IM

Before I began this program, I stopped using instant messaging about the same time I started using blogger (then I stopped using blogger about the same time I started using Facebook; I guess I have a one track mind for online tools). I'm interested to see if anything has changed. Back in the day I used mostly AIM, but I also had a Meebo account (was it Meebo?) that let me talk to friends with MSN as well. I tend to think of IM as a teen angsty kind of thing, because that's where I was when I used it. But I always knew, somewhere back in my mind, that people used it for things other than gossip and flirtation.
When I think of IM and work my mind flashes to those messages between Bridget Jones and Daniel Cleaver, however, I very much like the idea of using IM as a librarian. Other than people comfortably using their anonymity to prank IM hardworking librarians, I think that it would be a great tool in our system both between librarians and patrons and between branches. IM is much faster than email and in many cases much faster than the phone, with the added benefit of being able to send links and enter chats and transfer patron questions to another library. How exciting!