According to the assignment, we “need to compose a blog entry discussing and expounding upon the virtues of, or questioning how, a tool such as the MeeboMe Widget may be used by a library.”
Huh. Discussing. Expounding. Here goes…
I am sure that someone will figure out some way to utilize this tool in a library context—no doubt involving some sort of “we can be available for instant reference” purposes. NRS.
Personally, I have my doubts. I suspect that as IM is utilized right now, implementing it at an institutional level would result in a high ratio of chaff to wheat. I worry that the novelty of IMing the reference librarian with the equivalent of “Is your refrigerator running? Well you better go get it!” (Iz UR fridge running? Ubetr getit!), would render the service less than productive. Perhaps once the hullaballoo blew over, one might have meaningful exchanges.
Similarly, one might use IM to take care of tasks that we currently use the phone or email for, such as shelf checks or similar tasks.
The problem with all of these ideas is that the technologies we currently use for these tasks are pretty effective and IM doesn’t really add to the mix, AFAICS. But I am happy to give it a shot and be shown how wrong I am.
One benefit of this week’s task is that I got to check out (and use) some of those nifty IM acronyms that are all the rage these days (a list can be had here).
