We find ourselves warming to the idea of slamming the boards to increase exposure of our library skills and increase awareness of library services to the public.
Slamming the boards is a movement where reference librarians provide answers on popular answer board websites, such as Yahoo Answers, where users frequently post up long unanswered questions. These questions often range from simplistic straightforward directions and others require great depth of research. These latter questions are prefect for librarians to demonstrate the full extent of their services- promoting their jobs and their libraries as a future point for reference for individuals who chance upon the page on a later date.
To ensure Internet users appreciate the effort put in by library staff, the research librarians who are part of the "slamming the boards" initiative use a personal signature at the end of each of their answers identifying themselves as a research librarian. Also, Yahoo Answers will bestow the title "Knowledge Partner" to registered librarians identifying them as reliable sources of information.
In all, this initiative should be applauded for bringing the skills and services of the library to the world wide web. Clap on the back everybody!
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