Talk to Me! (but not face to face.) Thing 7, Web Communication tools

Thoughts about this Thing.

1. A lot of the e-mail productivity tools can be double-edged swords. They're pretty useful once you set them up, but they take time to set up. If I actually take the time to set my spam filters or Outlook rules, or to set up mailing lists, they do save time in the long run.
2. Maybe I'm showing my age, but IM's make me a little nervous. The lag in time always seems odd to me. I'm furiously typing away while someone's on the other end waiting for me to finish. Then I wait while they type their answer, wondering if they're still there (depending on the interface used). I've used "live chat" customer service forums and have found them to be frustrating because the time is not as "live" as I wish it would be. In libraries that use IM services, do they have someone manning the line full-time? Where does it fall in the realm of "what to do first"? E-mails can be answered at a convenient time, but people who want to IM need a reply right now. The article on this topic is interesting and considers some of these same drawbacks.
3. I can see SMS being useful for things like receiving library notices. My local library is still trying to figure out how to send my notices via e-mail, so although I think a lot of these tools have uses in certain circumstances, in a lot of areas we need to take smaller steps and not spend too much time catering to our young population at the expense of our older patrons who may not be familiar or comfortable with these technologies.
4. Web conferencing looks like it would solve a lot of the time and financial difficulties of professional development. Being able to record and watch later, and not having to travel to far-off locales could be really helpful. It could be especially useful for libraries in greater Minnesota, which are farther apart, and which generally have very small staffs making it difficult to take time away from the library for workshops.

I joined the 23things Google group. This looks very familiar to a Yahoo group I'm a member of. There are 10 of us in that group, and we send 50-100 messages between us daily. We have databases set up--addresses, birthdays, etc., and sections for file-sharing and photos. The Google Librarian group looks utterly useless. There are hardly any messages there and most of them are spam. A group is only as good as its users make it, so merely setting up a group doesn't make it successful. It takes some intensive work on the part of a few to get its momentum going. While the 23things group is interesting as far as seeing what's available, there are so many different things to join in these Things that we're being spread pretty thin as to where to put any comments we might have.