[Web4lib] Reply to Starting an IM Reference Service

[Turner, Tiffany]

Jonathan Bloy,

 

We recently added IM to our reference service at my library.  We use the
Meebo widget on our web page, so we did not need to sign up for multiple
IM accounts; instead, students are able to use the Meebo chat widget
without signing in to any service.  You can check it out here:
http://www.lib.utulsa.edu/contact.htm.  As for staffing, we played
around with it and found since our reference librarians are not too busy
at the desk, we could also have our chat times during our desk times.
If a reference librarian has to step away from the desk, Meebo allows us
to indicate that we will be right back on our widget.  We allowed
librarians to volunteer to participate; those who agreed to participate
attended a short demonstration on how to use Meebo, and we spent a
couple of weeks practicing and fleshing out problems before we linked to
the widget page on our site.  Due to staffing, we only offer IM from
9-12 and 1-5.  The biggest problem we have faced with IM is remembering
to log in.  I hope this helps.

 

Tiffany Turner