Week 5: REFLECT -- Many libraries provide instant messaging and VoIP reference services, how would you feel about communicating with patrons this way?

The problem with instant messaging (IM) and VoIP reference services is that I believe users have the same service expectation than when they are in person at the library asking a librarian. The issue arises that there is a barrier visually between what a user sees and what a librarian is telling them. Whether it is through miscommunication from the librarian, or misunderstanding with the patron, when the person telling you the steps is not next to you guiding you, there is a distancing in the help they can provide.

What would be ideal for this service to function is a kind of screen sharing program embedded within the library site with the ‘Ask a Librarian’ plugin. Where the patron could see the librarian’s screen and be guided, step by step, on how to use the service. Remote control desktop is a service easily available on Windows PC and (possibly) on Mac, however that’s invasive and a patron would undoubtedly be uncomfortable with the idea of a librarian momentarily wresting the control from them to show which button leads them to search.

With databases like Trove appearing, and even more records, books and other collected and archived data appearing online for libraries, IM and VoIP are becoming integral to libraries, not just as a patron service for helping, but as a way of providing service to connect all communities together to find the information pertinent to them. The Australian equivalent of this is the Australian Libraries Gateway, a “free Web-based directory service which has information about approximately 5,200 Australian libraries and cultural institutions, their collections and services”. Indeed, when Trove was released in 2009 ALG became the leading library “Trove Contributor”.

In essence, these user services mean that a library is moving further away from standardised modes of helping find a reference book and instead being a mediator between the patron and the information highway. As librarians, it is our job to help a patron in finding whatever information they can, and as the world is increasingly going digital, the services used to help patrons with this are digital modes too.

WEEK 5: PLAY -- Session with Michael Feeney & Skype's Ease of Use

I chatted with my partner for assignment 2, Michael Feeney, on Skype last night. Our discussion centred around Feeney's idea for our assignment's proposal on 3D printing.

Skype is the fundamental form of quick communication across a broad range of platforms. The service is available on tablet, phone, PC, Mac and television. Text, audio and video options are available, along with emoticons. The difference between Skype and other forms is its ease of use. Simply pick a contact and those there options are there in easy-to-find green buttons. Skype puts this instantaneous visual and audio communication at its forefront, whereas Facebook Chat and Google Talk put these services on a sidebar, as an add-on to their main applications and stripped of functions depending on which platform. Skype can be picked up by anyone. My grandfather at 88, still learning how to use a computer, learnt first and easiest how to use Skype.

The buttons are well designed to be universally understood:

The conversation between Feeney and I stayed mainly on course. We traded planning strategies and came up with a definite start point for our assignment, even if it is quite a while away. I am happy with how it turned out.

I'm not sure what else to say as the experience of using Skype is something I do daily. I remember MSN used to fulfil this gap of instantaneous discussion with friends and family that's quicker than email and without the brevity of Twitter (or Myspace as it was back then). I communicate with friends over audio, which is great, because we can participate in a program over the top of Skype's existing call. Ventrilo is the most streamlined version of this service, although you can't video chat. Skype's ease of video calling is where it scores the most points. It is the service of choice when I want to call up a friend (price is free PC to PC) and chat while doing something else, like playing a game or typing an assignment.

We have a beginning on our assignment using the service needed for the week 5 blog. Two birds, one stone.