Academics Are Experts....

...so why don't more of our institutions make that a selling point? I was noodling around the web and ran across the Claremont-McKenna College Experts Directory, with which you can find out who on the faculty is an expert on whatever subject you desire, view their c.v., etc. Very nice presentation.

The closest thing my institution has, as near as I can tell, is our Speakers Bureau, though it represents only a very small and self-selected portion of the faculty.

Granted, not all of us are, in fact, experts in things that are profitable or popular or pundit-esque. But one of the great strengths of academia is supposed to be the intellectual capital accumulated and maintained by the faculty. Yes, the internet has eroded the place of the college/university library, not to mention the place of the professor as a local, accessible expert. But we all have looked for information on the internet, or in libraries, that seemed inaccessible, even non-existent, only to have the right person point at just the right resource and say"here's what you're looking for." That's part of what we do. At least, it should be. Do other institutions do a better job of guiding people with questions and interests to the faculty who can help them? Or is this just one more way in which we are falling short in our broader communicative and educative missions?