Instant Messaging Trends & Practice

Instant Messaging Trends & Practice NEBASE Annual Meeting West October 4, 2007 Susan Knisely Online Services Librarian Nebraska Library Commission

What is Instant Messaging? “ Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via computers connected over a network such as the Internet.” -- from Wikipedia

A Live Example! http:// webmessenger.yahoo.com

Pew Report: How Americans use instant messaging (2004) Who uses IM? How often? 42% of Internet users—more than 53 million American adults—reported using instant messaging. 36% of IM users said they used IM every day. 63% said they used IM at least several times a week.

Pew Internet & American Life Project Tracking Survey (2004) IM usage by age group Based on Internet users: 29% After Work (ages 69+, born 1935 or earlier) 25% Matures (ages 59-68, born 1936-1945) 29% Leading Boomers (ages 50-58, born 1946-1954) 33% Trailing Boomers (ages 40-49, born 1955-1964) 37% Gen X (ages 28-39, born 1965-1976) 62% Gen Y (ages 18-27, born 1977 or later)

AOL’s Third Annual Instant Messaging Survey (2005) IM vs. Email Thirty-eight percent (38%) of IM users said they send more IMs than emails. Two-thirds (66%) of teens and young adults (ages 13-21) said they send more IMs than emails.

AOL’s Third Annual Instant Messaging Survey (2005) IM at work 26% of employed instant messaging (IM) users said they use IM in the workplace. 77% of these at-work IM users feel that IM has had a positive impact on their work lives.

AOL’s Third Annual Instant Messaging Survey (2005) How do people use IM at work? Communicate with colleagues: 58% Get a quick answer on a business matter: 49% Communicate with clients or customers: 28% Exchange files: 25% Send and receive information while on a conference call: 24% Say things they wouldn’t document in email: 23% Check in with kids after school: 22%

Pew Report: Teens and Technology (2005) Teens & IM 75% of online teens – or about two-thirds of all teenagers – use instant messaging. 29% of teens who use IM or text messaging will use it to communicate with their parents. 78% of teens who use IM said they used it to talk about homework, tests, or school work. “ Email is something you use to talk to old people.”

National School Boards Association Report: Creating & Connecting (2007) What do teens talk about? 59% say they talk about education-related topics, including college or college planning; learning outside of school; news; careers or jobs; politics, ideas, religion or morals; and schoolwork 50% say they talk specifically about schoolwork

Recommendation: “… social networking is increasingly used as a communications and collaboration tool of choice in businesses and higher education. As such, it would be wise for schools, whose responsibility it is to prepare students to transition to adult life with the skills they need to succeed in both arenas, to reckon with it.” National School Boards Association Report: Creating & Connecting (2007) Social Networking in Schools

Recommendation: “ It’s important for policymakers to see and try out the kinds of creative communications and collaboration tools that students are using – so that their perceptions and decisions about these tools are based on real experiences.” National School Boards Association Report: Creating & Connecting (2007) Social Networking in Schools

How do libraries & librarians use IM? Librarians are using IM to communicate with coworkers in their own library to network and collaborate with colleagues in other libraries See Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki for a list of Librarians who IM Libraries are offering IM reference service See Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki for a list of libraries using IM for reference

Reasons libraries use IM Instant messaging is free (minus staff time) Millions of our patrons use IM every day For some, not being available via IM is like not having a telephone number Staff can communicate in-house using IM IM is user-centered and builds relationships with library users From Aaron Schmidt’s “10 points on IM in libraries” www.walkingpaper.org/212

Chicago Tribune Article (9/13/07) Channick, Robert. “Libraries using IMs to attract young clients” Chicago Tribune , September 13, 2007. "I think we're getting people who wouldn't be using the library if they didn't use this method.“ --Bill Pardue, Virtual Services Librarian Arlington Heights Memorial Library

IM @ NLC Network Services NebraskAccess on AIM, Google, MSN, & Yahoo! Promoted on NebraskAccess Comments form Used primarily in-house and with colleagues at other networks Information Services (Reference) AskNELibCom on AIM, Google, MSN, & Yahoo! Promoted on Ask A Librarian page Meebo Me Widget *

“ AskNELibCom” Experience IM reference service debuted in December 2006. Service has not been actively promoted. Users find it via “Ask A Librarian” links on NLC and Nebraska.gov websites. Averages 13.5 IMs per month. Most users are looking for state government information. Very few have self-identified as librarians. No inappropriate IMs; some “Are you real?”

Meeting Users at their Point of Need http:// nebraska.gov http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/docs/needhelp.html

Meeting Users at their Point of Need “ If the library is on [a patron’s] buddy list, it just takes a single click to contact the library. This puts the library into the patron’s world rather than requiring the patron to go to the library’s Web site and use an unfamiliar service” (158-59) Meredith Farkas Social Software in Libraries

Steps to get you started Step 1: Create a free IM account Step 2: Find some IM buddies and practice: Friends or family who already IM Other librarians in your library or system NLC librarians Step 3: Once you’re comfortable with IM, start brainstorming its place in your library!

Popular + Free IM Services AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) http://www.aim.com/ (client) http://aimexpress.aim.com/ (web-based) Windows Live Messenger http://messenger.msn.com/Download/ (client) http://webmessenger.msn.com/ (web-based) Yahoo! Messenger http://messenger.yahoo.com/ (client) http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/ (web-based) Gmail http://mail.google.com (web-based)

Buddy List Most IM programs let you add the screen names of people you IM regularly to a Buddy List. Your Buddy List usually shows which of your buddies are online and logged into the instant messaging program at any given time.

Away Messages Use “Away Messages” to let people know when you may be temporarily unavailable to respond to IMs. Most services include several standard messages and also let you create your own. Examples: Busy Stepped Out Be Right Back On Phone

IM culture Use frequent, shorter messages Don’t worry about typos or misspelling Capitalization and punctuation are optional Learn some of the abbreviations: LOL – laugh out loud BRB – be right back AFK – away from keyboard BTW – by the way http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_slang_phrases

Compatibility Issues Problem: IM services that don’t “talk” to each other. Solution: Create accounts on multiple IM services. Login to all accounts at once. Downside = multiple windows. Use IM aggregator software to monitor multiple IM accounts through one interface.

IM Aggregator Software Trillian: http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ Pidgin: http://www.pidgin.im Meebo: http://www.meebo.com Web-based! Nothing to install! Works even if IM is blocked Used by NLC staff Lets you login to and monitor multiple IM accounts through one client. Examples include:

Meebo Me Widget Easy-to-create chat window you can add to your web site. Visitors can see at a glance if you are available to chat. Visitors can chat with you in real time without logging in to an IM account. http://www.meebome.com

Questions? Susan Knisely [email_address] 800-307-2665 (in-state) / 402-471-3849 AIM/Google: nlcsusank MSN/Yahoo!: nlcsusan

Bibliography AOL’s Third Annual Instant Messaging Survey www.aim.com/survey/ Creating & Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social – and Educational – Networking, NSBA, July 2007 www.nsba.org/site/docs/41400/41340.pdf How Americans use instant messaging. Pew Internet & American Life Project, September 1, 2004 www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/133/report_display.asp Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki www.libsuccess.org Pew Internet & American Life Project Tracking Survey, February 2004. www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/43/dataset_display.asp Teens and Technology . Pew Internet & American Life Project, July 27, 2005 www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/162/report_display.asp

Instant Messaging Trends & Practice

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