Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Chatting

Another day, another Blue 2.0 assignment.

I'm very attached to my chat services, though I've never used a service like Meebo before to consolidate my accounts, which can be rather convenient. During middle and high school I primarily used MSN Messenger, then added AIM when I went to college and found that most of my friends there were already using that service provider.

While my college friends have mostly changed over to Facebook contacts as I no longer see them every day or have similar work and play schedules, my high school friends and family chat with me often. I also love to answer chat questions at the Young Reference Desk because I'm a fairly fast typist and often have an easier time explaining to someone what they need to do while typing rather than talking on the telephone. It's also something I prefer because I don't have to balance a phone on my shoulder while trying to answer a chat question.

I worked in the Library Development section of the Missouri State Library this past summer, where Windows Chat formed a large part of office communications for those situated on different floors or who just needed to check something with someone else really quickly. It was easy to just send off an IM and keep working while waiting for a response. Since the chat was also linked to office and personal Outlook calendars, you'd also know if the person you were looking for was in a meeting and would be assured a response without spending half the day trying to hunt them down inside the building.

Overall, I like chat best for inter-office communication. To me, it's often easier than trying to walk or call around to find someone. While it can be good for reference questions, sometimes it is easier to just ask the person to email or call instead and pick up the question on a faster medium, but it's also easier to multi-task while answering chat questions.

There are definite positives and negatives, but overall I'm comfortable chatting.

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