Monday, June 15, 2009

Thing #34: This is Our Competition--Online Answer Sites

I believe that the appeal of an online answer site is that you can post a question anonymously and gather opinions/answers from others. You can also ask your question from any computer or phone with Internet access.

Some of the questions that I saw would not be appropriate questions to ask in a library. These questions were seeking opinions rather than facts. For example, I saw someone asking which baby name people liked better. There seemed to be quite a few questions like this.

One question I saw could easily be answered by visiting an airline site or asking a librarian. The person was wondering what kind of ID was needed to board an airplane.

I saw a question posted by a student looking for information on historical people for his exam. This is a question that libraries could certainly answer. It makes me wonder why the student didn't visit his/her library and is instead relying on others who may or may not provide accurate information.

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