Getting the Message

I remember when I first discovered Instant Messaging. It was back in its infancy, and I first saw it in action on my friend's computer in NYC, where she used it to communicate with various family and friends. I set up an account so that I could communicate with her, obediently filling in all the personal details that were requested of me for my profile.

At first it was fun, to be able to quickly chat back and forth without having to pay costly telephone bills to the other side of the country. A couple more friends were added to the mix, and some of the conversations would go on for hours. But then, suddenly, I kept getting all these requests from strangers, who would read my profile and want to chat. Some of them were ok. I recall having a long, interesting conversation with a man in France, for example (or at least that's where he said he was from ;) ). But far too many of the requests were ending up being from lonely men in Africa or the middle east, looking for female companionship. And were being non-too-subtle about it. While amusing at first, it got old. I finally ended up leaving the damn thing off all of the time because I was so sick of getting bugged, and finally uninstalled it. But some of the vocabulary has crept into my subconscious, and I am regularly using it on chat boards and in other communications. IYKWIM. LOL

But I can see how it can be a wonderful tool for quick sharing of information. Recently when I was having some issues with my printer at home, I had a couple of IM chats with a tech rep from the company, who walked me through various processes for repair. It was great. I can definitely see how this could be very useful in the library realm for quick, confidential communication with customers. IMing could also serve a useful purpose for communication within a branch. I could see how it could be used by one staff member to perhaps warn another of a potentially dangerous situation so that it could be swiftly and discreetly dealt with.

And if a staff member observes a colleague who has again been trapped by that well-meaning but long-winded customer who never seems to know when it might be a good time to be on their way, it could be useful in staging an intervention. :)