Why are people wasting their money on this service when they could
simply email/call their local public library for free?  

PEOPLE!  Your tax dollars are paying reference librarians/libraries to
HELP YOU, so USE them!  Have you ever looked around a ready reference
section or talked to a librarian- they will try their hardest to get
you the information you need and if they cannot, they will direct
where to go FOR FREE! No need for a credit card number!  FREE!!!!!

To get my point across, I'll waste my own damned money.

---

Clarification of Question by publiclibrarygal-ga on 11 Oct 2005 16:07 PDT

It still stands that many of these questions could be answered by a
reference librarian in a public library.  It also stands that MANY
people do not understand or know about the resources their tax dollars
pay for each year (public libraries, government documents).  Yes, I
will agree that most reference librarians cannot answer ALL questions
and many do not have the time for in-depth research, BUT they are
there to help.  The best librarians will give you the "time," or will
direct you to where you can obtain your information.  As for
"international" information requests, "language" requests- You're
right, not every reference librarian is fluent in the legal system of
the UK or Portuguese, however librarians are "fluent" in how to find
resources... There are countless Librarian listservs, consortiums,
blogs, etc.  If they CANNOT answer the question themselves, they will
find a way to find the answer.  Librarians are trained to find and
give reputable sources, people/resources KNOWN to be knowledgeable not
just a random username on a webpage who is claimed to be ?tested?. 
Librarians are professionals.  They are asked to adhere to standards,
they usually hold Masters (and in some cases, dual Masters).  As for
asking librarians about "semen" and "skin," one could easily send a
virtual reference request (via email or chat- just look at
http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/) if they felt uncomfortable asking a
librarian in public as by the ALA code of ethics for librarians ALL
questions are to be taken seriously, information requests are not to
be censored.

As for Omnivorous GA- Yes, I agree the public library system is NOT
free (in regards to tax dollars) SO WHY WASTE IT?

Hear, hear! Well, all right. So go ahead and ask your local librarian
to do genealogical research on the 16th century origins of your
family. While your at it, also ask him to translate a section from a
German architecture essay. And finally, ask him to find you an obscure
ginger beer from the Bermudas.

If your local librarian does all that - without using the wicked
Internet and its henchman Google Answers - the tax dollars that pay
him are indeed well spent.

Regards,
Scriptor

I love my public library. I'm continually amazed that they have the
new books on hand by the time I see the review in my Sunday paper. I
love that I can search the catalog online from home. I love the
growing DVD collection they make available. I'm excited that I can
access more and more databases online using my library card. I love my
library's continuous book sale that recycles books from the patrons
and raises some money.

Most of all, I love my public library's librarians. I could not have
gotten through graduate school without them. We are not in competition
with librarians. Lots of Google Answers questions could have been
answered by librarians -- but some cannot. For that, we're here.

Many of my answers have taken several hours of research to answer. A
few have taken several days. If a reference librarian spent that much
time on a single question, I think the taxpayers would have cause to
complain.

As czh-ga said so clearly, "Lots of Google Answers questions could
have been answered by librarians -- but some cannot." As pinkfreud-ga
stated, many questions posted here simply take much more time and
effort than any librarian is willing to expend. And as scriptor-ga
pointed out, other questions require specialized knowledge, not just
reference skills. I agree with my colleagues, and would like to
further emphasize the fact that some questions really do require an
esoteric knowledge of a field in order to even know how and where to
search, in addition to knowing how to present the knowledge found.

For instance, in my case, I've answered several aviation and
motorcycle related questions that might seem straightforward to the
average person, librarians included, but that in actuality depend on
training and knowledge of specific details in order to answer not just
fully, but properly. And in addition, one must remember that
publiclibrarygal-ga refers to services that are available as a
commonplace rule only in the U.S., while Google Answers customers are
from all over the world. Many of them don't have access to these kinds
of public reference services.

Therefore, clearly Google Answers doesn't take money for work which
can be easily duplicated for free, nor does it replace reference
librarians. It's a value-added service that richly supplements the
reference services offered by U.S. public libraries.

The only people that are getting money from what I see here are the
hired Google 'researchers', every single answer that I've posted has
never been marked as Answered yet. They just take the info and run.
Why don't the Google people change these questions to answered when
other people do it too?

"Hear, hear!"
GA Researchers are a bunch of experts on different subjects who can
bring immediate personal and professional knowledge to a question.  A
question here is an invitation to all of them.  No individual research
librarian could bring the same body of expertise to every question.
If you are one, click on the blue names of the GA-Researchers who have
responded here.  You can see the questions that they have answered and
how.  Wow!

