[Web4lib] Re: IM reference time and trouble?

[janette treanor]

Happy New Year everyone.

This is a most interesting discussion.
I would like to receive any statistics, tips and tricks, advertising ideas,
staffing issues, etc on IM that might be floating around.

thank you and best wishes
janette


On 22/12/2007, B.G. Sloan <bgsloan2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>   So that works out to almost (but not quite) one IM session per day for
> the year?
>
>   Bernie Sloan
>
> Brandee Crisp <bcrisp at park-ridge.lib.il.us> wrote:
>   We haven't been using IM very long and haven't really done much
> advertising, but our young adult patrons seem to have embraced it. In the
> first 6 months with not much advertising, we have had 140 IM session for
> just the Young Adult department. Just over 180 IM messages total since July
> of this year. The Young Adult librarian is on approximately 10-20 hours per
> week, Reference staff is on at least 50-60 hours per week, and Children's
> staff tries to be online all the hours we are open. We have online status
> indicators, MeeboMe widgets for those without IM accounts and dozens of
> patrons who have added us as a Buddy. With little to no effort, I would call
> it a successful service.
>
> Brandee Crisp
>
> *********************************************************************
> Opinions expressed are my own and may not reflect those of the Park Ridge
> Public Library.
>
> Brandee Crisp
> Reference Librarian
> Park Ridge Public Library
> 20 S. Prospect
> Park Ridge, IL 60068
> (847) 825-3123, ext. 232 voice
> (847) 825-0001 fax
> bcrisp at prpl.org
>
> IM us thru AIM or Yahoo at AskPRKRef !
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 33
> Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 09:12:01 -0600
> From: "Karen Harker"
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] IM reference time and trouble?
> To: "James Capobianco" , "Dan Lester"
>
> Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Message-ID: <476A32C5.E20F.0013.0 at UTSouthwestern.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
> I'm a bit baffled that libraries which have implemented chat or IM
> reference do not consider this on par with phone reference service. Many
> schedule the service to limited hours and "man" the chat/IM service like a
> separate reference desk. I see no significant difference between such
> service and phone reference. We do not limit the hours that we answer the
> phones; why do so for chat?
>
>
>
> Karen R. Harker, MLS, MPH
> UT Southwestern Medical Library
> 5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
> Dallas, TX 75390-9049
> 214-648-8946
> Yahoo IM: karenharker
>
> >>> On 12/20/07 at 3:19 AM, in message <
> 481884074.20071220021947 at riverofdata.com>, Dan Lester wrote:
> I guess I'm thinking of time and trouble to users, too.
>
> You have to schedule someone to be monitoring it. It is only
> available certain hours (as opposed to the international 24/7
> systems). There is a limit to what can be conveyed via chat.
>
> Users don't know when it will be available, even if you try to cover
> certain times by schedule.
>
> Of course I'm not totally sold on the "fancy systems" either. No, I
> don't have a better alternative at the moment, but do hope we don't
> get locked into doing some of these things "because we've always done
> them" like we have with innumerable things over the decades.
>
> I'll not start a litany of those.....
>
> dan
>
> Wednesday, December 19, 2007, 8:16:15 AM, you wrote:
>
> > What kind of "time and trouble" do you believe IM reference adopters
> > have to deal with?
>
>
>
> --
> The road goes on forever and the party never ends. REK, Jr.
> Dan Lester, Boise, ID
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4lib at webjunction.org
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4lib at webjunction.org
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it
> now.
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4lib at webjunction.org
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>