Thing 10: Don't Shoot the Messenger

In college, I was signed on to AIM 24 hours a day. Literally. (And yes, I do mean literally. It drives me crazy when people say "literally" when they really mean "figuratively.") It was my main method of communication, even when talking to my roommate who's computer was just on the other side of the wall from mine!

I haven't really used it much since then. Occasionally someone will instant message me through Facebook or Google chat, but I don't really like either of those as well as I liked AIM. These days, I generally prefer other forms of communication to instant messaging. That's not to say it doesn't have its uses. I have been using AIM much more often since I got engaged to chat with my maid of honor and my mom so that I can send them pictures and links while we talk. There's definitely an advantage to the multimedia capabilities of chat that you can't capture over the phone. There's also the advantage that you can hold several conversations at once. Still, for me, these advantages rarely outweigh the disadvantage of having to be tied to the computer.

Despite my preference for other forms of communication in my personal life, I think that online chat can be really useful in a library setting, not only by adding another means of connecting with our patrons through chat reference, but also by enhancing our ability to communicate and collaborate with other librarians. ALA or TLA committee members can "meet" in chat rooms or librarians can use internal chat services to communicate with staff at other branches, for example.