Libraries seem to be doing a great job getting themselves on the SMS train. Unfortunately, I fear that they may be riding in the caboose. While many libraries have been reaching out to the new wave of texting fanatics, their initiatives may be too little, too late.

I have to admit that I have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder when it comes to texting in libraries. My annoyance stems primarily from the repeated accolades scattered all over the web as well as commercials on tv advertising the wonders of text answering services such as ChaCha and kgb. These two services, in contrast to Google Text Search, use live people to answer ready reference type of questions–questions that could easily be answered by a librarian. Do librarians really want these type of ready reference questions anymore? Do they want them in the magnitude that they are flowing in? Maybe not. Some of these questions are the kind of questions someone might ask if they were drunk at the weekly pub quiz. Others are even more obscene. But many others are simple questions that require simple answers such as “Who won the Women’s NCAA division 1 basketball game?” and “What is the first day of spring?”. I know someone who swears by ChaCha after they helped guide her to the train station in Mumbai when she was lost. Librarians are much more interested in guiding users to the information they need rather than becoming an answering service, but there are some compelling reasons why, perhaps, libraries should have their foot in this market.

To begin with, these institutions are making a lot of money. Kgb (with a large following in Europe and a growing fan club here in the States) made a profit of $42 million last year. While most of their money probably comes from advertisers,the number of people using this service cannot be denied. Their competitor, ChaCha, reported that it has had 3.6 million users since January 2008. Obviously no one library could handle those numbers. A library consortium might be a bit strained by this level of demand as well, but it could be worth investigating. With the focus of most libraries on their institution or community, text services are being set up on an individual, institution by institution basis. Perhaps the reason ChaCha and kgb are so successful is because they are a one stop shop for the whole country (if not the whole world) and have recognizable and memorable text numbers. The creation of a consorial library focused text answer service seems destined to materialize only in my dreams.

It isn’t just the money, but loss of prestige that frustrates me when it comes to the growth of SMS reference among non-library organizations. Libraries are always going to be highly regarded, but they might not always be remembered as a resource in a user’s quest for information. I work at a college comprised of mostly 18-23 year olds who rarely consider the library as the first stop in their research process. Their first source, of course, is Google. For easy answers when not at a computer–they are turning to ChaCha. I want them to turn to libraries. Don’t we all.

Of course, after ranting on and on for four paragraphs now, I believe that this sort of text answering service has already crested and may diminish over the next few years. With the introduction of the iphone and similar smartphone devices, users can once again turn to Google for their answers when out on the town. Let’s hope libraries catch this wave of mobile use when the wave is still building. Luckily, some already are….