There was a common theme between the lectures in both of my classes last week: as information professionals, we must decide the level of assistance we want to provide to our patrons. The question becomes, do we give them the answers? Or give them the tools for them to find the answer themselves?
The discussion boards for our classes are a prime example. Some students ask questions without trying to figure them out themselves - they just expect the answers to be given to them; whereas others will try anything and everything they can think of, and ask a question out of desperation and fatigue.
My humanities professor gave an example during her lecture of a student at the reference desk, and asked us how we would handle the situation. I do not have any professional experience in libraries, but I would like to think that I would help them use the tools to locate the answer themselves. This is probably a fanciful daydream, though. There will always be the impatient student, scrambling at the last minute to finish their paper ... they may not want to take the time to find the answer - they just want it so they can finish up and move on. It's a dilemma that I don't think I'll figure out until I am in the situation firsthand. But it's nice to dream ...
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