IM Reference Comparison
AskNow Transcript:
[Librarian 15:55:59]: Librarian has joined the session.
[Librarian 15:56:16]: Hello! I'm a reference librarian with the QuestionPoint chat service. Your librarians have asked us to staff this service when they are unavailable. I'm reading your question right now to see how I can help you...
[Librarian 15:58:33]: http://www.disastercenter.com
[Librarian 15:58:50]: Robyn, can you see the page I've sent? Does it help with your question?
[Robyn Reid 15:59:06]: yes! that is great!
[Robyn Reid 15:59:33]: Thank you!
[Librarian 16:01:13]: You can email or print a transcript of this session by clicking on the link that appears at the end of this call. This link only appears when you log in anonymously. If you want your next transcript to be automatically emailed to you, please include your email address when you log in with your question.
[Robyn Reid 16:01:57]: Patron ended chat session.
MeeboMe
[16:17] meeboguest873643: hello.
[16:18] Librarian: Hello
[16:18] meeboguest873643: can you help me figure out how many people were murdered in California in 2005?
[16:20] Librarian: are you a student or faculty member?
[16:20] meeboguest873643: no...
[16:22] Librarian: Most of the resources that I would be able to help you with will be available only to our students and faculty members
[16:22] Librarian: but i did a quick google search
[16:22] Librarian: and came up with this page :http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/cacrime.htm
[16:22] Librarian: which should have the answer you need
[16:22] meeboguest873643: okay, thanks! I'll check it out.
[16:22] Librarian: you're welcome
Neither librarian gave me the answer directly, but both sent me to the same website...result of a google search. I got a little worried with the Meebo Librarian because it was at a University library and he or she asked me if I was a student or faculty member. I thought for a second that he or she was not going to answer my question. But then it turned out that the librarian was thinking about physical resources or perhaps information in subscription databases that would only be accessable to a member of that particular academic community.
I'm doing this exercise on a Sunday and it was actually difficult to find many libraries using IM or chat reference who were available today. I am glad I found at least one! Also, I staff my university's chat reference on Sundays, so it is nice to know that I'm not the only person working in a library on Sunday afternoons! I tried about three or four libraries before I found a staffed chat window. ;) However, I will say that it was good that for all those inactive chat windows on library websites, most of them had the hours of availability for accessing their chat services.
I can see why a commercial service like AskNow might be appealing to college and university libraries--because the commercialized chat service is available all the time. Sundays are still school nights.
Oh, and I also really liked the co-browser in AskNow. I wasn't expecting that, and it was really cool to see the librarian pull up the page he referenced so that I could see it too.
