Remember my post on TSCPL’s Meebo chat widget embedded in our library catalog? Since then, we have stopped using the Meebo Me widget. It was great – it helped us start our IM reference service, and it was easy to embed pretty much wherever we wanted. But we grew out of it!

We discovered a few shortcomings, like not being able to send hotlinks through it, and our public services staff really wanted the ability to send an IM to someone else. So now, we’re using Libraryh3lp for our IM reference service. Libraryh3lp gives us those added benefits and more.

And we’re doing a few different things with the catalog embed, too. Here’s a pic of the keyword, No Records Found search:

We’re trying to make instructions clear, friendly and attractive. If you click the Ask Now button, you get a tiny IM widget pop-up page. Why pop-up? With our Meebo widget, we discovered that a lot of people would start asking a question, then click something … and they’d be gone, because they had clicked away from the page with the embedded IM widget. Bumer! With our new pop-up version, that problem is solved. Users can click away all they want … and still interact with us.

But even cooler than that – Michael, our web designer (one of his many hats) discovered a way to embed a similar thing on the Search Results page:

This provides more opportunities for patrons to ask questions when they get stuck on a search – even if they’re finding things. Basically, they have access to us ON EVERY SEARCH they do.

And not just IM access – that’s provided via the Ask Now button. But we also include our phone number and a link to our email Ask a Librarian form.

We’re excited about this – should be fun to see if we get more catalog-related questions.

Related Posts

• More MeeboMe Ideas
• Fun With our Meebo Widget and the Library Catalog
• The Daily Grape and the Daily Book?
• Facebook Catalog App
• Watching Local News go Viral

Wow – there have been lots of comments on the MeeboMe widget. Great! Some other libraries are trying it out – check the comments on my original post and on Jenny Levine’s post titled Mashing on the Library, Part I to find them. Others have been emailing me, asking for details.

Now, let’s take this one further – where else can you embed this thing? For example, Edward had a great idea (left it in my comments). He said “Very cool. I think I might go ahead and add this to our log-in failed page for EzProxy.” Great idea, Edward!

And that made me think… I’ll bet there are other good places to embed something like this. For example, my library’s looking into other places to drop it in the catalog, like on the search results page (idea swiped from Paul Pival).

Think about it like this – where do your patrons get hung up? What stops them… confuses them… makes them click away? Maybe that’s a good place to embed a MeeboMe widget (or something similar). Don’t think “well, I put a link to a Help file there, so that’s good enough.” Come on – do YOU click that Help link? That’s like removing the Information Desk and replacing it with a bin of tipsheets on using the Dewey Decimal System!

Finally, a couple of commenters have mentioned being wary of embedding an IM widget in the catalog because it’s not a 24/7 service. My thoughts:

• Well… it CAN be a 24/7 service, if you’re willing to not sleep
• I think the focus is off – you’re concerned with what is most likely a very small minority of patrons searching the catalog at 2am. Instead, focus on helping the majority of your patrons… and add text stating your IM hours.
• Most 24/7 virtual chat reference services (the only thing I can think of providing 24/7 live help) have people in other libraries answering those 2 am questions… do you really want someone at another library answering a question about YOUR library catalog? Maybe yes, maybe no…

Are you planning to embed a meeboMe widget in your catalog? Leave a comment!

Related Posts

• Fun With our Meebo Widget and the Library Catalog
• More Chat in the Catalog
• The Daily Grape and the Daily Book?
• CIL2010: The Global Library Automation Scene
• Next Generation Library Interfaces

Update: I’m getting some questions on how we did this, so… We have a Horizon system – look for the searchinput.xsl page in your XSL folder. Then find the appropriate chunk of code where the “nothing found” message and table appears, and add the meebome widget there.

And if you have more questions, feel free to email me (davidleeking at gmail dot com) – and I’ll put you in touch with our Web Administrator.

*************

I was reading Helene’s post about online chat, and remembered I had wanted to try something in my library’s catalog… and we just went live with it.

What did we do? We added a Meebo widget to unsuccessful keyword searches in our library catalog. This way, when a customer searches our catalog and doesn’t find anything, they can contact us via IM and ask for help (we also display our phone number if they want to call).

SO – should be interesting to see what we get from this (since we just turned it on maybe 15 minutes ago). If nothing else, it’s a solid attempt at “humanizing” the OPAC!

Related Posts

• More MeeboMe Ideas
• More Chat in the Catalog
• The Daily Grape and the Daily Book?
• CIL2010: The Global Library Automation Scene
• Next Generation Library Interfaces

Michael Porter made a Meebo chat room for Internet Librarian 2007 – let’s see if I can embed it in this blog post…

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My library has just started two things, really:

1. IM reference! (Yippie!)
2. Using the Meebo Me widget

We have wanted to begin IM reference for over a year at least. One of the cool things about being the Digital Branch Manager at this library is that the library as a whole is excited about new ways to reach out to customers, and doesn’t shy away from all this new-fangled technology stuff (translation=everything I do).

Our Adult Services Department actually came to me and asked if they could start IM – they even had a plan in place to use the Meebo Me widget, so they could get everything up-and-running quickly (we’re also in the process of installing Trillian on all staff computers). Basically, all I had to do was say “go for it.”

So far, the Meebo Me widget is working out well. The things we’re working through are more procedural issues, like what to do when reference staff receive a phone call and an IM question at the same time (ie., do we go into away mode or just quickly type “hold”?).

