Instant Messaging

So, I'm a little late.

I finally got around to the first weeks assignment-- setting up an instant messaging account. Too many options to choose from! AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, and Google. Not to mention Meebo. So that slowed me down. Then trying to decide what ID to use and what password and didn't I used to have an account with these guys and what was that password?

Yada yada yada.

So, it's Sunday night, I've got it set up, and there's no one to talk to. I did send a message to Jean (or Stef or Beth) offline just to let someone know I've done something. So that part's done.

As far as using it in a library setting, it has potential. I read about David Lee King (or someone) using Meebo as a pop-up when someone is having problems using their library catalog and it sounded pretty cool. Then I thought about what it might be like to be on the receiving end when I'm looking up (oh, what's a common search term that's used in the catalog-- oh, how about fcuk?) So I type in my search term, don't get any hits, and all of a sudden a pop-up box appears on my screen asking WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

Goodness.

Well, that might make me a little nervous. Sort of turn me off to the whole library-visiting experience. Younger users might take it in stride. Older users might freak out a little. Or be delighted. How do we know which type of patron we'd be messaging.

I can envision the patrons being the ones to initiate the contact. IM on their terms. Just a "Need help? Type here" box on the catalog page. That would be cool.

Yeah, it's probably still a good idea to do something with instant messaging. We've got off-desk reference personnel staffing phones/computers who could probably be available to IM patrons who are having trouble searching our catalog. But they (staffers) might find it easier to just walk out to the catalog terminals and talk to a patron. But what if the patron prefers IM rather than a human interaction? Lots of different patrons with lots of different needs/wants in their library experience.

I've thought how using it would help me in my work as a cataloger, but I not sure I feel the need for instant messaging. Email and the phone seem to work fine. Maybe others would like to have faster, more direct contact with me though. We've got forms for reporting problems with bib records that South Central libraries use to send email. I could see then using IMs instead-- especially if they can send them when I'm offline. But, again, this stuff isn't exactly time-sensitive so it might be easier to keep doing what we're doing with that. Email still works for a lot of the stuff we do.

Part of the reason I'm a little hesitant about using IM is I recently read one of Meredith Farkas' blogs about libraries attempting to add their presence to Facebook and Second Life and questioning whether we really understand the cultures into which we're trying to insinuate ourselves. And another point she had later made about doing assessments of what we've done and doing some thinking beforehand about how we're trying to serve our users, rather than jumping on trends that really don't lend themselves to the type of services our patrons want from their libraries.

So I think instant messaging might have a role to play in our library, but I'm not sure yet what that is.

Oh, check out my Meebo widget. I had to tweak the HTML to get it to fit in my column. That was fun. People can now Meebo me from my blog. But how many people visit my blog?

As always, your comments are welcome.