Fast [In(fo]od)

With messaging services such as Meebo now used to answer reference inquiries, patrons are encouraged into a fast food mentality. In this instance, fast info.

This way of doing business makes for the Creation of False Expectations--getting something immediate and reliable and without effort.

(At a fast info counter)
"What'll you have, sir/madam?"
"I want a complete-answer with a side order of right-away and, to drink, an easy-to-understand."
(A millisecond later) "Here it is--and it's free."

Library workers cannot compete with Google and company when it comes to speed, but may when it comes to relevance. They can personalize interaction and through an interview get a feeling for what the user wants and maybe what the user ought to have. Ironically, one of the attractions of Google, and perhaps Meebo, is its impersonalization. The user is free from being judged by the intelligence or type of a question.

Quote: Ashleigh Brillant

"My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating."

If this is not a challenge for librarians evaluating what they find online, it is for critical thinking. And the internet is chockablock with agreeable but suspect facts.

As a contrast to the above quote, consider John Adams' "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."