THING 7

E-mail is only for OLD PEOPLE?!

Yesterday, I heard something at a pre-conference workshop "Beginner's Guide to Serving Teens" (PLA national conference in MN).

According to Amy Alessio, teen coordinator at Schaumburg Township District Library and Nick Buron, coordinator of YA Services for the Queens Library in NYC, IM (instant messaging) and text messaging have usurped e-mail.

Apparently, e-mail is not dynamic enough for young people. IM and text messaging (and cell phones, for that matter) seem sort of disruptive and distracting to me. I like quiet contemplation....without all that chitter/chatter.


SMELL the ROSES and the like.

Of course, if the IM use isn't all chitter/chatter, then it's ok by me. My best friend uses MSN IM to communicate with her colleagues in her city.
I talk to her that way sometimes too.

I like the idea of using software like SourceForge's "GAIM" that allow different IM services to be used from one window.

I think being a reference librarian who uses IM would be demanding. On the other hand, learning IM shorthand might be fun.

I have seen a few books of fiction that were written in IM and text messaging short hand. "LOL" seems pervasive and is probably being entered into dictionaries.

I don't know if all this fast communication will make us more or less literate. Getting information faster might help us make better decisions, but it might also be more time consuming because those of us who are bargain-hunters will spend so much time gathering evidence.

E-mail still has value because folks can communicate and respond at their own convenience. It works well for paperless documents and other business exchanges. It can be encrypted so it's more secure than IM.

I like e-mail for communicating with our library system's IT staff and to query other public librarians.

SKYPE seems like another kind of IM. It is a little more than IM, but a little less than video conferencing. I was at a meeting recently where someone in Canada was participating and listening to a meeting taking place in Central America! Very interesting.