Do You IM? Librarians & Instant Messaging A TTW Survey Michael Stephens

A Timeline  CIL 2004: A kerfuffle in the back of the ballroom  Some libraries jump in  Articles and more presentations  2006: LibSuccess wiki lists 65 IM Libs

Do You IM? Survey  Not IRB Approved  647 Respondents / 95.3% in Libraries  89.8% were US residents

Our Work is Not Yet Done

Do You IM?  Are Librarians building networks of contacts via IM to work better?  Is this “community?”  What are the barriers?

“ Social aggregators that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace ” Rheingold, 1993

Building Community…  IM communication builds community between colleagues - 89% agree or somewhat agree  I feel like I'm part of the community of IMing librarians - 53% disagreed or somewhat disagreed

I live in a Bubble  I have IM contacts in libraries throughout my country on my Buddy List - 66% disagree  I have IM contacts in libraries all over the world on my Buddy List - 84% disagree

Benefits?  It's made it easier to communicate and to arrange meetings, carpools, etc.  I can discuss projects in real time with colleagues that are thousands of miles away or right down the road. It makes collaborating easier and opens up many doors.

IM has begun to build bridges across the traditional staff/faculty divide. Academic Librarian respondent

There is greater connection between us than before. Branch Librarian Respondent

Many librarians in my library system would like to use IM both for reference and for staff purposes. However, this library system is very reluctant to change and slow to respond to most new ideas. I feel very discouraged when I meet with professionals in other library systems that get to try new things.

Barriers: Intrusive  I don't use it. works just fine for me, without the intrusiveness of IM.  is much better, or the phone.

Barriers: Time  We are a small staff and don't have time to be confined to the computer

Barriers: IT Issues  Our City IT has forbidden its use for security reasons, so we rely on , phone, and face-to-face conversations to communicate and maintain relationships.

Barriers: Digital Divide at Work  Creates a digital divide, lots of LastGen librarians at MPOW who don't use it and are out of the loop.  I think IM in my public library is an example of the generation gap between staff members. We do not allow patrons to IM on library computers, and staff are not supposed to IM, either.

Our Work is Not yet Done!  More education  More case studies/ “stories”  A guide to librarian’s IM names on a wiki?  More discussion with key players  Examination of security issues