-- This message will be posted to several lists. Please forgive
duplication.

Thank you to each of you who responded to my query regarding the use of
free web sites in the provision of reference service in the public
library. Your responses were of great assistance, and I am sensitized
anew to the depth of collegiality within the information profession.
Enclosed is an excerpt of the paper dealing with this query.
In addition to consulting print resources, web sites and librarians, as

research for this paper, I submitted a listserv query to several
listservs: Dig-Ref, Lis-Link, PubLib, Web4Lib, and Lib-Ref. The purpose
of Dig_Ref is to explore the changes that reference service is
undergoing because of the Web and methods for answering patron queries
via the Internet. PubLib is a listserv that discusses all issues within

the public library venue. Lib-Ref is a listserv for professional
reference librarians from all contexts. Lis-link provides a forum for
information professionals in academic or research institutions,
primarily those in the United Kingdom. The purpose of Web4Lib is to
discuss issues of web resource collection, training of staff and users,
cataloging of Web resources and anything that pertains to the
utilization of Web resources in a library context. Interestingly, I
learned about Web4lib and Dig-Ref via responses to my query to PUBLIB
and LIBREF. Subject areas that respondents reported as good for Web
resources included job hunting, travel, hobbies, associations, news,
general enquiries, address or telephone number look-up, quick ISBN
searches via Amazon, pop culture, federal agency material, state
government information including research, foreign currencies,
genealogy, and technology information. Respondents reported that they
tend to turn to the Web when they deem the question appropriate for a
Web search, when all other sources have been exhausted, when specific
company or business information is being sought, when the information
sought is not yet in print or when the subject matter is extremely
current. The impacts on reference which were reported are increased
reference queries via e-mail, increased versatility, being able to
answer a question without leaving one's desk, expansion of reference
sources, the ability to answer questions that once would not have been
addressed at the local library level, and the ability to answer more
questions in a shorter time frame.
      Drawbacks attributed to the Web are the time that Web searches
consume, either to connect to sites, to sift through hits, or to train
patrons; slowness of the Internet, especially in the afternoon; the
huge number of hits returned for general queries; the need for increased

staff training; the need to assess the authority of sites and a general

lack of quality control, the disappearance of sites, and the tendency to

believe that "if it isn't on the net, it doesn't exist". My sense is
that there is a guarded enthusiasm for the Web that is tempered by
caution among those information professionals who tend to use it. They
are positive about the additional resource that the Web represents but
cautious about the retrievability and authority issues the Web creates.
Perhaps the well-documented trait of wary skepticism rife in reference
librarians stands them in good stead on the Web.

Cleo Pappas

"Society is no comfort to one not sociable."
William Shakespeare










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