SEMLS Reference Discussion Group

The future of MassAnswers is being discussed, as MetroWest has now dropped out. Do you know what MassAnswers is? Do your patrons use it? Do you use it? Would you use it if you knew what it was? For anyone that doesn't know, it is a 24/7 online chat service staffed by the six regional reference centers, and librarians across the country. Patrons can log on at www.massanswers.org. If you haven't tried it, you might just give it a test drive. Falmouth has put the qwidget that allows quick access on our web page at http://www.falmouthpubliclibrary.org/?/reference/talk/

Before it disappears due to lack of funding, you really should give it a try. I think it is an amazing service to patrons, and we help loads of students and adults whenever we cover the service. Believe me, people do still need reference help even (especially) if they are on the web.

You can also now follow Falmouth Public Library on twitter (falpublib) or on our Facebook page. Is your library using Twitter or Facebook? How is it going?

Jill Erickson, Falmouth Public Library, Regional Reference Center

OK we're up to eleven fans on our facebook page. They call them fans rather than friends when you have a business/non-profit page. Working on getting our twitter feed to work in our facebook page. Is anyone doing this now? Jill

In case you haven't seen this yet ... The Today Show featured a story on libraries today! You can see it here http://tinyurl.com/kvg7ae (after a short advertisement). It's called "Beyond Books... Libraries Lend a Hand in Recession". We know we're really busy!

I have been trying since January to find out what the Cape Cod Times plans to do for libraries now that they are planning to stop microfilming their newspaper. The plan is to finish out the 2007 film and then what is not known. As it is now Cape Cod Community College and the Falmouth Public Library are now providing many of the missing copies that the Cape Cod Times no longer has in their possession to actually film the microfilm. I'm wondering if other towns are experiencing this problem, and what they are doing when their local paper decides to stop microfilming. Any suggestions on how to encourage them to continue microfilming the paper? I have yet to get an answer as to what the alternative will be for public libraries and their patrons when the microfilm has stopped. As it is we now have over a years worth of papers we are hanging on to, and are quickly running out of storage. Any ideas? Jill

Just a reminder that Falmouth has a toll-free number for any reference questions you might have, and feel free to give the number to your patrons if you think we could be of help to them in answering a reference question. The phone number is 888-439-8850. Thanks. Jill

Has anyone tried Bing, the new "decision" engine released by Microsoft a few weeks ago? Microsoft has never been known for developing good search engines, but I've done some side-by-side searches with Google and Bing and have been pleasantly surprised by some of my Bing results. There have been several instances where my top results in Bing were more relevant than my top results in Google.

Bing offers some links for users to refine their searches on the results page. If you do a search for a video, hover over one of the thumbnails to stream the video without ever leaving the search results page. If you do a search for a product, like digital cameras, Bing provides some nice links at the top of the page to find cameras within a certain price range or to go directly to buying guides from reputable sites.

It may not be enough to get you to move from Google for the majority of your searches, but if you have difficulty finding something in Google, you may want to give Bing a try. If you've tried Bing, what has your experience been?