Comments on: Txt a Librarian

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By: theanalogdivide » Blog Archive » Adventures in Ubiquitous Technology

theanalogdivide » Blog Archive » Adventures in Ubiquitous Technology — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:55:19 +0000

[...] a few people have been discussing the potential for mobile phone-friendly services in the library. I’ve got a [...]

By: Adventures in Ubiquitous Technology « theanalogdivide

Adventures in Ubiquitous Technology « theanalogdivide — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:39:12 +0000

[...] 21, 2008 · No Comments Quite a few people have been discussing the potential for mobile phone-friendly services in the library. I’ve got a [...]

By: Maggie Jones

Maggie Jones — Sat, 17 May 2008 09:44:42 +0000

So who pays for it ? Libraries, at least here in the UK are underfunded as it is. It’s all very well for your billion dollar posh-boys schools, but in real life taxpayers will not stand for paying for something unless a majority of them will benefit. This seems like an expensive option, when face-to-face help is a kinder and often more productive experience. Do you text back for a clarification of what the person actually needs, or do you just text them the precise data for which they have asked, which may well not be what they really wanted to know ? How many times have you had someone coming in to ask for a book on, for instance, “Rome”, only to discover that the person is actually visiting the Vatican City and wants a guidebook. Texting may be a useful addition, but as for a libary being invisible without out it, dream on buddy.

By: royce

royce — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:36:11 +0000

Make sure to look up…don’t want to walk into any “invisible” libraries.

By: Joe Murphy

Joe Murphy — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:56:57 +0000

Thanks for sharing Laura, i love yr point about it being a gateway service. I know that would be true for me! Libraries that don’t offer texting are basically invisible to me.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:55:00 +0000

We started a similar service 9/07 and just got to share our results with our regional IT friends via NERCOMP… fun stuff. We just use a simple LGenV at this point, no internet on our phone… but we’ve gotten some great use out of it. I think this service is also a great gateway service, as it provides some folks who may not use other modes of communication with a librarian a nice segue. Then we’re not so scary… especially if we will actually answer the question you just asked… “what is the proper utensil for splitting an english muffin.” We’ve gotten some really great simple questions as well… “What is the best database for government information” or “Hi what database should I use if I want to search for a company’s business strategy, its mission statement, and similar topics?” but most recently it was the statement “Librarians are hot” that I truly enjoyed…

By: JJR

JJR — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:37:43 +0000

Yeah–let’s txt back the raw LC or Dewey call numbers of relevant resources… or cryptic ISBNs or OCLC nos…!! *evil grin*

or…if you have to give a more elaborate response to some txt ?’s

“Call Ref Dsk Now!”

“Wht iz ur email addr?”

“Can I fax u? Do u hav efax?”

“…Cm 2 Lib U idiot”

By: brian williams

brian williams — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:29:52 +0000

Very cool! The University of California, Irvine Libraries rolled out our campus wide “txt a librarian @ uci” pilot [affectionately known as “txt an anteater”) in January 2008. We use smart phones with unlimited internet and texting capability — ours is a truly mobile-research (m-research) service.

How will UCI’s large, diverse university community respond to a text based research initiative? We don’t know, but we hope the pilot exemplifies our best impulse to explore creative new ways of sharing our research expertise with our users.