Answer Boards and Social Searching

The idea of Librarians jumping into the 'online ether' via answer boards is appealing. Until now I've been less than enthusiastic about libraries linking into web 2.0 tools, because I can't see why the Gen-y people who are into online communication would go to a library's website for their social networking. They're going to sites that their friends are using, and sadly so far, that's not library sites.

So librarians slamming the boards appeals, because it's taking the library message to where the questions are being asked. It shows that librarians are expert at answering questions; librarians give good answer based on facts; librarians even tell you where the answers came from; and it suggests even more - that librarians are techno-savvy and know what's going on. By 'slamming the boards' librarians invite people who would never think of their local library, to consider that libraries answer questions too.

With Yahoo! 7 Answers being an Australian site, there is the possibility of Aussie librarians doing their own 'slamming'. Perhaps it could be part of an existing campaign or LIW?

Not so sure about customers rating or reviewing items, ala Amazon or the Taste Website. Would we get the same enthusiasm at the local library catalogue level as these universal websites get? We've not had much success in getting book reviews or ratings when we ask for them for our newsletters (and yes, we did accept emailed reviews). I liked the idea of incorporating LibraryThing reviews using LibraryThing for Libraries.