Daniel writes “http://freegovinfo.info/node/689
“On October 17, 2006, the FDLP-L listserv announced the availability of a briefing paper to be used for discussion at the Fall 2006 Depository Library Council meeting. The paper is called Digital Distribution to Federal Depository Libraries and is available at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/council/fal l06/digitaldistribution06.pdf.
According to the FDLP posting, this document will be used in a discussion at DLC next Wednesday, October 25, 2006. We at FGI strongly encourage you to read the two page document before then. We would also like to commend Council and GPO for having this discussion and asking what seem to be good questions for a system of digital deposit.””
too bad
but maybe e-bay with its audience of au courant web-savvy individuals may not be the right place to advertise your traditional librarian services; how about New York Review of Books or something?
interesting
You have come across a hiccup in economics and decision making. The services of a librarian are worth far more than people are willing to pay for them. That is not unique, I’m sure.
There have been several high-profile commercial endeavors to get people to pay for research online (Google answers, a few others I’m forgetting) and all of them have failed because it seems that everyone want to pay $.99 for $50 of information and work.
I think entire books have been written about the subject, or at least they should be (and I’d pay at least a $1.10 for a copy) about why exactly this is. It suffices to say that it’s too much to get into here but a few of them are:
1) Perceived value and skill of the professional in questions (lawyers are highly thought of and command prices commesurate with that.
2) Presentation of the product
3) People you are marketing to.
And so on.
Seemingly non-sequiturish aside: One of the advantages of new-wave library schools like my beloved Lord and Master the University of Michigan, is that they force feed you game theory, economics, decision making and public policy. It factors into a lot of things in librarianship and it makes for great training for management.
Not that I would wish that on anyone. Or believe that I was even a passable example of such and education.
GodDAMMIT I’m a pompous ass.
turning in crap
Crap will be turned in as long as crap is acceptable to the educator who grades it.
Why pay for something better when crap is adequate?
Re:turning in crap
Turns out to be true in business too. Pay-for-research services that aren’t under contract to companies, edus, the gov’t, etc. fielded lots of questions from home business types and people clearly doing “work” and asking for a lot or a ton of help from the researcher.
In nearly all the cases I remember the business people who, presumably, had less of a margin for crap were just as cheap as the students.
It’s not just the teenagers that are this way. It seems to be people in general.