Re: Watson - IBM's "question-answering" machine (potential implications for libraries?)

From: Thomas Krichel <krichel_at_nyob>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 04:17:16 +0100
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
  Mark Huppert writes

> The main reason to have library staff available to answer questions
> has nothing to do with such high-falutin' stuff. 
  
  yeah!

> The users need to know local policies and procedures, status of
> aquisitions budgets, sort out administrative errors, find out the
> local geography - meeting rooms, toilets, etc.

  This reminds me of what my former boss told me.  In 2008 called me
  to his office to declare that the public librarian needs to know two
  things. 1: last week's lottery numbers, 2: where the toilet is. And
  he repeated. It is very important to know where the toilet is. I
  have called his vision the scatological view of librarianship. I
  find this vision detrimental to the future of the profession.


  Cheers,

  Thomas Krichel                    http://openlib.org/home/krichel
                                http://authorclaim.org/profile/pkr1
                                               skype: thomaskrichel
Received on Thu Feb 10 2011 - 22:17:29 EST