[Web4lib] IM Security

[Robin]

We have done this (for reference/user services) for about two years now
and never had a spot of trouble (we use Trillian, which in my opinion is
superior to Meebo). I can't see where IM is any more of a risk than
email, or having a Microsoft application on your machine. If you have
proper anti-virus and spyware, and all security patches in place, IM is
no more of a risk than anything else.
That said, I don't know how to convince your IT people of it. If they
are more than professionally paranoid or risk-averse, it may continue to
be a tough sell. You might try asking on other listservs (two I know of
that my librarians use a lot are PUBLIB and LIBREF) about others'
experiences, and to try to get a feel for how many other libraries are
using it (A LOT!). 
You might want to compare and contrast with 24/7 reference software such
as QuestionPoint, which incorporates a chat function. That's in use by
consortia world-wide and certainly doesn't pose any unusual security
risk. Granted their chat might have it's own security built-in, but that
really brings me back to my first point, that if your network is secured
against all the other risks out there, IM is no big deal. 
Hope this helps. If I can think of any more substantive suggestions I'll
pass them along. Good luck!

Robin

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Jami Haskell
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 3:24 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] IM Security

Please help!
I would like to implement IM for inter-staff communications and,
hopefully,
for reference/user services at my library.
However, I am being met with major resistance from my systems staff.
They
claim that it is too much of a security risk and we cannot do it.

Every other library I have worked in has used IM (either via Trillian or
meebo) and security issues were never raised. I know that thousands of
libraries use IM all the time. I am proposing that my library system use
Meebo for this so that they can interact with multiple IM clients
without
having to install software on the machines.

How can I explain to my systems folks that this is an okay thing to do??
Please help!

Thanks so much,
Jami Haskell
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