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October 22, 2004
From Diary of an Aspiring Librarian
Rochelle says it all: MOOTalking heads is not enough"
"I'm talking about virtual reference, here. This is generally a project that people say has failed; the numbers don't justify it, people don't use it, people don't like it, so on and so forth. In that terrible article "To chat or not to chat" that I have thoroughly trashed attempted to point out, people don't want to get reference questions answered online. There are some things you don't do online; you don't might chatting to your friends online, you don't mind shopping for frying pans online, but you don't want to ask reference questions online." And a whole lot more.
Posted by jason at October 22, 2004 10:50 AM
Comments
I love it. Roll on the revolution. But who is going to put all that incredible mass of reference online? If GIGO holds, so does MOMI: Mass Out < Mass In. Richard Bear at Renascence Editions has done more than most to put Renaissance English texts searchably online; but who is going to do it with the Calendars of State Papers, all 240 or so volumes? Boy, would that be good; but not in my lifetime.
Or am I mistaking the jargon, and is "reference" as used here something entirely different from what I understand by the term?
Posted by: Wodja at October 22, 2004 11:25 PM