Thing #7 - Communication

Using Web 2.0 tools.

Email. This is how we recieve many of our reference questions, along with telephone calls and people dropping into the library office. The limitation with email is that the librarian then has to call or email with any follow-up questions that are a normal part of the reference interview.

IM. Interesting article by Aaron Schmidt and Michael Stephens. Personally I enjoy IM reference. You can open a window, chat with someone, and while doing other things, wait for the answer. For me it is more convenient than trying to call a reference desk and wait on hold for several minutes. I think it would also be useful for a quicker reference interview than email, you have the patron online with you, so you can ask questions immediately instead of trading emails or voicemails. Maybe setting up a reference IM box on the Intranet would be worthwhile.

Texting. I think texting will be very important in libraries. It is so prevalent and we cannot ignore it. In my library, most of the patrons have Blackberries, so texting is irrelevant for them, when they can easily just email their questions, but I can see how important it would be in a public library setting. It seems like more and more people I know are starting to text more often. It makes for a quick interaction, but works well in certain situations.

Web conferencing. I've used webex for a number of online training courses. It is a very helpful tool. I love how you can hear and see what the instructor is doing with very little lag time, if at all. It is so convenient to just sit in your office for a training session instead of having to travel somewhere for a short session.

Twitter. I don't use it, but I've started exploring it. Not sure if it has any relevance to my library, but it is worth investigating.