More musings on RR

I'm still digesting, while frantically trying to tie up loose ends before I'm off to the real live community.....

One thing I recalled this morning - a small practical tip: don't assume the patron at the other end has received your page, particularly kids. Their machines may be filtered, and we all know how accurate these filters are. Also, don't assume they received the page exactly as you sent it. I've been pushing limited or sorted catalogue searches to people and only realized while training some new AskAwayers that the "value added" functions don't survive the push. It may survive the cobrowse but - surprise - it wasnt working that day. If anyone wants to try it and report back, rock and roll.

Another thing came from reading the blog of Caleb, the Phil of Oregon's VR service, L-net.

Virtual Librarians become the human intermediary in a world where information has grown into this huge, sometimes scary pile that people may sense is going to fall on their heads. So, thinks I, the reference interview serves not only as a vital tool to ensure that we are actually getting the patron what they want, but as a communication tool, so the patron doesn't think of us as just another search engine. As fabulous as our online reference skills and tools are (shout out to Diana, Melissa and Craig for our lovely Delicious links), we need to be careful about just sending them out without comment or explanation of some kind, even just a few words: "here's some cool links we've put together cause we're real smart and know the best sites" (nothing wrong with a little self promotion, right?)