Saturday, December 29, 2007

IM at the library-- my experience

IM library service is a great idea, but, like all other services, it must be available when stated.
I tried several times between 3 and 4 on Saturday, Dec. 29 and got the 'offline' message. LUCKILY I work in the library and was able to find out which of two agencies were supposed to be serving today. The manager of the agency that was scheduled got their staff member online. If I had been far away (too far to call CL info....), I would have had to resort to email to get my answer. And yes, I did have a real question.

Was my real question answered? Yes. After I got one answer, I clarified my question to be sure it still applied. And I got a new answer.
My other question-- Is it mostly staff doing Learning 2.0 who are IMing, or outside customers? Mostly staff, in today's online IM Librarian's experience. Publicity IS in the new Update-- p. 2.

As for the mechanics of IMing the library: very easy, once they're online. The tiny space available for typing made me keep wanting to (and doing) ENTER at the end of the line, thus ending my message mid-sentence/thought.

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