Hi,
We have been using Trillian to do chat reference for about 4
years now. It
is available during regular business hours and is staffed by
the regular
reference staff. We also offer email reference. It has not
been a big
deal. We get one or two questions a day, and they are
mainly ready
reference type questions. Actually, sometimes it is easier
to help people
with a chat rather than phone conversation because we can
send them web
links right through the chat rather than trying to spell out
a web address
over the phone.
We also can use the chat to converse with other parts of the
library--the
main circ desk, children's circ desk, genealogy, and the
administrative
assistant all have IM accounts, so if anyone needs to, say
have someone call
the police without everyone in the building hearing about
it, we can IM
another desk (we are on three floors).
We are a public library in a city of about 45,000.
Jocelyn
--
Jocelyn Shaw
Librarian
Hackley Public Library
316 W Webster
Muskegon MI 49440
The Smartest Card. Get it. Use it.
 the
Hackley Public Library
_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/
|