Scriptor-ga is German (and does use is his local library) and is a
virtual monkey when it comes to climbing on family trees.
Czh-ga speaks Hungarian (and ?) and provides in depth answers/advice
to career questions that goes way beyond what a librarian could
provide.
Pinkfreud-ga's encyclopaedic knowledge sometimes seems to make the
internet superfluous, but here is the only way to access it.
Byrd-ga has pointed out individual strengths that only professional
experience could provide.
Politicalguru-ga in Germany has an uncanny knowledge of university
matters or how to find the answers to questions about them.
Tutuzdad-ga and Answerfinder-ga bring professional police force
experience to related questions  - and very many others.
Crabcakes-ga responds to medical questions
Wonko, Denco and Taxmama  - among others -  can nail down the answers
to tax-related questions.
I am doing a great injustice to other Researchers by singling out
these few, and to them by just mentioning the first things that came
to mind.

Publiclibrarygal, GA is worth the money, for some questions, less than
the price of the bus-fare.   The money isn't wasted, and I hope that
you feel that your own as not beenwated.
myoarin

Brianhoard,
You and I as register users (black names) cannot post "answers",
something only GA Resarcherss (blue names) may do.  They are not
hired, not Google employees, get 3/4 of the price when they answer a
question.
Three of the fourteen questions you have commented on have been
"answered" by a reasearcher.  On some of the others, it appears that
your comment could have been the answer.  If so, I hope the questioner
thanked you, but that is the risk we take, and nothing can make our
comments into Answers.
Myoarin

If I asked my favorite librarian to answer this:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=186507

...she'd kick my butt up over my head, then like as not staple me to a
reading table and beat some sense into me with the big book-shaped
paperweight she keeps on her desk.  And rightly so.  That's simply not
what she's there for, no matter how much of my (hefty) property taxes
get spent to keep her in her job.

Public librarians are AWESOME!  They're also underpaid, horribly busy,
and just cannot give each and every person who asks the hours (or
sometimes days or weeks) to answer many of the questions we answer
here.

--Missy

Brianhoward,
My apoligies for misspelling your name!

Missy, thanks for the link to your awesome answer and back to comments
by Probonopublico.  It seems like GA was a more fun place back then. 
Maybe that is why Probono signed off.
I wonder if librarian education now recommends GA as a first or last resort?
Myoarin

Ah, this question has been pondered many times since Google Answers
began in 2002.  I too asked myself this question many times since I am
and have been a librarian for over 10 years.

In fact there is a study that pitted Google Answers vs. Cornell University:
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june03/kenney/06kenney.html

The short answer is yes, both services do the same thing.  But Google
Answers is a place to come when you have a very difficult, time
consuming question.  I envision Google Answers as the place you go
after you've visited the library and exhausted every resource you
know.  They are the pay equivalent of the library as cable is the pay
equivalent of free television.

As Scriptor, Missy, etc. have pointed out, some questions cannot be
handled by a library simply because of there scope, complexity and the
number of hours it may take to research it.  Therefore, Google Answers
provides an outlet for such research.  The other group of people that
use Google Answers are those that simply don't have the time or energy
(but have the money) to do research.  If you'll notice some of the
most frequent users are those compiling research for a book or a
company wanting some cheap market analysis completed.

As a librarian I realize that many of the questions can easily be
answered by a librarian.  Maybe these questions should be directed to
a librarian if the person asking were aware of the usefulness of the
library.  But that is not the fault of Google Answers but the job of
the Library Community to educate the masses on the effectiveness of
the public library.

Bowler-ga

A good library is the still the source of reliable, well researched
material, and as an old dinosaur (age wise) I still prefer to look up
things in a book. The one thing that GA has to its advantage is that
it is international. Where else could a New Yorker ask a UK researcher
about a Value Added Tax in the UK and for the researcher to make
telephone calls in the UK to obtain the answer and then provide an
explanation of the system and how to claim repayment.  I don?t think
my library would be able to provide that service.
 
What is disappointing is that my local library now seems to spend all
its budget on DVDs and other multi-media. Sadly, the reference section
and the more academic books seems to be dwindling in numbers.

I'm an Argentine Google Answers' researcher living in Argentina. Not
most but some of the questions I've answered could have not been
answered without being here and knowing the language and the culture
(see for example: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=554762).
As a native Spanish speaker -and former school teacher-, sometimes I
answer questions related to nuances of my language that only with a
native-like knowledge of it you'll be able to answer, even though you
had the right books (example
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=573368 ). Beeing a
French speaker who lived in France, I've been able to answer a
question about the usage of a group of related concepts and its
cultural implications in France, that could not be answered without
that particular experience
(http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=460326 ). As a
professional in the charity field, I could help with an elaborate
question -as opposed to a search for information only- about
philanthropic culture
(http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=561912 ).

