reluctant or can’t be bothered to use peer review tools to rate answers.
I’ve enjoyed the social searching features of online bookstores, various rating systems and comments provided on food and restaurant websites - these tools have influenced my book purchases and where I choose to eat.
It’s really encouraging to read that reference librarians are “slamming the boards” and in doing so, promoting the specialised training of the reference librarian and encouraging users to engage with quality and authoritative tools when attempting to find answers to their questions. More people are going online to find “answers”, so the role of the reference librarian in these forums and answer boards is critically important.
In terms of my organisation, there may be a role for reference librarians to “slam the boards” by “answering” questions posed by our customers. Our “answers” might draw upon our online and print resources available in the library and at home. The answers might also refer to training sessions and other departments within Council.
Customers should have the ability to review and evaluate library services, this is a very important part of service provision. Features such as the ability to review resources within the catalogue and the ability to see items borrowed by other customers might be incorporated into later versions of library catalogues.
No comments:
Post a Comment