Thing 34- Online Answer Sites

I had never used or visited an online answer site before now. I found them fascinating. Many of the questions were straight forward technical or information questions. All of these requests were questions a reference librarian could easily answer. The personal questions were, of course, more interesting. The attraction of using an online service is that no one knows who is asking about their own "misleading facial expressions". I suspect that people often use the online answering sites because they are comfortable with the technology and it is anonymous i.e. how do you unlock an iphone. I am not worried about the role of the library or the reference librarian, I think the variety of sources makes it harder for many people to navigate and evaluate information. When I teach researching to my elementary students, I often require two sources and many times the two sources disagree. My students often look at me with trust in their eyes and ask me which one is correct:) I am needed.