Week 8 Answer boards and Social searching

I do see a number of ways a public library can use 'Answer boards' and 'Social Searching' to benefit library users. While I think Answer boards do have a place, they shouldn't be use exclusively by librarians but as a last resort if they can't find information within their libraries own book or electronic resources.
There may be times when a librarian may need to use an Answer board website if the enquiry is one that is very specialised or broad and the librarian can't locate any information to satisfactorily answer the question. The Librarian can use the "Slamming the boards' website to find the answer.
Libraries can also place links on their own website to Answer board websites, so library patrons can use and ask questions and obtain answers for themselves. Then user can, if they want more information, use the library's own catalogue to search and locate the information. This would help in the area of general reference and/or specific reference questions and specialised reference questions.
With 'social searching', this could be used by libraries to assist patrons in choosing resources. An example can be with 'Amazon' with its features 'Customers who bought this item also bought' and 'Customer reviews'. Libraries can use these features to see what authors write similar books which would assist patrons looking for new authors who write books similar to one they like. This would be good for readers' advisory service. For library patrons, reading the customer reviews can provide them an insight to books they may like to read as well. Library book groups can also use a service like this to get ideas for future books to read and the customer reviews can be used for discussion points for book groups.
Libraries, thus, could incorporate both Answer boards and social searching to aid library patrons in finding information - especially reference enquiries and selecting reading material.