January 25 - Instant Communication

Try some IM tools - what did I like?

I first started tweeting (occasionally) following Chrystie Hill's visit to the CPLA Conference at Tamworth in 2008. Along the side of my blog you can see where I've already linked to my Twitter page.

Lately I've probably been a little more active - though I do tend to lurk just a little and get a real laugh out of the many tweets from friends and others that I'm following. I like Twitter (personally) because for me it has that nice mix of personal touches and Library related info (like the ALIA tweets).
As an aside though, I noticed at a recent seminar/conference that sometimes the use of a mobile phone for Tweeting whilst in the auditorium can interefere with the sound system .......

I'm also on Facebook and when I've been lucky enough to be on there at the same time as another friend we have had a nice catch-up. The same has occured with a few of the Nings I'm on - though given that most of my frinds here are in the US it's often a little trickier to get us all together in the one IM space. Facebook for me is probably more about friends but I do have a few Library related organisations that I follow - A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette being just one (okay that one's mainly for the laughs).

Work (Clarence Regional Library) actually bought webcams for all our branches and 3 for HQ staff (lucky me). We subscribed to skype (free) and set up usernames, etc which reflected our Library Positions rather than our names/personalities (I'm 'Information Services Librarian'). As a Regional Library we're pretty far flung and often branch staff simply can't all come together in one space/place (for various reasons including lack of staff, insufficient training budgets, etc) so we invested in some webcams so that we could still get together without having to get in a car and drive for 2 hours. It's worked out great except that by only having a free subscription to Skype we can only video conference between 2 webcams at a time. If we link in a 3rd or 4th (or more) camera/attendee we lose visual and are left with teleconferencing only. For me it's a little bit of a bug but at HQ we work around it by piling staff into one office for a chat with another branch. For more than 2 particpants we resort to teleconferences (and now we've got our new phones and new headsets that should be a lot better - people won't be telling me they can't hear me anymore!!). A big drawback of the webcams though has been that because the mike is on the webcam and sits on top of the monitor (obviously so it can take a lovely reversed image of you) it tends to pick up some of the external office noises a bit which can make conversations a little difficult when you're in a meeting and there's crazy laughter in the background.

Would IM tools be useful in a library?

For us here at HQ obviously these IM tools are useful - webcams, Skype, especially. But I do see an advantage to have IM capabilities for Reference staff - many are the stories of Reference staff being in seminars/conferences and using IM to answer queries from their library's patrons whilst there. I'm a big believer in not being seated at the Reference Desk to answer questions - so many come in through internal LMS modules (eg, Spydus Request module), over the Internet, via email, phone, walking 'round the library, etc. The point to these particular IM tools is being available and accessible and where the user is - not hiding in a library building and demanding the user comes to you - face it, it's just not gonna work! It's the same principle as Slam the Boards - answering Reference queries where the question is being asked and highlighting public libraries while you're at it.

Let's face it, those who are IT savvy are online and asking questions, they're not walking down the road to their local library and they often don't even know where their nearest library is. Not to mention those LGA's who seem to think that having a public library is a waste of rate-payers money. If we cannot meet our community where that community is then we fail to engage fully with our communities. This is why Kevin Rudd Tweets, this is why Barack Obama had a brilliant blog which engaged with America. It's more than clever marketing, it's recognising that if I'm out there in an IM world I'm more inclined to come across someone who wants my help now and whose only access to me (for them) is via one of these many tools and then I can start a relationship with them which leads to them using and accessing my library and perhaps coming back again and again and again.

The challenge for Public Libraries and Local Councils (and their IT departments) in particular is to realise and accept that enabling libraries to go online and use IM tools is fundamental to improving service, engaging with communities, and acknowledging that the local library is an integral element in a community's identity.