Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2006 22:06:50 -0800
Is a snapshot of a wall plaque different because it's taken by a reference librarian as opposed to a Wikipedian?
--Michael Snow
Well, that was a jocular aside, my point being that the wall plaque is very significantly harder for me to obtain than any of fourteen million-odd books in my state's "library of last resort."
But in fact there _is_ an _obvious_ difference, and it is much the same difference that exists between a contributor to the Britannica or _Nature_ or the New York Times. A reference librarian is a) a known person with a known real-world identity, with b) professional credentials and a code of ethics. (One to which, of course, an individual librarian may or may not adhere).