Thing 7

Describe how your library uses email. Has it improved productivity?

Well, yes. I'm in a huge library system and we often collaborate with one and other on programming, policy and training. We also sub for each other and receive system wide alerts. We'd be lost without it. LOST.

Does it sometimes waste our time? ...sometimes...we email each other silly pictures and the like. But that creates and fosters good working relationships and a playful work atmosphere, and it certainly hasn't stopped us from creating and working in a very exciting urban library hub! Anyways, how else am I going to get hilarious pictures of wet cats?

Also, I can email information for patron's to use at home. That's very helpful for me, and for my thankful customers.

Share your thoughts on online reference using some of the other Web 2.0 communication tools.
Are you an active user of text messaging, IM, or other communication tools?

OH! I used to IM, but dropped it pretty much after my "single status" moved to "seeing someone," and then "boyfriend-girlfriend" and now "soon to married." My social life is a little less hectic now that I can just talk to my most recent crush...as he is at the other side of the couch! If I were still single, or working in a place where we fielded IM questions, I have no doubt I'd still be using it. We are connected to coworkers in an IM network, but I usually use that to say howdy to folks at other branches whom I haven't seen in a while. I can only recall one time where IMing was more useful to me than the phone or email when connecting to another coworker. We had a tresspassed individual come into our branch, I quickly and quietly requested the customer's name from a librarian who was at the initial trespassing, fifteen miles away. Very modern Dragnet!

Also, during Library school, we held an online class discussion on a day when we were snowed out. Because we students had already spent so much time together, it worked out really well. I would defiantly do it again in such a situation. I wonder if the event would have gone as well if we had never previously met.

Which OPAL or MINITEX Web conference (Webinar) did you attend? How was it? What do you think of this communication tool?

I visited the OPAL conferences. I do think they're cool. I imagine this would be a really great resource for a librarian working in a small library or a small system who doesn't have the same level of collaboration or programming as I am fortunate to have in my own system. I often feel like the opportunities I have are more than I can reasonably handle. I sometimes have that, "someday I'm going to work in a tiny lake community library and fish for my breakfast and pick berries fantasy." I will certainly be glad to have this as a tool for staying current. I'm glad that these kinds of resources give everyone in the library community an opportunity to thrive and grow, even if they have a more limited budget than some of us big guys.

I noticed they collaborate a lot with second life...I'll admit to having a second-life avatar, but I'll also admit to only using it one time. My bad? I don't know, I prefer a nice real-life conference, where I can shake hands and eat mini-muffins and coffee from a big carafe. That isn't very 2.0 of me, but I'm happy to have that one fuddy-duddy opinion. Sometimes, I think my peers think I'm all 2.0. That clearly isn't the case.