The Shifted Librarian asks, “Does your library understand the growing significance of instant messaging and real-time chat? Are you prepared to provide services to these kids?”
My library has had to crack down on what is or is not on our public PCs, so our users are not able to download crap and fill up the machines. Instant messaging programs were not included on the desktop computers, but the laptop computers we allow users to check out do have several flavors installed (that’s mainly because ITDS owns and maintains those machines, as opposed to our in-house desktops). I regularly see students sitting in comfy chairs with the laptops, IMing to their hearts content.
We’ve toyed with the idea of doing live digital reference with IM, but since so few people have made use of our email Ask-A-Librarian service, we aren’t sure that it would be worthwhile. Maybe in the future.
Hey, having read this “we haven’t had much email traffic”, I decided to count how much we have had email questions this semester, and we are up to 90 from 8/20 to 10/6, so that is pretty healthy usage.
This is not an official statistic (and official stats are kept), it is just counting the things in the “answered questions” file on the ref desk. Actual is probably higher.
Steve
Yes, but is it enough to consider IM reference? Do we have enough virtual reference to move over to a “live” reference setting?
You might find that you get more questions with IM reference than with email reference because IM reference is effectively instantaneous. Not to mention that it’s much easier and faster to clarify questions during an IM chat than through email. It’s still only worth it if you’ve got lots of patrons who use IM, though.