Thing #8

Communicate your thoughts on these tools in this communication tool--your blog!
Describe how your library uses email. Has it improved productivity?

I love email! It makes my life easier. The older I get the more I like to have reference questions in front of me. As I get pulled away I can return to what I was doing more quickly.

I can also write down some initial thoughts and save them as drafts and come back to them and fill them in when I have time.

When I'm talking to someone and they ask me a question I'm afraid I'll forget I ask them to email me. Most people are fine with that and then I don't wrack my brain trying to remember what they asked me.

I love that I can take one response and send it to a bunch of people so I don't have to keep repeating myself. It saves time.

I can save emails so I can look back and find information by the sender or keyword or date - much better than my filing cabinet!

I also like the fact that I can respond at my convenience whether it's at 7am or 11pm. I can get the information I need and then respond to the email.

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?

I am not an avid user of chat.

I've had a couple of chat buddies and I find it somewhat intrusive. I'll be working on something hot and heavy and then this window pops open and I find myself on a tangent. It's distraction to me.

In one of the articles we read it mentioned that you have to be a multitasker to enjoy chat. I am a multitasker, but I guess I like working on my tasks at my speed. I don't enjoy unexpected tasks that require my immediate attention.

Which leads me to an unexpected, but I think related phenomenon. I do not like the phone as much anymore. I used to enjoy it, but now many times I find it irritating and distracting. I like to focus on the task at hand. I think that somewhere between email and TIVO we have become an "on my schedule" generation. Thank God for voicemail!

Okay, Brad asked me to monitor the Meebo and so far it's been fun. I have the volume turned up so I can hear when one of you dings me. It's pretty funny to have conversations with anonymous people. If it were with the general public I think it could get creepy, but we're all friends here.

I guess what I'm finding is when it's for fun I like it. But when I'm focusing on something I'd rather have it turned off.

Which web conference (Webinar) did you attend? How was it? What do you think of this communication tool?

In the past I attended webinars with vendors and webinars at work. What I realized is it can be hard to get a word in edgewise. It also takes a long time to get started - everyone is introduced and seems to feel the need to say something witty.
When you have a number of people at one site sitting together they start making faces and gesturing to each other (maybe that was just my site:)

I am now listening to an archived webinar on interesting books for reluctant readers which I am enjoying. I am alone and it is not live. I like it!