Thing #14: Instant Messaging and VoIP

RU READY FOR IM?
Props to author Jesse Wilkins for using "boon" in an article. I liked the four phases of organizational use of IM; I know ILL has used in in the past to communicate internally while on conference calls but I didn't think organizations would be willing to mandate it as a form of communication.

Libraries using MeeboMe for Embedded Chat
I had no idea that UCB and Stanford used IM as one of their "Ask a Librarian" tools. I've IM'ed with PG&E about my electric bill before and that was pretty cool. I think patrons (and people in general--including myself) love instant results and IMing with a research librarian would be quite helpful. Although, I'm sure there are a large number of undergrads who are working on papers late at night and of course we wouldn't be able to IM then.

YackPack Tour
I think that it is pretty cool you can install it on your own webpage. For the group chats I agree with the YackPack claim "it is important to capture your tone of voice".....but what keeps everyone from talking all at once? I recently 'iChatted' with my brother while I was visiting with my sister (we were on her computer) and I could tell there was a few seconds delay. We mostly interrupted each other and talked over each other....but of course we are siblings and we weren't in a professional setting. I also heard that IBM now conducts all conference calls via Second Life....did I mention that before?

YackPack Live Voice
Ummm....I'm on the desk so I can't really run this video right now....maybe later.


I left the 23 Things 2.0 Team an offline message. Jeez, where are you guys it's Sunday afternoon, shouldn't you be waiting by the computer to see if anyone is doing their 23 things?

I think that if used properly, IMing has a lot of potential in the library. I know I use it sometimes to communicate with Polly Mae....since it's SOOOOOOOO far to walk downstairs to ask her a question. It also helps when I have a quick question and I don't want to tie up either the ILL or alternate Circ phone line. Also, when I was an undergraduate one of my TA's gave us his 3 IM handles (AIM, Yahoo!, and ICQ). At first I thought it was a little weird, but it worked out: I had a question about the reading one night, he was online and we chatted and I got my question answered. I don't IM too often but when I do I feel self-conscious about my writing. I usually only type to friends and I don't care about punctuation or grammar. However, if I was in a large chat room instead of a conference call, I would feel the need to be more proper. I also feel a little uncomfortable using all those abbreviations. I'm down with the occasional "lol", but only if I really am "lol". Those "rotflmao" and such are a little too much for me. Ever since I first IM'ed in high school I wanted to write a book on IM etiquette. Your style of typing and response time are crucial. If you wait too long to write back to someone you really should apologize....of course now I would include SL etiquette as well. I once sent a message to a friend over IM and I accidentally had the capslock on. Without even thinking about it I sent her a secondary message that read "sorry for yelling".

I think if we had this service available to patrons it would be very helpful. I think that many patrons would be willing to use it--especially when the reference desk is busy during midterms/finals.