Thing 7

It is really amazing how many options we have for communicating and how indispensable some of those tools have become!

Email
I use email both at work and at home. In the media center I receive requests to pull materials, locate materials, answer a wide variety of questions from staff, administration and parents. It is also my main form of communication with reps and companies that I do business with. Not too many elementary students email me but I get a few of those as well. We do not have the staff to offer online reference service but I think it is a great idea. So many people use email daily that I am sure this would be a great way to reach users.

The productivity article covered all of the things I learned the hard way. I no longer take time for cute stationary and my answers are brief and reference places where staff can find answers for their questions rather than writing out step-by-step directions. At certain times a Mail Template would come in handy! If a question will require numerous messages back and forth I just pick up the phone! I hate Spam that gets missed by filters and I am not good at filing messages that I need to keep, but I wouldn’t give up email for anything!

IM
I don’t use IM at work any more… classes to teach and I am not always right in front of the computer. I use it at home but everyone is so busy you almost have to make a “date” with them. I used IM a lot when my son was in college. It was a great way to stay in touch without extra phone bills and it was more like talking in person. We would talk occasionally but he learned how to type faster if we didn’t. Again, the idea of an instant librarian is very appealing to library patrons. Another way to make reference services relevant and still have a people connection.

Text Messaging
I stink at this! I can see how it is a good way to get information out to people who do a lot of text messaging but I think it is costly and, in my case, not very efficient. IDKHTAWLTKD (I don’t know how to abbreviate words like the kids do!) Working on that.

Web Conferencing
This I like! I have participated in the MINITEX Webinars and enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to travel to get the training. They met my needs on several levels. Web conferencing can certainly bring more training and programming to libraries. I was not familiar with OPAL but I will now be taking advantage of their online programming. I am anxiously awaiting the April 11 conference with Jenny Levine (Shifted Librarian) whose blog I have been reading. It is at 1:00 pm. I’ve got my plug-in and I’m ready to go! I noticed a lot of book discussions that looked interesting as well.