Library Aide in Nebraska

This past week I received an e-mail from Alvin White, a library aide in Nebraska and he wanted to talk with me about instant messaging because he read about me online. We arranged a time to talk on the phone and it was just great to read about his library and to see how involved he is with the library and moving it forward in this technological age. One thing that we discussed during the conversation is how libraries can use Flickr. I recommended that he take pictures of their advertisements and post them on Flickr, this will help with promotion and not just be a representation of the library events.

He told me that all the kids in his library are using hi5 and it seems to be bigger than myspace in his area. I told him to get the library a presence on hi5 and meet the users where they are.

Then we got to the instant messaging discussion. Since his library is a little short staffed, additional reference through instant messaging is probably not the best thing right now. It's great to think about for the future. It's really a fantastic way to meet users and help them get information, which is what libraries are all about. To see if you library has instant messaging, please go to www.imalibrarian.com