So – this should be just the tip of our Digital Branch iceberg!

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Casa Grande Library System is twittering (at http://twitter.com/cglibrary)! Looks like they’re dumping news from their RSS feeds into their twitter account.

This is the first actual library system I’ve heard of that’s twittering… anyone else know of a twittering library (ok – I realize that sounds funny…)?

twitter

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Kristin Whitehair (K-State)

Gave history of IM

Gave a couple of examples of IM reference questions at K State

IM in Libraries

• our users are using it
• 42% of all online users use IM – Pew
• 90% of teens using IM (AOL IM Trends)
• all age groups are using IM

IM is:

• immediate
• real time 
• point of need (answer question when customer needs the answer)
• interactive

Virtual Reference vs IM – Advantages over VR:

• easy – few requirements
• free
• widely used outside the library world
• lite programs
• cell phone and video features

Sacrificed Features for IM:

• co-browsing
• page pushing
• statistics gathering

Discussed K-State IM reference statistics

Types of IM available:

• client (downloaded)
• web-based – chat widgets embedded on webpages
• internal – staff IM

Gave example of Reference librarian who embedded Meebo widget onto her subject guide page and her own staff “who am I ” page

Internal IM: mentioned enterprise IM like GroupWise, opportunity for practice without contacting patrons

Popular IM Services:

• Yahoo Messenger
• Google Talk
• MSN Messenger
• AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)

Aggregators:

• GAIM (recently renamed Pidgin)
• Trillian
• Meebo

Considerations:

• staffing – how will you handle it
• security – files, sketchy links, individuals with questionable intent…
• dependability of service

staff training:

• etiquette and training
• traditionally casual and short messages
• appropriate use
• selecting a name
• lingo

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I just finished playing around with ebuddy, at ebuddy.com. It’s a web-based IM service, like meebo. But the thing I was interested in is this – they offer a mobile version of their ebuddy service!

I haven’t wanted to actually PAY for IM on my treo, which I could do through services like VeriChat or Mundu Messenger (here’s great article about Treo-based IM clients). I’m cheap – what can I say? And honestly, I’m surprised there aren’t more free offerings on such a basic mobile-based service (that would also send periodic ads for sustainability…).

Anyways, the mobile version of ebuddy works ok. The screenshot to the right shows me chatting with the infamous LibrarianInBlack. The chat functions are pretty easy to figure out… but I quickly noticed one huge drawback: I had to hit the reload link to see the conversation! I could type my message easily enough and hit the Sned button… but then nothing would happen after that. But when I hit the Reload link, then I’d see that the good LIB had been chatting back…

So. It’s free! It’s web-based! It doesn’t automatically screen refresh!

ebuddy im meebo

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Aaron Schmidt at walking paper posted about IM yesterday, and made some points that actually relate, in a way, to what I was saying yesterday about the website as a destination.

Aaron’s post focused on IM reference – how IM reference is still very much a reference question, just like someone walking up to the desk, and how one might handle that in a day-to-day situation. His library has a first-come-first-served policy, so if he’s in the middle of an IM reference question, the person walking up to the desk has to wait his/her turn in line. And this gives Aaron an opportunity to introduce the waiting customer to IM reference, too.

That type of policy is another way to shift the focus from a computer-oriented task (answering an IM question) to simply another way of serving your library customers. Put another way, it removes the word “virtual” from virtual reference. Think about it – there’s nothing “virtual” about virtual reference. It’s an ACTUAL reference transaction, just like when someone walks up to the reference desk to ask a question is an actual reference transaction. With both, an actual customer is waiting in line, ready to be served.

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I just attended Kansas City’s Rock the Light VI concert – it was fun! Some highlights:

• The bands on the main stage – they rocked
• The satellite stage bands (I was in one of them) Go here for more pics of my day
• Getting free tickets (complimentary tickets for bands playing on the satellite stages)
• The venue – Starlight is an awesome place for a concert!
• Raising $23,000 for hurricane victims (Third Day donated $10,000, and challenged the crowd to match that – the crowd gave $13,000)
• Cell phone silliness!

And since this is a library technology blog, I’ll talk about the cell phone part. Starlight’s main stage includes a big screen hanging above the stage. Concert footage is usually shown on the screen, which is pretty cool. But cell phone users can dial 99777 and leave a text message that displays on the big screen, for everyone to see. Do you think the kids that attended the concert used that? Oh yeah – messages streamed nonstop the whole day. I took a pic – you can see examples of text messaging in it (bottom of the big screen). Cool shot of the drummer, too…

Some would call this a cool way to interact, to be part of the performance, or to enhance the concert experience. And it probably did all those things. At the same time, I found it sorta odd… example: during a slow part of a song, kids would scream when someone posted a message like “scream if you live in Liberty.” The two things (text message and performance) didn’t fit well together. Certainly gotta be odd for the band, if nothing else!

But either way, kids had and used their cell phones in a big way. In fact, rather than holding up lighters, Third Day asked everyone to hold up cell phones – I was awed in all geekiness at that point – 8000 cell phones glowing at once was pretty cool to see.

How does this relate to libraries? Well… those kids with cell phones – can they access your library via IM and/or sms/text messaging? Do they have the phone number to the reference desk? Are these on one handy card that you can pass out to library patrons?

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