Message-Id: <199608141326.PAB27852@mail.uni-muenster.de>
From: "Oliver Obst" <obsto@uni-muenster.de>
To: medibib-l@MEDSUN08.uni-muenster.de
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 15:31:10 +0100
Subject: Intelligent Agents: What We Learned at the Library
Zur Info, O.Obst
----------------
Nardi, Bonnie, and O'day, Vicki. "Intelligent Agents: What We
Learned at the Library" Libri 46(2) (June 1996). -- The good
news about Nardi and O'day's study of intelligent agents and
human interaction at the reference desk was cited in last
month's issue of Current Cites as reported in the Christian
Science Monitor. The report itself is even better still! If
you are interested in a first-class analysis of reference as a
valuable business skill, don't miss this ground-breaking research.
(http://www.atg.apple.com/personal/Bonnie_Nardi/default.html")
Nardi is an anthropologist and Apple Fellow. Apple's Advanced
Technology Group (http://www.atg.apple.com) set out to study how
intelligent agents should be designed to mimic reference service.
In doing so they discovered a world of highly nuanced interpersonal
and research talent that the current generation of software can't
touch with a ten foot pole. Intellectually rigorous yet
entertaining, the authors perform two services for information
specialists: they demystify how intelligent agents function in
plain english, and they describe the rich, intellectual process
of the reference interview. -- TH