Text Messaging the Library

At the Roanoke County Public Library, we are just beginning chat reference. There is another option for getting reference questions too: text reference. This is where patrons can send messages to the reference desk by setting a text on their cell phone.

Keith Weimer, a librarian at the University of Virginia, has been involved in the text reference service at UVA and gave a presentation on the service at the 2008 Virginia Library Association Conference.

The system has been getting a fair amount of use. The system received 126 text messages from March 15 to October 4. Many of the questions they get are circulation related such as how to renew items and how to access databases. They have had a few reference questions.

Alan

See What Reference People Read.

Some Questions of the Day

Where can I find the poems of Poe? Where can I find information about the concept of chivalry? How do I add songs to an IPod playlist? Why won't my printer work?

The Solution to our Economic Problems

According to history professor Woody Holton (yes he is the son of former VA governor Linwood Holton), when the Constitutional Convention occurred in 1787, the economic situation was very much as it is now. There was a recession and nobody wanted to lend money.

James Madison thought we should crack down on debtors and taxpayers to solve the problem. Some said the U.S. was in a recession then because taxes were too high. In fact, taxes were higher than they were under British rule. Sounds like that scheme to avoid paying taxes didn't work very well (Alan's opinion).

Holton also talked about the how American Revolution war soldiers were payed with bonds. According to Holton, investors made a lot of money buying these bonds from soldiers at a low price and selling them later at a higher price.

Holton had a hard time finding a concrete example of someone who benefited in a big way from this bond investment scheme until he uncovered records of the activies of a woman name Abigail Adams. Yes, the Abigail Adams married to the beer manufacturer Samuel Adams.

Sorry, my mistake. She was married to John Adams who became the second U.S. president.

Some of the revolutionary war soldiers got so little money for their bonds, all they could buy after selling them was a set of new clothes and transportation home at the end of the war. Holton is currently writing a book about these bond sales called Abigail Adams, Entrepreneur.

Did the founding fathers think the U.S. was too democratic?

Woody Holton, a history professor at the University of Richmond, gave the keynote address at the Virginia Library Association 2008 conference on this topic. He claims that the founding fathers thought the U.S. was too democratic and they got together in 1787 to hold the Continental congress to make it less so.

Pennsylvania (PA) was an illustration of this problem. In 1787, PA had only 1 governing body rather than 2 (such as a house and a senate). PA had no governor and they had elections every year. Since most of the residents of PA were farmers and the state was so democratic, much of the laws were designed to benefit the farmers for instance making it difficult to get your money back if you loaned it to a farmer. On the other hand, these laws made things harder for people who weren't farmers such as the money lenders.

If you are interested in reading more about this, read Holton's book Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution.

Improving Customer Service with Mobile Communication

Jeff Crisci of Vocera Communications gave a presentation on this subject at the 2008 Virginia Library Association Conference. He is a representative for Vocera which created a markets a mobile communication system for staff. Their system is in about 500 hospitals and some libraries, most notably the Columbus Metro Library in Columbus, OH.

Jeff claims that you can serve more patrons without paying more money for staff time using this system. With the system, staff carry badges around their necks.

In order to communicate with someone in the building, you push a button on the badge, say "Call David" and the system will put you in touch with David. It is all done with voice commands. You hands are freee to do other things. You can call groups of people too. For instance, if the library director wanted to tell all the staff something at one time, she could speak the command to send the message to everybody and it would be sent.

The main advantage of the Vocera system is every staff member would have their own communication device with them at all times. If the pages are in the back of the library and the circulation desk needs them at the desk, they could call them directly.

If someone comes to the reference desk and has a question for a particular staff member, the question could be relayed to the staff member no matter where they were. If the staff member was in the lounge they could be contacted directly and the staff member could continue to eat lunch while they respond to the call because the system is hands free. Of course, they couldn't chew and talk at the same time, but you get the idea.

Another application would be to place a call button on patron computers that would be linked to staff badges. The patron could push the button and talk directly to a staff member. This would be especially helpful to communicate between patrons in a computer lab that is not close to a desk.

The Vocera system can communicate with the current phone system and works over an existing Wi-Fi network. The system should allow for more efficient use of staff. The system is a bit expensive though with a price beginning at about $10,000.

Alan

We Can Share Files!

In a very early post, I mentioned the use of Box.net. It's a free, online file storage service. Now they provide a widget that can be added to any site. It will allow users to easily download any files you wish to share. If you want your own widget, follow that link from within our widget to get started.