Thing #34 -- Online Answer Sites

I'm familiar with Slam the Boards, as I participated for several months when it first started. Primarily I answered questions on Yahoo! Answers, but I also did a few on WikiAnswers and Askville. During one session I focused on song lyrics questions, which are easy to answer using Google. I would also look for and answer questions related to the Twin Cities (travel, restaurants, etc.) or subjects in which I have expertise. In my answers I always made sure to include the fact that I was a librarian. It's been close to a year since I've participated, however. I began doing more virtual reference at my library, and with that and my regular reference desk hours I didn't feel I had any more time to devote to reference outside. And online answer sites do take a lot of time. The hardest thing for me wasn't answering the questions, it was finding suitable questions to respond to. Even filtering by specific subjects or keywords still left a lot of questions to browse through. I didn't feel comfortable answering any dealing with relationships or medical matters. Or the open ended questions that didn't really have an answer. I wonder if the people asking those view online answer sites as a type of social network--they're just looking to have a conversation with other people.

In a way, that's part of the appeal of these sites--they're the online equivalent of asking around when you want to know something. Studies have shown that's what people tend to do first, rather than turning to "experts" or researching for themselves. Even though they are asking an anonymous community rather than friends and family, they are still drawn to online answer sites over more traditional, library-based methods. Other qualities that make the sites bigger draws over reference librarians for some people are their easy availability, 24/7, and the ability for people to remain anonymous if they choose.

The other type of question I avoided were ones that appeared to be homework assignments. As an academic librarian, my philosophy is to be more concerned with teaching students how to find information for themselves, rather than simply giving it to them. This is often the type of encounter I'll have at the reference desk, but it's probably not the type of answer most online questioners are looking for.