If Feed be the Music of Chat, Play On!
After reading John Batelle’s post about an IM/RSS/publishing mashup, I got to wondering if there’s some way in which libraries can take advantage of this kind of software collage.
Many libraries (although, sadly, not mine) are using IM for reference and other patron-librarian communications. Many libraries (although, again, not mine) are providing RSS feeds for their patrons–from blogs, the library catalog, and so on and so forth. I don’t think it would suit libraries to have chat bots like Batelle writes about. Patrons need to interact with real, live librarians, even it is by way of digital communications. But we will call a patron back if a phone-in reference question is taking too long. Could we also provide RSS feeds via IM to give patrons new information?
This post is all about the rhetorical questions, obviously. This isn’t something that will happen (certainly not at my library) on the immediate flip side of December 31st. But it’s something to let buzz around my noggin.
