Answer boards and social searching

The Amazon use of "customers who bought this also bought..." reminds me of a quick way to shelve fiction- put it on a trolley with a sign "Just returned items"- many people think if someone else has borrowed it, it must be good!

I looked at the answers posted by librarians on the Answer Board Librarians wiki, wow some of them are pretty good. Makes me feel inadequate.. "Slamming the boards" might be a good way to keep up reference skills, these days my Ref desk shifts seem to be booking computers or handing over newspapers and if someone asks a "reference question" I am amazed! I liked the way the librarians referred to traditional print sources and online databases to encourage people to use their local library.

I liked the tag lines :-

Librarians--Ask Us, We Answer!
Librarians ... the ultimate search engines
Have a question you don't want the whole world to see?

Maybe there could be a link through the library website for questions and answers- patrons could post their questions and have an answer online; hopefully promoting the library and its resources. It would need to be done frequently to maintain its usefulness.