Librarian, Reference and Instruction

Now there's a disturbing trend going on here. Why in the hell would reference librarians want a few specialized dictionaries behind their reference desk? "Did you try some of our online resources?"

Makes me sick. Because, to the student who was seeking stuff to support her paper, the hidden cache of biographical sources in our "reference collection" was exactly that. Just because there's "everything" on the internet? Who're you kidding? A wiki encyclopedia is only as good as its contributers. Just the same as any other reference work. It's all about "evaluation." There has to be real criteria by which to judge these folks, right?

Sometimes you just have to look something up quickly. Just a little something. By the time you've found something online that has what you need, you would've found it in that book behind the desk, and gone for that cuppa Joe at Starbux already.

Why does it have to be this way?