Article published in the coming ASEE Annual

Well I have an article that is being published in the upcoming 2009 ASEE Annual conference in Austin Texas. It is in print.

Wilson, E.M. (2009) Academic Library Internet Information Provision Model:
Using Toolbars and Web 2.0 Applications to Augment Subject Reference.
Proceedings of the 2009 American Society for Engineering Annual Conference
& Exposition, Austin, TX. ASEE, Washington. Paper 471.

The paper touches on the way that academic libraries are delivering information on the Internet. It then goes on to examine additional tools and resources that we can use as librarians to make research easier.

Phone Reference + Internet Based Chat = Sublime

I have been using Meebo as a chat client for over a year now to handle engineering and other subject related reference. One trick that I have added to my web 2.0 arsenal is using a two-edged, phone + chat, approach to reference:

Lets say I get a phone call or am handling general reference at our reference desk and get a phone call there. If I need to get a lot of information to the caller, and it just does not seem that telling them what or where the information is located is not working so well, then I will ask them to go to my profile here at the library on their computer. I then get them to scroll about halfway down the page and I can then send them textual information, web-links to information or databases. This phone-chat hybrid reference is a dynamite combination for explaining hard concepts or difficult situations.

I find that too often we spend a lot of time talking to people, who are already on the Internet, trying to point them to specific web-pages, waiting for them to get everything correct, spelling out web addresses, etc. It is much easier to just hand them the link that they need via the use of a chat client. We can give them more accessible information and do a better job of steering them to what they want this way. It seems less confusing. :)