Wednesday, May 7, 2008

IM Reference ~ BEST PRACTICES

Entertaining presentations, great stories. A great overview of how different libraries run IM reference services, deal with issues, address problems with buy-in and funding...

Highlights:

Sara Marks:
Radical trust is a issue in today's world. Do you trust the people who surround you in today's world? Focus first on this issue, consider it.

Look at what people do in today's world and try it, get involved.
Issues with internal adoption.

Great idea:
Vistaprint business card magnets...a great way to start advertising your service.
Leave the cards and magnets everywhere.

Biggest success:
Lib Guides presented next to Meebo
Late night reference

Points:
This is not email, this is a tech face-to-face interaction.
This is not a revolution, it is quiet, it is slow, it is viral.




Emily Center Remer, Framingham Public Library
9 years experience using IM beginning at an internet start-up, using IM with teens.


Popular service but not overwhelmed. Started with AIM, then MSN...then downloaded chat programs...then picked up Meebo ~ multi-platform web service for umbrella chat. Useable and very user-friendly, firefox add-ons, added color-coded widgets to public library teen page ~ widgets allow people easy access to chat ~ all they have to do is visit your website and chat. she also uses twitter ~ a status bar for yourself. Drawn teens into library ~ "cool", "don't care about correct english crap"...programs, how to request a book ~ walk them through a process link by link, button by button, because you are online with them looking at the pages
IM makes you current in today's world, and available.


Kathy ~ Massachusetts Trial Court Libraries

Reference ~ just coming at you from a different way...managing the workflow...it's very much the same...you are just typing rather than speaking...people are very patience and easy to work with in this format. Considering switching to Meebo...great stories about questions people will ask using IM, which they would never walk into the library and ask...great as a navigation tool to help people find resources and answers to their questions...comparison to the adoption of the fax machine...the tech is quick and becomes part of the workflow.

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