During my second semester in the SLIS program back in 2005, I took a class with Penny Peck that required us to meet in a Blackboard classroom to participate in a real time chat session. This was before Elluminate had been adopted by the school, so we were denied the use of an audio or visual component beyond simple text. With approximately 25 students involved in the chat, the conversation was a little hard to follow. This was my first experience using any sort of real-time chat and I wasn’t sure I liked it. I was used to being rather verbose—something that doesn’t work in a chat or IM session. I also had to get over my bad spelling and learn to type quickly and efficiently. The following semester I took 210-Reference and asked a reference question through both Question Point Virtual Reference and an IM service. I was starting to warm up to the use of synchronous communication—particularly for reference services.
This semester I have been an Elluminate assistant, teaching students and some professors how to use the synchronous communication devices found in Elluminate. Elluminate is a phenomenal tool, allowing for interaction via text, voice, and visuals. I assisted an Elluminate class Saturday morning for LIBR-210 Reference where the professor was able to demonstrate how to use various web pages and databases to aid students in their reference service. However, similar to the drawbacks described by Meredith Farkas with Virtual Reference service, there can be some technological hurdles to overcome with Elluminate. There is a reason we hold training sessions at the beginning of each semester—interactions in Elluminate are not completely intuitive and most users new to Elluminate could use a bit of guidance in the beginning. Still, I believe that the introduction of Elluminate in the SLIS program has helped bring all of us closer together in our classes and in this program. This is also one of the benefits synchronous communication provides between libraries and their patrons.
Another benefit is the instantaneous (or semi-instantaneous) nature of the interactions. IM seems to be the most popular of the synchronous tools with many libraries setting up AIM, MSN, Yahoo, or gTalk accounts. Meebo widgets make it extremely convenient for users to communicate with their library—particularly for patrons who do not have accounts with any of the major IM players. Whenever I have communicated with a library via IM, I have used their Meebo widget.
Skype is a relatively new tool for me, but I enjoyed it so much this week that I have been using it to call all of my relatives, whether they have Skype or not. Skype seems like it could be a fabulous tool for reference with its phone, video, and chat capabilities. But most of the population is not ready for it yet. There were only 3 libraries listed on the Library Success wiki as using Skype for reference. I contacted the Ohio University Libraries via Meebo on a Saturday night (when Skype service was not available) to ask how patrons used Skype to communicate with the library and approximately how many Skype reference requests they received on a given week. It seems that the Skype service has yet to catch on, with most users communicating through the chat capability instead of a phone or video call. Perhaps we will see Skype use go up in the future as more people spend increased time at a computer and feel more comfortable making calls from it (or if Skype is allowed to function on cellphones—such as their iphone).
I have already given my thoughts on library reference service and SMS. I was happy to see evidence of creative thinking this week with the use of text messaging in the OPAC at the Bryn Mawr library. While some people might be hesitant to text themselves the call number and book information from the catalog because of the cost, this sort of innovative thinking is where I see the use of SMS evolving in libraries.
Out of everything that we have talked about thus far in the semester, synchronous communication may be undergoing the quickest change. In five years, the playing field might be completely rewritten. I look forward to the innovations to come.
