During a recent bull session about the future of reference work and reference librarianship, one of my coworkers jokingly said (or was she being serious?) that she was going to quit, stay at home in her pajamas, and work for ChaCha as a guide. The company explains that a guide is a “real person who is skilled at finding information on the internet”. Sound familiar? These guides purportedly make between $5 and $10 an hour. Grocery and beer money? No health benefits, though. I’m all for adding a “human touch” to information retrieval and helping people find what they need. I also don’t mind getting paid for this service. Such is the lure of librarianship.