Communication-Web 2.0 Style
Way back when I was a kid......no, really, I spent almost every weekend on my friends' farm in central NY. There we had a wall unit landline, and somewhat like Morse Code, we had our own ring. If the phone rang once, no one made a move, because we had to wait until it rang again. If it rang in 2 short bursts,it was not our call. If it rang one long, one short, then it was okay to pick up. The only okay thing was that the one long,two shorts was my adopted "Aunt Katies" house, about 4 miles away, and she didn't mind if you listened in on her calls! It became incredibly confusing, however; when 2 more lines were added to the "party"...we basically just stopped answering the phone, because we were always confused. Soon after Ma Bell did away with the party line & all was normal.
Enter 2.0!
Do I now feel as confused as I was then? Cell phones,e-mails, IM, SMS....smoke signals. There is alot to learn about these things. I have used IM on Facebook, and I do like it. It really allows me to multitask at home, and lately I have been 'chatting' with friends I hadn't heard from in 20 years.
I am not a real telephone person, I talk when I have to, and to only a few people. I love my answering machine! Yes, I screen calls. I pay the bills, so I figure it's my perogative to answer or not. IM'ing feels different, maybe less intimate than voice communication, but conversely, more intimate, because you are free-er to write things you may not say out loud. (and yes,I understand the ramifications of that too)
I do not like texting by phone, as far as teens are concerned, I think it should be blocked from their phones. I believe it to be dangerous on many levels. And I cannot really abide by the abbreviations, because they creep into every day usage.
Using IM for library services.....hmmm.I am not sure how convenient this would be, you would have to have a multinetwork available, because not everyone uses the same communication services. It would probably work for reference questions,I think you could get more details out of a person if they could put their thoughts in writing, so to speak. And it would be relevant to a whole new generation of library users.
And finally.......Web Conferencing. I have not had a Webjunction webinar yet, but I do actually look forward to them. I have a few brief forays into online classes (audit) and this method was used. It's all a matter of making the time to do it without distractions. And my mind does tend to wander.
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