[Web4lib] Starting an IM Reference service

[Brian Gray]

You staffing concerns are very similar to my library. I have 9
librarians and one assistant that have Reference Desk duties and chat
responsibilities. We started IM this semester and also expanded our
chat hours. We did offer chat only 1-5pm, but we know evenings are
important.

We have found that IM gets minimal use in the mornings. The big use is
late afternoon and into the evenings. During the day, when most of the
staff is present, we staff IM separately from the physical desk. From
5-10pm at night and on weekends, the single librarian on duty does
both the desk and chat. We have not found into too much of a problem.
The physical desk gets attention first and you just do IM as you are
able. Patrons have no problem with getting a message that you will be
back in 5 minutes. It stills saves them a trip to the library, or
leaving their belongings unattended in the library as the come to the
desk. Mornings are optional if someone wants to login.

We used Meebo initially. You will see from our page
(http://library.case.edu/ksl/ref/ask.html), we did create an account
in the various external services. We are now using Spark as our campus
has decided to support it and added some functionality like a customer
chat window.

For staff, we held a training session as a group in a classroom. We
did require everyone participate and that actually seemed to help the
process along. Once they realized it was no different than phone or
email, it seemed to catch on. Other ways we relieved some of the
stress was to create some quick standard answers that can be used. We
also gave out a list of potential abbreviations that they might see,
but surprisingly that has not been much of a problem. Since we are not
really being buddy-buddy with the patron, the abbreviations usually do
not work into the conversation.

Brian Gray
mindspiral at gmail.com
bcg8 at case.edu

On 10/16/07, Jonathan Bloy <JBloy at edgewood.edu> wrote:
> A colleague and I would like to implement instant message reference service at our library.  We've got a few questions and would like to get some wisdom from the list.
>
> Staffing:  This is our main concern.  We're a small college library (2400 students, 6 full-time librarians, 2 part-time) and are wondering how similar libraries staff their IM service.  Does the librarian on duty at the reference desk also handle the IM?
>
> Hours:  Is your IM reference available during all library hours?  What about during times when there is just one librarian on duty (which covers weekends and evenings at our library)?
>
> Technologies:  We're currently playing around with a Meebo account.  For libraries using Meebo, do you also have accounts on the major IM services (i.e. AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) for student convenience?
>
> Getting other staff on board: What's the best strategy for getting staff that might not be as technologically savvy on board and involved?
>
>
> --
> Jonathan Bloy
> Web Services Librarian
> Edgewood College
> Madison, Wisconsin
> http://library.edgewood.edu