This Wolfram thread reminds me of something I read about earlier this week...
IBM is developing artificial intelligence software to compete with human contestants on the TV game show "Jeopardy". Sounds like a precursor to a robotic reference librarian. :-)
From a NY Times article:
"Eric Nyberg, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, is collaborating with I.B.M. on research to devise computing systems capable of answering questions that are not limited to specific topics. The real difficulty, Dr. Nyberg said, is not searching a database but getting the computer to understand what it should be searching for."
In a YouTube video, David Ferrucci, an IBM artificial intelligence researcher, says that the system is "a computer system that we've been putting together that is going to advance the state-of-the-art in automatic question answering."
NY Times article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/technology/27jeopardy.html
YouTube video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e22ufcqfTs
Bernie Sloan
Sora Associates
Bloomington, IN
--- On Mon, 5/4/09, Karen Coyle <lists_at_KCOYLE.NET> wrote:
From: Karen Coyle <lists_at_KCOYLE.NET>
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Another nail in the coffin
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Date: Monday, May 4, 2009, 11:01 AM
The latest stats from the California libraries says: "The number of
reference questions per capita reversed a downward trend and
increased by 7%." [1] I recalled that reference questions were dropping,
so this is a bit of a surprise. It could, however, have to do with an overall
upward increase in library use. (from the same document): "During the last
five years service counts per capita increased for visits (4%), circulation (5%)
and Internet terminals per 1000 population (23%)." What I would like to
know is the nature of the reference questions. Since answering reference
librarians call "ready reference" (e.g. factual lookups) logically
will have fallen in these days of Wikipedia, I wonder if people aren't
turning to reference librarians with the harder questions, the ones that
aren't just a collection of facts. Unfortunately, the stats I've looked
at don't differentiate.
Note that library use and circulation have been steadily increasing, and public
libraries are reporting a sharp increase in 2009 which will show up next year
when the stats are gathered.
kc
[1] http://www.library.ca.gov/lds/librarystats.html -- each state library does
stats for its state. For example, Texas shows reference questions plummeting.
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/pls/statewide.html So YYMV.
Tim Spalding wrote:
>> Are you suggesting that all of us reading this should just quit our
jobs and go work somewhere other than a library now, and libraries should
disolve themselves?
>>
>> And that's useful for us to discuss here why?
>>
>
> Well, so that people on this groups *get* the other jobs, right? In
> all seriousness, I don't see why the death of libraries and
> librarianship should be dismissed as a topic.
>
> Does anyone have lists of reference questions?
>
> Presumably there's a body of articles out there breaking them down by
> type and so forth, by public and academic, etc. It would be
> interesting to see such a list prior to Google, and today. I too doubt
> that "almanac-y" questions are very prominent today. If they
were
> prominent in the past, I'm betting that Google answers them now.
It's
> not just that "how tall is the Eiffel Tower?" actually gives you
the
> answer "Eiffel Tower — Height: 1986 feet/300 Meters" but, if
it
> didn't, the first ten results also include it.
>
> In sum, the web has obsoleted *some* of the uses of the library
> already. Once upon a time people did need the library—or a decent
> personal library—to answer trivial factual questions. That time is
> gone. But I'm not convinced Wolfram Alpha, or any similar technology,
> will shrink the library's domain much further.
>
> Tim
>
>
>
-- -----------------------------------
Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
------------------------------------
Received on Mon May 04 2009 - 11:52:13 EDT