Connect to Nearby Remote Users.

The article presents observations from one librarian regarding how the term remote users is used when describing those who libraries assist via live reference chat, email reference, the telephone, the fax machine, or expedited resource sharing. Some of our potential users are quite content to operate our OPACs in ways that please them and seem, moreover, to get the job done. They poke around on the web and find what they want, most of the time without our help. Never mind that what they want is not what they really need. Unless we are very diplomatic, some of these psychologically remote but physically near users are likely to become even more estranged from us. Some students find even the best-intentioned librarians intimidating. Sure, they will ask for our help when an assignment is opaque without us, or when the professor requires them to seek us out. But many students don't want to admit they're clueless about research. Besides, they think they can Google their way out of any research problem without us. The language of some sites supposedly devoted to the objective dissemination of information is often so chatty there's no effort in reading it. Live chat is sometimes a close cousin to idle chatter. It's no accident someone invented the verb websurfing. Students who wouldn't dream of talking with a live librarian chat nonstop to friends-and strangers-through email. And some librarians, who ought to know better, encourage this behavior. Some, in fact, go so far as to say that whatever patrons want they should get. Some librarians are themselves remote users; they are so enchanted by answering questions remotely they neglect the unserved patrons adjacent to the reference desk who are obviously puzzled about something on their terminal but are too shy to ask for help. Ironically, we would help these poor students if they only took the trouble to ask their questions on live chat or email.