>Musings for a late Friday afternoon when my brain really isn't in to what
>>I probably ought to be doing...
>
Well, here are my musings on a Monday morning...
>
>>However I see this a primarily a forum
>>for law librarians to discuss common interests and to seek advice and
>>assistance from colleagues. It would be a curious thing if this list
>>became a resource for "the public." I feel that most everyone has access
>>to their own law library (don't flame me, I know that many do not, and
>>those who do don't all have access to Lexis and Westlaw, etc., etc.). The
>>librarians in the LISP community do a wonderful job under great adversity.
>
I have to admit that I also think of LAWLIB as a place to ask questions,
provide answers, and read other librarians' answers...a sort of librarians'
electronic coffeehouse where the "regulars" are all on the same page (more
or less!) I don't mean that I don't value the comments of non-librarians,
but gee, I get those all the time, on other lists, in person, on the phone,
in print, on television, etc. I really like the access LAWLIB provides to
lots of my colleagues whenever I need or want it, not just at convention
when things are hectic or one-on-one on the phone, or through one of those
surveys we all seem to get at least once a week.
>
>>I find my self hesitant to answer queries to the list like Monica's. I
>>am much more likely to respond if a person provides a sig that identifies
>>their affiliation and even more likely if that person is another law
>>librarian. {stuff deleted}
>
I don't think it's being anti-librarian to wonder exactly where someone who
isn't part of one's immediate constituency has already looked for an answer
before spending a lot of time finding one. We all get questions from people
calling cold, and they're not always pro-se, either. Some are faculty
members or students or alumns who didn't think to ask their own librarians
to begin with, or did but for some reason decided to ask the same question
of someone else. The nice thing about an electronic list is that if you
don't want to answer the question, you just hit the delete key. The bad
thing is that you at least had to scan the message before deciding to do that.
I also find myself less and less willing to answer questions from
non-librarians who post to electronic lists unless I know them, or the
question is interesting, or I know or can find the answer without much
trouble, or I can tell that the person has done everything he or she can to
find the answer locally. It isn't that I don't like non-librarian questions.
It's that I'm innundated with them, as I suspect many if not all of you are.
LAWLIB has been a nice quiet place for me to consider philosophical
questions, get or give help from or to colleagues, etc., not another
reference desk. We already run an electronic reference desk here, and it's a
LOT of work. Besides, what about all those librarians whose primary focus
isn't reference, but who still want to stay in touch with colleagues on a
general list?
>
>>
>>I kind of feel that Law-Lib is a little bit behind the scenes of what we
>>do. We can say things here that we wouldn't say at the reference desk. I
>>don't want this to be a closed list, invitation only, sort of thing. But
>>I feel that the patron belongs on the other side of the reference desk.
>
>
In regard to Lyo's post responding to Eric's post, I think she is describing
the way that INTLAW actually operates. It does welcome questions from
non-librarians and non-lawyers and the mix is interesting and stimulating,
although sometimes the requests for really basic information get to me (how
can I find the U.S./Canada Boundary Waters Treaty kinds of questions, for
example), and the ever-increasing demand for material in electronic format
can be annoying. But one expects that INTLAW operates that way; that's clear
to anyone after only a few days. If one doesn't like it one can sign off.
One of my colleagues is a listowner of LAWSOURCE-L, which gets a lot of
reference questions from the public; she seems to welcome them, so maybe
that is a place we should be sending patrons who want an electronic answer.
>
>>
>>Oh well, enough of my ramblings, comment if you like. Time for me to stop
>>being a librarian, go home for the weekend, and argue with my (librarian)
>>wife over who has to answer the phone (whoever is calling probably wants
>>to know something).
>
Mine too. Just a comment--I have also noticed that I get asked for
directions and assistance, both in cities and libraries, even abroad. We
must have invisible signs above our heads or something.
C. A. Corcos
Interim Director of the Law Library
and Instructor in Law
CWRU Law School
cac2@po.cwru.edu
C. A. Corcos
Interim Director of the Law Library
and Instructor in Law
CWRU Law School
cac2@po.cwru.edu
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