Instant Messaging

Chat can be useful when you’re spending a lot of time online. You can talk to lots of people at once regardless of which IM service they’re using, and you don’t have to download anything. It can be portable if you have a smartphone, which I currently do not have.  This is definitely a good tool to keep an eye on to see how it develops over the next couple of years.

Libraries are using this to answer reference questions, of course. There are always those who do not approach the reference desk and this is a great way to be available for those people.

But it’s also a great way for colleagues to keep in touch.  Sometimes I have a quick question for my colleague down the hall. Do I send an email? It’s not the kind of thing I really want to keep a record of. Also, we might have to go back and forth a bit on it. I don’t want to call because I don’t want to disturb the people around me.  Voila! IM is perfect in such a situation.