Thing 7 Web 2.0 Communication Tools

I think this Thing is more relevant to public or university libraries than to me in a public middle school setting. Our middle school students are not allowed to email, IM, or text message during the school day and after hours there would not be a library staff person there to respond to reference inquiries. I don't even personally have text messaging included in my cell phone plan, although I do use email and IM a lot at home and all staff use email at school...some are better at reading and responding to it than others.

I think it would be interesting to shadow a reference librarian who uses instant or text messaging. How much traffic do they have? Are they IM'ing with several patrons at a time? How many staff are assigned just to those tasks? As a patron, I think it would be handy. I have emailed different libraries who have "ask a librarian" on their websites, but the response times vary with that. I can see where students who need instant help would love to IM or text the librarian...but are we just enabling procrastinators? :)

I will check out the Web conferencing part of this Thing later when I have a little more time. Right now I need to get up and move around and get the baseball uniforms out of the dryer.