While I've never been to a US Public Library, I've learned from many
Americans that they're amazingly helpful. However, I believe that the
examples I've just mentioned are somewhat out of the scope of a Public
Librarian in US or wherever.

Guillermo

Myoarin wrote:

"Missy, thanks for the link to your awesome answer and back to comments
by Probonopublico.  It seems like GA was a more fun place back then. 
Maybe that is why Probono signed off."

Thanks, Myoarin!  That's the longest answer I've ever done for a
client, and my absolute favorite.  I miss having the time to answer
the way I used to!  Those big property taxes?  I acquired those with
my house last year, and have had to move on to projects that provide a
more steady, solid income.  But I still peek in here from time to time
because even though the landscape has changed a bit, it's still fun.

(There *are* things that make it less fun sometimes - people who are
bitter that they didn't get selected and find it necessary to be rude
and harassing to us as a result, people who feel that we don't deserve
the money we earn answering questions, people who don't quite seem to
understand that the ability to find information really is a skill. 
But really, that's all petty stuff.  People are complex.  You sort of
have to roll with them, and laugh later.)

I suppose that there's an ebb and flow to our customer participation. 
You know that Brian (probono) is a writer (among other things), right?
 He's probably too busy with other things to come by for a visit, but
I expect he will be back eventually.  How could he resist?

--Missy

In addition to all the excellent points made by the Researchers and
Commenters above, I'd like to point out that quite a few questions
that have been posted here are on subjects that reference librarians
might not want to handle. For instance, I doubt that most reference
librarians would be delighted if a total stranger were to walk up and
ask "Is semen good for the complexion?" That question was asked and
answered here.

Another area where Google Answers Researchers perform well is in
offering our creativity. I have done several computer artwork projects
in response to customers' questions. I have posted original poems and
jokes and have answered numerous "lonelyhearts" personal questions. I
can't imagine that a reference librarian would have done a better job
on those tasks.

Last first,  I think Pinky's posting came on just as I was hitting the comment box.
Pinky, you are so right, even if librarians are no longer the
proverbial spinsters of yore.  And thank you again for one of your
poems in reply to my first question.

Missy, that was indeed a masterful answer, and the question led me on
to Anlon-ga's one and only answer to a question, addressed to her(?)
by Probono, also a wonderful long bit of writing.
Oooh, as a latecomer here, it never occurred to me that among the
commenters there are some who missed out at the initial draft.  Well,
by now they should have recognized that it is no gold mine  - respect
for those who have stayed on board, and still sometimes give away free
comments.
And while I am at it, praise for the quality of Researchers' language.
Thanks to all!  Myoarin

I love librarians, too, but because of my workload and hours, I don't
have time to ever get to one.  When I post a question on GA, I know
that within hours -- often within MINUTES -- someone will jump in and
get to work on it.   I also love that GA is a community.  When the
gang here -- researchers and commenters alike -- find a juicy
question, it inspires not only a great answer, but a great dialogue --
which I value as much as the "official" answer.  People jump in with
extra bits and extra wit.

And here's one question I KNOW a librarian could never answer.  It was
on the of the very first ones I ever posed here:  "Have any of the
researchers and commenters ever fallen in love?"

First, this is an on-demand service.  My library is closed more than
half of the day.

Second, resources available to a GA researcher may not be available
even to a customer in a country with excellent Internet & library
resources -- such as one in the U.K. who needs something that might
only be found in a U.S. library.

Third, some customers live in locations where libraries are
few-and-far between or poorly resourced.

Fourth, as many have mentioned, there are a number of areas of special
knowledge represented here -- from math to finance to aviation to law.
 Of course, that's why even reference librarians are specialized at
medical/law/business schools, but Google Answers provides a far wider
range of professional experience than the typical reference librarians
at even the largest libraries.

Fifth, many customers have been to see their reference librarian.  Do
a search for questions by bluestreak-ga.  The questions that the
customer is asking often indicate that he's been through dozens of
sources (and probably a half-dozen reference librarians) in an attempt
to verify a historical sports or music detail.

Sixth, reference librarians are not "FREE".  To get real attention,
it's probably a drive to the library.  Then a wait behind the high
school students doing Shakespeare research.  And this tax bill here
says that I paid $212.27 last year to have the service available.

By the way, to-date you've only "wasted" $0.50.  And by my judgment,
received about $100 worth of information.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA