Comments on: More MeeboMe Ideas

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:53:51 +0000

Another thought. You could do this 24/7 if you partnered with other libraries around the globe. if not 24/7 it would extend the reach beyond normal library hours. They do this with questionpoint, the only difference is that they have a paid librarian from oclc covering the night hours. I bet a consortium of libraries could pay a librarian to do that and work in this global way using meebo.

By: Meebo Me!! « The Eeyore Librarian

Meebo Me!! « The Eeyore Librarian — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 05:29:14 +0000

[...] an email address to further help the patron. David Lee King blogs about this for the TSCPL here and here. I think this is an excellent way to stick librarians into unexpected places – very [...]

By: Talking Books Librarian

Talking Books Librarian — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:12:51 +0000

Everyone reading my blog MUST be a genius!…

Thanks to a blog post on David Lee King’s blog ( http://www.davidleeking.com/ ), I discovered that you…

By: davidleeking

davidleeking — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:46:52 +0000

Libraraga – since your different branches are sharing one catalog, you’d need to share the meebome duties as well. That might be a little funky at times, depending on how else you’re using IM reference. So you’d need to have a chat with everyone involved (probably the ref people at the different branches/libraries) to figure out what’s needed, how to handle it, etc.

Academic readers – any other suggestions?

By: Libraraga

Libraraga — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:05:11 +0000

Since this topic is very new to me, I’d like to ask a couple of questions. In a library which has a few branches, how do you ensure that each branch gets its share of questions? I work in a college library system, which has 16 branches. Even though we are ‘governed’ by a central body, we are quite separate, but we do have one catalogue. How would we get our users to contact us through MeeboMe, and not a different college library? Thnx.

By: Stephanie Willen Brown

Stephanie Willen Brown — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:25:35 +0000

even with the limitations in hours, this remains a great idea.

It reminds me of roving the library, stopping patrons who look perplexed and asking “are you finding what you need?” Sometimes they say “no, I’m looking for my spouse” Sometimes they say “yes! can you help me find XYZ?” And sometimes we’re NOT there to ask them and they DO need our help. Oh well. We can’t be perfect, we can’t always be there, but through the wonder of technology we CAN “be there” virtually in ways we couldn’t before, and we should try it.

Not all the time, not perfect, but sometimes, occasionally, helping one or two patrons — that’s a good start. It’s “good enough” which is starting to be my new mantra.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:09:34 +0000

We have our general reference meebo widget on every page, except the catalog. However, meebo is only staffed from about 10 in the morning until about midnight.

On our course assignment web pages we’ve turned off the general reference widget so that librarians can add their own widget. Here’s an example on one of my pages: http://ica.library.oregonstate.edu/Course_Assignment_Page/327

Interestingly, I get a lot of comments on my meebo widget when I’m not online, and they are usually thanking me for help I’ve provided previously.

By: Lissa

Lissa — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:40:39 +0000

I work at TSCPL where we are trying the meebo widget in the catalog, and we current only staff our meebo reference 9-5:30, Monday through Friday, which is about half of the hours the library is open, and about 25% of 24/7. We haven’t figured out how to staff meebo for evenings and weekends yet, so 24/7 is extremely ambitious. When assigned to meebo reference, I am also trying to answer the telephone reference line, and I’ve had many tricky situations from that.My other comment is that at least in my experience with our meebo questions, I have almost always needed access to the staff side of our library’s catalog and usually I have gone to check the shelf for an item, or called another department to confirm an answer. Those are issues that would prevent me from answering these from outside of my particular library I think, at least at this point. Have other libraries found workarounds for these issues?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:15:49 +0000

Emily,

Well if you are back East, you can partner with a library out West. Then if you close at 7pm, with the time difference, west coast libraries are open at that time. Hawaii would be popular in coverage well into the evening

By: Emily C

Emily C — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:45:37 +0000

I’m not actually thinking so much about the 2am question… more about the 10pm one. That’s a pretty peak time for the users of our county catalog, and out libraries are not open.