Comments on: report on the asknow instant messaging trial now available

By: virtual librarian

virtual librarian — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:37:00 +0000

@ stephen: thanks for your comment. I agree, augmenting proprietary chat reference with IM is a great way to extend our services. We certainly found that our trial attracted a large number of users who hadn’t previously used AskNow - evidence that IM as a medium appeals to different user groups. We also found a higher proportion of upper secondary and university students used IM than AskNow - again, evidence of appeal for new audiences.

I’ll certainly drop by your blog and see if you’re online to chat (I’m a long time reader, btw). I’ve also sent you an email with some more detail, which I hope will be of interest.

By: Stephen Francoeur

Stephen Francoeur — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:49:00 +0000

Kate, I read your report this week and would love to hear more about the software being developed. If you have a moment, it would be great if you could stop by my blog (Digital Reference) and see if my MeeboMe indicates I’m free to chat. I’d love to get my library involved in any project that finds a way to set up a scalable collaborative reference service. We’ve been long time QuestionPoint subscribers; it would be cool to augment that service with an IM one.

By: Kathryn Greenhill

Kathryn Greenhill — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:22:00 +0000

Well, there will be info about it published soon. Will email you directly and tell you more. I just work as an operator for the service, but I can tell you what I know.

Would love to catch up during the unconf next week.

By: virtual librarian

virtual librarian — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 07:11:00 +0000

@ kathryn: great stuff! I’d love to have a chat to you about this. I think I read on your blog that you’ll be at the SLQ unconference next week… would love to talk to you about the Monash/Murdoch project.

Have you published on the project at all? Very keen to hear what you guys are doing.

By: Kathryn Greenhill

Kathryn Greenhill — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:26:00 +0000

G’day Kate. I look forward to your VALA presentation.

Macquarie and Murdoch University Libraries have implemented an IM based chat reference server using Jabber client. We used a MAMS grant to develop a routing system using Shibboleth, so that students are routed to the correct institutions’ librarians - and enquiries are flicked on to the next librarian if it it not answered quickly enough.

There will be a paper about it at VALA, but if you are interested we can tell you more about it.