IM

Instant Messaging is a powerful tool for connecting with your patrons, particularly young adults, to provide virtual reference service.  There are many pluses and minuses to using his tool.  IM accounts are needed, the most common being services such as AOL Instant Messaging , GoogleTalk, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.  Tools for librarians aggregating these disparate services include Trillian, Adium and Meebo.  Contact is imediate and local.  There is no cooperative coverage or after hours coverage.

High Quality link

LibSuccess Wiki page on IM in Reference

Other Interesting Reports

Look for oodles more info on IM including real life examples from colleague libraries appearing here in the very near future.

Other Social Networking Tools

MySpace page for AskAway, created & maintained by Mark Beatty & Joy Schwarz (Winnefox Library System). If you or your library has a MySpace page, send us a friend request!