IM chat with Reference Librarian

The assignment for this week was to contact a library through IM. I have used other reference IM library services, such as the Manchester Community College’s 24/7 ask a librarian (http://aal20.tutor.com/nGEN/Apps/SocWeb/main.aspx?ID=c22adde4-d6c6-4853-a746-127716b051eb) which has always been great at answering all my queries (won an award in 2007 for great service).

I picked the Champaign Public Library, located in Champaign, Illinois based upon the random fact that my uncle had once lived there. I went to their website: http://www.champaign.org/find_answers/ask_a_librarian.html and clicked on the link to talk to a librarian. Though it’s not short, I put the whole conversation in the previous blog post. Overall I found IM use to answer reference questions to be a pleasant and easy experience. The librarian I talked to was friendly and receptive, which aided in building the exchange of trust normally given from in person reference requests. From her responses, it seems like IM in their library is only about 5% of their overall reference questions, and email is used a lot to answer reference questions. I think the number of IM users will continued to grow as more users become aware of this service and become more comfortable with it. I found it amusing when she said that a lot of kid users don’t know that it is a professional librarian behind the screen name and not another kid or teen, and they didn’t understand why they can’t just chat through the night.

I was pleased to learn that the IM librarian was actually IN the library and the service wasn’t outsourced. She said that she was sitting at a Reference Desk, though sometimes the librarian IMing (the library has 3 screen names) will be located in the backroom. I know some classmates have had issues connecting and some of the help was not actually located in the library. My conversation lasted about 15 minutes, with a few pauses of less than a minute. When I asked how she handled multi-tasking, she admitted that during our conversation she had answered the phone 3 times and helped 2 people at the desk! Overall, I am pleased to say my experience with using IM in a library was a positive experience and say the Champaign Public Library is developing a good service for their patrons.