Chat reference should be easy, instantaneous, and pervasive. It’s good to also be accessible, usable, open, and attractive.
It’s the first three reasons that I liked MeeboMe widgets
It’s the last four reasons why I now prefer libraryh3lp or Google chatback badges.
A Reddit Comment Thread of a DumbFunny Pic of a Thread Comment.
Everything about this is brilliant.
IMPORTANT: It is just as possible for a book to have incorrect or misleading information as it is for a website; just read The Cult of the Amateur and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
A recent article supports Andrew Keen’s “People are reading print sources less, and that means the end of civilization [paraphrased]” argument.
Now, I happen to have some anonymous circulation statistics from a public library: after crunching the numbers, I found that among the people who currently have a book checked out, the average number out for people born before 1980 was 4.47, while those after 1980 is 3.75. Not exactly a huge generation gap (albeit the numbers are a tad skewed).
In the library world, we call finding and assessing information of any format “Information Literacy.” The ultimate responsibility for the dissemination of information rests with the reader, bottom line.
