Good Day SCRLC Libraries!
South Central Regional Library Council members have an opportunity to participate in a pilot project, InfoQuest, to explore the feasibility of collaborative multi-type text-based reference service, in partnership with the Alliance Library System of East Peoria, the School of Library & Information Science of San Jose State University, TAP Information Services (the organization offering OPAL—Online Programming for All Libraries), and Altarama.
Altarama (http://www.altarama.com) will provide technology and training for project participants and will assist evaluators with non-standard data access and extraction. “Libraries of all types – and the reference services community in particular-stand to benefit greatly from the outcomes of this unique and timely project, “said Arthur Brady, President of Altarama, “and we’re delighted to be an active partner.”
Participating libraries will agree to staff the collaborative service for two hours a week; attend online training sessions and planning meetings; market the service within their communities, and provide feedback about the service. Customizable training and promotional materials will be provided. Librarians will not be using a cell phone to provide service; they will log into a project website or project email address to receive and provide answers to questions.
There are no charges to participate during the first six months of the project. The partnership seeks funding to host the service for a full year. If funding is not secured at six months, participants may choose to drop the service or share the costs of the software with other members, which is expected to be $100-200 per library depending on how many libraries participate.
The deadline for participation is April 15, 2009. Partnership agreement forms will be made available at the meeting and through email for anyone unable to attend. Online training sessions will be held in May and June at a variety of times for the convenience of participants. During June, participants can practice, copy promotional materials provided for the project and begin to promote the service. The service is expected to kick off on July 1 and run through the end of December for the first six months of activity.
If this is of interest to you, please join us for an informational meeting on March 25, 2009, 11AM-1PM EST. The meeting will take place by conference call. If you cannot attend on the 25th, there will be another informational meeting on April 3 from 3-5PM. Contact Diane Capalongo at dcapalongo@scrlc.org or me at mclindbloom@scrlc.org 607-273-9106 for the conference call login details.
Lori Bell, of the Alliance Library System, is the project director, and you may contact her at Lori Bell at lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com.
Why text reference? An increasing number of libraries accept information queries in the form of text messages from users’ cell phones and other mobile devices. According to a 2005 Pew and American Life Project report, Teens and Technology, “Today’s American teens live in a world enveloped by communications technologies; the internet and cell phones have become a central force that fuels the rhythm of daily life.” 85% of teens reported owning at least one of the following devices: blackberry, cell phone, laptop, and desktop computer. In 2005 45% of teens owned cell phones and many owned more than one device that could connect to the Internet. 75% used text messaging. http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/289/press_coverageitem.asp; It is not just teens: The 2005 Pew press release, 34 Million American Adults Send Text Messages on their Cell Phones, reported that 31% of those between the ages of 28-39 used text, 18% between 40-49, 13% of between 50-59, and 7% of those over 60. http://www.pewinternet.org/Press-Releases/2005/34-million-American-adults-send-text-messages-on-their-cell-phones.aspx . Four years later, I would think that the number of texters has increased among all generations.
Best regards,
Showing posts with label texting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label texting. Show all posts
Monday, March 23, 2009
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
One-Two-Three, Cha Cha...... com???
One-two-three, Cha cha-…..com??? www.Chacha.com , that is.
“Wanted: Night Surfers; Brainiacs; Smarty-Pants; Sports Fans; Good Students; Know-It-Alls; Experts; Info Junkies; Clever Moms; Inquiring Minds; Einsteins; Puzzle Solvers; Newshounds.” Provide your name, areas of interest, level of education, availability, and explain why you would be a good guide, and you might be dancing to the sound of cellular ringtones!
Featured recently on NPR’s On the Media, through chacha.com you get answers from a real person by calling or texting from your cell phone. The piece included a discussion of the reliability of answers received through chacha and the similarities/differences between that and such services as Yahoo Answers. No mention of librarians except toward the end when host Mark Phillips commented on a future Desk Set-like environment (not that Desk Set was mentioned)…. “And maybe it’s better that way. If you’re wondering about a director’s last film, it’s nice sometimes to do a search, get sent to IMDb and see a list of all her films. Each answering service, including the old-fashioned Google Search or, God forbid, a trip to the library, has a time and a place.”
I got to thinking how easy it would be to incorporate texting into reference operations and thought that one of my Illinois colleagues might be doing just that. I was right. Cruising onto the Arlington Memorial Public Library's website, I found a plethora of options for reaching a reference librarian—virtual reference, IM, phone, email, and yes—SMS! Not being a very good texter, I chatted them up instead, and learned that it really was pretty easy to do. Bill P also pointed me to a Library Success webpage providing more info about libraries actually doing this. Thanks, Bill!
I hope that OCLC’s virtual/remote reference service, QuestionPoint, will incorporate SMS into a future release. As a global community of librarians available around the clock, it is the natural, credible alternative to the answer websites.
Should librarians really get into the SMS business? Yes. Sure, texting has its limitations and we cannot use it to answer complicated questions. We can help them as much as possible and then send them to the bricks and mortar library, or a librarian-staffed remote reference service if necessary. That positive interaction will make them more likely to go there. We need library supporters among all generations and communication styles. Texting won’t replace reference as we know it—it is one more aid to place in our toolbox to link our users--and non-users--to the information at their point-of-need.
Above all, we need to get the message out to our users that we are available to them through various media... that a "trip to the library" can be as close as their keyboard....or even cell phone.
“Wanted: Night Surfers; Brainiacs; Smarty-Pants; Sports Fans; Good Students; Know-It-Alls; Experts; Info Junkies; Clever Moms; Inquiring Minds; Einsteins; Puzzle Solvers; Newshounds.” Provide your name, areas of interest, level of education, availability, and explain why you would be a good guide, and you might be dancing to the sound of cellular ringtones!
Featured recently on NPR’s On the Media, through chacha.com you get answers from a real person by calling or texting from your cell phone. The piece included a discussion of the reliability of answers received through chacha and the similarities/differences between that and such services as Yahoo Answers. No mention of librarians except toward the end when host Mark Phillips commented on a future Desk Set-like environment (not that Desk Set was mentioned)…. “And maybe it’s better that way. If you’re wondering about a director’s last film, it’s nice sometimes to do a search, get sent to IMDb and see a list of all her films. Each answering service, including the old-fashioned Google Search or, God forbid, a trip to the library, has a time and a place.”
I got to thinking how easy it would be to incorporate texting into reference operations and thought that one of my Illinois colleagues might be doing just that. I was right. Cruising onto the Arlington Memorial Public Library's website, I found a plethora of options for reaching a reference librarian—virtual reference, IM, phone, email, and yes—SMS! Not being a very good texter, I chatted them up instead, and learned that it really was pretty easy to do. Bill P also pointed me to a Library Success webpage providing more info about libraries actually doing this. Thanks, Bill!
I hope that OCLC’s virtual/remote reference service, QuestionPoint, will incorporate SMS into a future release. As a global community of librarians available around the clock, it is the natural, credible alternative to the answer websites.
Should librarians really get into the SMS business? Yes. Sure, texting has its limitations and we cannot use it to answer complicated questions. We can help them as much as possible and then send them to the bricks and mortar library, or a librarian-staffed remote reference service if necessary. That positive interaction will make them more likely to go there. We need library supporters among all generations and communication styles. Texting won’t replace reference as we know it—it is one more aid to place in our toolbox to link our users--and non-users--to the information at their point-of-need.
Above all, we need to get the message out to our users that we are available to them through various media... that a "trip to the library" can be as close as their keyboard....or even cell phone.
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