[Libs-Or] kudos to Jackson County reference staff

[TUCKER-RAYMOND Caleb]

L-net, Oregon's statewide digital reference service, is coming up on
it's 4-year anniversary in a few weeks. I'm not making a big deal out of
this - that's for next year. Instead, I want to make a big deal of the
contributions that Jackson County Library Services has made in those
four years. 

Since 2003, reference staff at Jackson County have answered 2,137
questions for L-net by writing e-mail and chatting with patrons all over
Oregon and beyond. Almost as many Jackson County citizens - 1,999 -
asked questions during the same period. I don't know how many times a
Jackson County citizen connected to a Jackson County librarian, but I do
know that the excellent service provided by reference staff at Jackson
County has been a big part of L-net's success. 

A cohort of online librarians, no matter how excellent, will never
replace physical libraries in our commnities. L-net tries to change
people's ideas of what a library can do and be by reaching out to
patrons online, and more and more, we connect with them, but we can't
exist on our own. 

Thank you, Anne, Anne, Beth, Howard, Jenny, John, Julie, Kim, Linda,
Lori, Luke, Susan, Suzann and anyone I might have missed, past or
present.

In the words of an anonymous patron who had a chat with Jackson County
reference staff last December, "you are the best".

We hope to see you soon.

Caleb Tucker-Raymond

Oregon Statewide Digital Reference Project Coordinator
Multnomah County Library
(503) 988-5438
calebt at multcolib.org
AIM/Y!: calebMCL
www.oregonlibraries.net