Thing 7.2a-2b

Instant messaging. This is the first tool that I've been pretty uncomfortable with going into learning about it. I watched the University of Buffalo video and was baffled by all of the abbreviations. It's like a secret code that I've not been privy to. For my personal use, I think that it's unnecessary. I am not the fastest typist, and it seems stressful to me. Plus, if I'm right, people can contact you through a little box that pops up on your screen, when you're already doing something on your computer. I don't want to be interrupted, even by my friends. But, then, I don't usually answer my phone, either.

Of course, being accessible is really important when you're at work on the desk. The answering back quickly enough part still worries me, and the unknown shorthand, but I could learn that. We are doing IM reference here in Dakota county and I'm to be doing it too, but I've been dragging my feet. I keep forgetting to start, and this should give me the push that I need.

But, I just read the idea in the Library Journal Article "IM Me" about loading IM software on the public computers so patrons can use it to talk to reference staff and it sounds like a nightmare to me. My knee jerk reaction is if a patron is in the library and they want to ask me something they should come and talk to me. Part of what I like most about my job is interacting with people face to face. Also, I'm imagining what our bored and often badly behaved teens (not all, just some) would come up with to ask!