The Pew Internet Study on Teen's and Technology is now available. Of particular note is the section on IM. An excerpt follows: For many years, email has been the most popular application on the internet - a popular and “sticky†communications feature that keeps users coming back day after day. But email may be at... Continue Reading →
A Favorite Feature of Trillian
One fo my favorite features of Trillian is the ability to send everyone in a contacts folder the same instant message. Some possible scenarios when this might be used are as follows: You need backup at the reference desk Printing is down, and you can't wait for people to learn about this in an email.... Continue Reading →
IM Versus Web-based Chat
There has been a great deal of chatter (pun intented) around the blogosphere about IM versus Web-based Chat. It began with Aaron at Walking Paper linking to an a blog post that analyzes an article that he co-authored with Sarah the LiB. Stephen Francoeur puts in his two cents here and links to another analysis... Continue Reading →
IM, Virtual Reference, and Podcasting Survey
While the details have yet to be ironed out, sometime this summer the Ohio University Libraries will have a pilot program of providing reference via Instant Messaging. We have been thinking about this for some time, and by now my colleagues are probably getting very tired of me forwarding links from Michael, Aaron, Bill, Sarah,... Continue Reading →
Guerilla IM Survey
Last week I ended one of my library instruction classes with a spur-of-the-moment survey by asking how many students in the class had used our Ask-A-Librarian service. Four students raised their hands. I then asked how many students used IM, and nearly every one of the 25 students raised their hands. I asked them if... Continue Reading →