Yes thankyou Anon it was Walt Crawford's piece in Google Librarian's Newsletter that I was remembering. "Good libraries aren't just local libraries. They're places that serve their communities in that regard. Good libraries build and preserve communities. “Cybercommunities” can be fascinating—but the physical community continues to be vital." On re-reading this article, I'm struck by the brilliance of the Google strategy of opening a dialogue with librarians - effectively flattering and recruiting the librarians of the world to promote their product and help train and guide their users, even help them with the trickier searches. A role many of us have taken on willingly - I wonder, is there a downside to this?(I can't think of any but then again I'm not that sharp on this sort of thing). Or is it all win win? What if Google ever goes "bad"?
Anyway, Andrew's summing up comment to my last post is particularly affirming -Giving an example of the personalized service given by some libraries - "Let's see Google beat THAT!. "

.For anyone curious as to why I haven't blogged in a while, I've been particularly busy with family life viz picking up and dropping off kids, entertaining and cooking for kids and their friends staying over, and occasionally husband (he's vegetarian so often prepares his own meals if I'm feeling like meat), attending Lano and Woodley's last show, going to French and sculpture lessons, gardening, washing, shopping, cooking, cleaning, working, watching telly, reading, listening to homework reading, helping teenage son with assignments, walking the dog, falling into bed satisfied but exhausted to start all over again the next day...I am after all a "real" public librarian!!