E-Mail is SO Five Minutes Ago

Virginia Cairns

Beverly Simmons

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Meet Generation Next

“They use technology and the internet to connect with people in new and distinctive ways. Text messaging, instant messaging and email keep them in constant contact with friends.”*

*How Young People View Their Lives, Futures and Politics

A PORTRAIT OF “GENERATION NEXT”

The Pew Research Center, Jan. 9, 2007

E-mail is for “old people”

“Teens … said that they view email as something you use to talk to “old people,” … When it comes to casual written conversation, particularly when talking with friends, online instant messaging is the clearly the mode of choice for today’s online teens.”

Teens and Technology, Pew Internet & American Life Project, July 2005.

IM is part of teens’ daily life

• 75% of online teens — or about two-thirds of all teenagers — use instant messaging, compared to 42% of online adults.

• 48% of teens who use instant messaging say they exchange IMs at least once every day.

Advantages of IM Reference

• IM is easy and free

• It’s where students are already

• Easily integrated into existing Reference Desk service and hours

• Also useful for internal library communication

So, what’s the plan?

• Select software / IM service(s)

• Develop policies and procedures

• Create a training plan

• Practice, practice, practice

• Launch

• Advertise

• Evaluate

Which service to use?

• Wanted an aggregator– AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google

• Open source…– Lower Cost– Increased support – Robust user base– Actively innovating

GAIM

• Integrates the big 4 plus some

• Open source

• Easy to install

• Flexible

• Now called Pidgin

• http://www.pidgin.im/

Setup decisions• Installed GAIM at Reference Desk and

on individual librarian’s PCs• Created a reference department IM

account on each of the big 4 services• Listed all 4 under a single GAIM profile

(UTCREF) at the Reference Desk• Created an individual AIM account for

each librarian (UTCREFname)– (Ex: utcrefbeverly)

What it looks like

Policy & Procedure decisions

• Hours?– Same as Reference Desk

• How to prioritize?– Juggle just as you would phone calls

• Question too complex?– Suggest something other than IM

• Inappropriate questions?– Use polite, canned answers

• Statistics?– Collect GAIM log files for analysis

Training Sessions for Faculty

– Mechanics of sending and receiving– Acronyms and IM culture/customs– Policies– Handling abusive or inappropriate

messages

Training Sessions for Faculty

• 2-page cheat sheet

• Introduction of the “Library Buddy” plan

Reference Adopts Library Buddies

Ready for Opening Night?

Showtime!

Advertising

• Wanted to cover all groups

• Wanted a variety of formats

• Wanted to create buzz

One Stop Shop

What has it been like?

• Initial statistics

• Analysis of questions

• Reactions of students

Initial Usage Statistics

• 187 individual users so far

• AIM is the most popular service

• Averages thus far:– 70 questions a month– 17 questions a week– 2.5 questions per day– 6 minutes average duration

Traffic by day of the week

What’s up with Tuesday?

It’s our busiest day for IM!

Analysis of Questions

• 33 session log files

(AIM users only)– Technical questions– Policy questions– Reference questions

Technical questions:

• Logins, database access errors– 2/33 or 6%

Hi,UTCRef: hiI am trying to log into ebsco from home and it won't let medo I need to be there?UTCRef: Let me try

Policy Questions• Hours, Circ. policies, ILL

– 8/33 or 24%

IM User: how long can dvd's be checked out for?UTCRef: If you're a student they can be checked out for 3 daysIM User: ok thanks!UTCRef: Anytime....

Reference Questions

• Known items – (Do you have…)

• Database questions – (I’m searching Lexis…)

• Topical questions – (I need sources on…)

• 23/33 or 70%

Hello, I'm writing a paper for Eng. 122. Which library database will allow me to find Scholarly Journals?

hi - what's your topic?

haha, it's The Death Penalty. I have to have at least 3 sources showing different views of it.

ok, i'd suggest InfoTrac OneFile or OmniFile. both are under "beginning research" when you click on Find Articles. both will let you find articles from scholarly journals. hold on a minute and I'll give you more specific guidance for InfoTrac.

Great!

hang on - I'm helping someone at the desk. back in a minute

Not a prob, I'm here...

What has the response been?

Overall Conclusions…

• The number of e-questions has more than tripled our email-only numbers

• More approachable library • Improved relationships with students• Higher level of visibility• Perception that “a lot is going on at the

Library”

E-Mail is SO Five Minutes Ago

Virginia-Cairns@utc.edu

Beverly-Simmons@utc.edu

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga