Instant messaging and libraries

Why should libraries use IM? Because it is another way to serve customers. Serving customers remotely is not at new idea—and libraries have adapted and adopted as technology changed. When telephone use became widespread, customers learned they didn’t need to come to the library to find out the names of the 7 dwarfs, or the definition of “synchronicity”; these may have been our first remote customers Online catalogs, followed by online catalogs with customer account interaction, and then multi-resource library web sites followed.

Instant messaging is the next step beyond telephone reference, but it doesn’t replace it.
The librarian is still able to deal with all the tools of telephone reference, with the added addition of not mishearing words. (Of course, there is still the problem of misspelling; I wonder if customers who don’t spell well avoid IM, except among friends?). And, as one of the articles pointed out, there’s a record of the exchange on the screen, so the librarian can check back as he’s working on the question. If both participants have web cams, then you can get a feeling of face-to-face interviewing.

OTOH, library staff might use IM for other than reference applications, IF their IT departments permitted this. For example-- if there's a problem with use of an application, and only an expert in the use of the application can help, then IM would be faster than endless emails. Planning meetings among folks inside and outside the library, OR having the meeting itself in an IM environment would be so much more efficient than traveling, even within the same city.


How is IM different from traditional communications channels? What is traditional? Technology is changing so rapidly that you may even get different answers asking a 10-hear old and a 25-year old. I just had a business meeting with a man who will be 80 on Jan. 3. He had a very new model cell phone that included pictures of his installed product (he also had the “traditional” scrapbooks with color photos). During our meeting he was able to check with his company several times—for availability of materials, prices, and the soonest opening date. I’ve seen businessmen using laptops to do similar things, and when I bought major appliances within the last couple of years, the vendor went to the manufacturer’s web page to find out what was available and when delivery could be expected. We’ve been using web sites for 10 years (if not longer) to find information and answer questions for ourselves and customers. We’ve been using proprietary databases for longer than that (Dialog). So what’s traditional? If wer’e talking databases, there’s the cuneiform inventory, very traditional, but abandoned a long time ago; likewise, “book catalogs”. Card catalogs haven’t been around here for more than a generation—they’re certainly traditional, and were a traditional form of communication with library users (albeit mostly static). With IM, a customer who’s had no luck using the “recently become traditional” online catalog can interact instantly with a librarian who may have more sophisticated ways of using the catalog.
IM may be slightly slower, however, than a telephone or face-to-face conversation, because typing is slower than speech; with IM you don’t get the audio clues, such as tone voice and the visual clues, such as facial expressions, that do help in face-to-face or telephone interviews. HOWEVER, with webcams, and mics, maybe even that may change.