Be a Librarian for a Day!

contributed by Michael G. at 11:31 AM on February 19, 2004.

On one of the list-servs I read someone brought up this Women's Day Magazine Be a Librarian for a Day Contest. The response from the librarians on the list, to paraphrase our Attorney General, is more than a little hysterical.

These "Be a Whatever for a Day" contests are fairly common. When you win a contest to be, say, an airline pilot for a day, no resonable person should expect a) that you'll actually be flying a plane, or b) that single day will be enough training to be able to replace a real pilot.

It's just a stupid contest!

The thing I'm more bothered about is that the Grand Prize, the day in the library and a Women's Day T-shirt is lsited as having a retail value of just $25. I'm spending quite a bit more than that on schooling to eventually put me in a library, and if I knew all I would have had to do to get my foot in the door would be to write a winning 700-word essay, I'd certainly have rethought the path the last several years of my life have taken.

When a Search Engine Isn't Enough, Call a Librarian

contributed by Michael G. at 12:45 PM on February 05, 2004.

An article in today's NY Times champions the role of librarian in an age of instant access to information on the internet.

When Google doesn't work, most people don't have a plan B," said Joe Janes, an associate professor in the Information School at the University of Washington in Seattle, who is teaching a course on Google this quarter. "Librarians have lots of plan B's. We know when to go to a book, when to call someone, even when to go to Google."

On interesting side effect to the prominence of Google, says the article, is that librarians spend less time answering quick-reference questions, and are are then able to spend more time to spend with petrons on the difficult questions.