Instant messaging.

I was involved with something very close to instant messaging a couple of years ago when I did the Internet-based Family History course offered by CAVAL. There was a time set each week for typed chat between the tutor and students enrolled in the course (usually two or three went on line).
Instant messaging as a means of delivering reference information as demonstrated by the University of North Carolina Library would be a useful addition to the suite of services offered by a large institution, and in tune with today's 'instant' society. It has advantages over the phoned or emailed enquiry in that the interaction allows immediate clarification of the client's requirements if required.
I know that Skype is a service used by several people in the local community who have family overseas. A very effective and economical alternative to phoning.
And today's political debate is an interesting example of a tweitter discussion!


Thank you for the course, Ellen and Mylee and associates.
I hate giving up on the course but because I don't use the Web 2.0 and 2.1 tools I am finding it increasingly hard to bluff my way through. And it isn't really being very honest anyway. For people who have embraced Web 2.0 this would have been an excellent follow-up and extension exercise.
Maybe I'll try and get back to mash-ups one day as that it the only week I really haven't done anything about but for the moment .. back to the circulation desk and sorting out the housebound books ....

On the Wild Side ....

Everyone who interacts with the Internet will have been subject to scams and phishing attempts. I won't open emails or attachments unless I know the sender (too bad about the useful things I miss...) and have anti-virus software and various firewalls as installed by my computer technician.
I had a message appear on my screen one day saying that my computer was under virus attack and I should download a protective package. Thankfully I remembered about never opening something I hadn't asked for or knew the provenance of and consulted the technician. I got a lecture about how all such messages were avenues to virus infection and I should just ignore them, but at least I hadn't clicked on the attachment and so no harm resulted. It was just after I had downloaded a poem from a site for a client and the suggestion is that that left my computer vulnerable. But it is hard - the poem was the answer to a legitimate reference enquiry.