shel
@shel

Every time I see a “search engines suck now” complaint I just want to remind everyone that you can call your local public library and ask any question you’d google the answer to and a reference librarian will find you a good answer.

When I was in library school they were so afraid of search engines killing reference librarianship and now that’s clearly not the case so go utilize your local library for getting your ready reference answers you used to google.

I’m also frustrated that the perception of google as killing librarianship means a lot of library systems cut the reference book budget and library schools taught significantly less about ready reference skills and utilizing reference books than they used to

But every librarian still is trained and equipped to go find your answer in a specialized database or to walk over to a reference book like World Book or Mayo Clinic Encyclopaedia of Medical Disorders and find you a brief but accurate answer to your questions.

Librarians also generally just have a lot of research skills you might not have that helps us comb through the SEO bullshit more efficiently if the question is a bit more sideways and unusual.

So if you’re like damn it’s impossible to get answers to questions anymore go utilize your public library. We already have had tax funded free information and answers service for a century and it’s called the library and you can call the library if you don’t wanna physically go to there or you can also use E-Reference through the website of most libraries and get a detailed answer with multiple further reading sources emailed to you within a few days.


johnnemann
@johnnemann

Librarian: Hello, this is the reference desk, how can I help you?
Me: femshep big titties
Librarian: Excuse me?
Me: commendar sheperd unreasonable gozangas gif


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in reply to @shel's post:

i haven't needed to use the reference area of my library yet, but I am there at least once every week. I sometimes hear the librarians on the phone answering reference questions or looking up numbers for local businesses. It is nice that is something that still exists and seems used at my branch!

I agree that libraries can be a treasure trove of help when you're honestly researching something, but most of the time I'm using a search engine it's for stuff like "first Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic ever written" or "Hulk Hogan restaurant menu jpg" and what I mostly want from a search engine is just to give me results to those without a link to Amazon to buy Sonic the Hedgehog or an AI written article about Hulk Hogan.

well, no, i can't, because i don't live in the US... maybe it's different in a big city like Amsterdam or something but i haven't found my local library to be particularly helpful with such things. i assume they're too busy trying to get children to read literally anything at all to care much.

our national network of libraries used to have an on-line question-and-answer service that sounds similar to what you describe, but it stopped operation in 2012

The defunding of librarians in Europe and the UK is truly one of the most tragic things I’ve seen. Librarian colleagues of mine have talked about how public librarianship barely even exists as a profession anymore out there. It’s really tragic for y’all how your governments haven’t valued public access to knowledge

Shel, is it bad form use a reference desk from a public library in a different city than one's home? Or in Roy's case a different continent? I'm thinking in particular of the NYPL's legendary telref service.

People do it all the time especially if it’s the big city one and you’re in a rural area. Just keep in mind that like with a university they might not be able to get you access to the sources they find if you aren’t eligible for a library card

As a librarian you know this, but some readers may not: If one can physically get to the university library one usually can access those sources even without a library card. I sometimes go to a research university and then sit at one of their computers so I can use the various online services they subscribe to.

ohh, so that's why statements about how, libraries are incredible very usable repositories of everything you could ever need including occasionally non-literature, always sounded cool but from a parallel universe to me! over here, i've rarely seen a library that was more than just a literal "Small Building Wot Where We Put All The Books And One Random Middle Aged Woman At A Desk"

in reply to @johnnemann's post:

Me: gigabyte aorus b550i pro ax revision 1.3 motherboard no POST no BIOS
Librarian: ......wha—
Me: oh uh, gigabyte aorus b550i pro ax revision 1.3 motherboard no POST no BIOS site colon reddit dot com

I think this is really true for factual knowledge, but it feels like it would be way less useful for finding specialized technical discussion or opinion. To be specific, finding a range of discussion about a specific type of software architectural choices. I am curious what your experience with that kind of search is?