Thing 7

Email is ubiquitous, and how we do almost all communication across the system. IM is handy for reference, except that sometimes I don't log out when I leave the desk for lunch or breaks.

I've been using AOL Instant Messenger for a decade, and it took me this long to get sick enough of the third party applications it loads and the explosion of noisy ads it spawns to download AIM Ad Hack, which works like a charm. I'm not sure if it will actually get rid of things like Viewpoint if you already have them loaded, but I removed them first before downloading the new version of AIM.

And by 'removed,' I do mean cleaned them Very Carefully out of my registry.

Yahoo IM doesn't seem to come with that kind of advertising tornado. I just started using that about a year ago. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same, and you can import your AIM buddy list as well.

I've used Yahoo email for ten years, and Thunderbird on my home computer since I switched to Firefox as a browser a couple years ago. I can't remember what brand of email I had with IE.

I suspect it's a lot harder to do a good reference interview over IM. It's tough enough sometimes to coax the real question out of a patron standing in front of you! Certainly extra care is warranted.

I've only done a couple of web conferences/workshops, and I don't like them as much as when the trainer is really there . . . but it's got to be less costly!

I'll admit, I haven't used Twitter, but I'll have to read the articles, because I'm baffled as to how it can help libraries.