In class we had a guest speaker. Her name is Karen Reiman-Sendi and is
the director of User Information and Discovery Services at our university’s
library. I thought that I would be hearing about stuff I already know about,
but I didn’t. She gave a presentation about reference librarianship concerning
virtual chat.
One thing a classmate asked was
why live chat is so expensive. Karen said that the cost was because of
technology, and not labor cost. And it can even more expensive for libraries
when companies merge, because they then hike up their prices to pay for the
merge. Companies that offer libraries software tools are akin to database
companies. They’re in it to get rich and not for the actual service, unlike
some software tools or databases that were created by librarians. I think the
price is ridiculous though, especially since the money doesn’t go towards labor
cost. So the computer is now alive and it needs a wage too? This has been
happening much more frequently, and it shouldn’t. I understand a company might
need to save money up in case the technology breaks, but that doesn’t happen
very often, so the price they are charging is ridiculous.
I also learned that there was a difference at one time between live chat
and instant messaging. I was reading about it in the “Conducting a Reference
Interview” book and couldn’t figure out how they are not the same thing. So I
raised my hand in class to ask this question. Karen explained that live chat
involved downloading software and paying for it whereas instant messaging was
using free services like Aim (those were the days). Now most people consider
them the same thing. And why wouldn’t they be considered the same thing? Live
chat means you are there chatting right now in the moment and that’s exactly
what instant messaging is too. And you type on a keyboard for both.
I’ve realized recently that virtual chat can also be a big pain in the
butt. The other day, my librarian coworkers were getting pranked on chat. They
all said the same thing “What are you doing tonight?” yet the IP Addresses all
came from different places. It makes me think that someone is a hacker and can
maybe change their IP or something. It was bizarre. They were also rude. One of
them put their name as “Get a life (insert librarian’s name here)!” and used
foul language. The librarians remained very professional despite the
ridiculousness. If I had been on there, I would have wanted to play their game
and tell them that I was digging a grave, and ask if they wanted to help me. The
problem about that is that they can see my full name, so if they are really
awful individuals, I wouldn’t put it past them to report me for saying something
like that although I’m just saying nonsense back to them.
I was interested in the distinction between paid vendor virtual reference and free IM service. Although many free IM services are available these days, there seem to be some real advantages to the vendor platforms even when you don't consider the added features like page-pushing and analytics. I think having the added authority of it not being just a Google Hangout like you might use informally with a friend is an advantage, as is the ability for a consortium to re-route messages to whoever is on shift in the network. The price hikes are a huge drag though, don't know what to do about that except advocate a more competitive marketplace.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that all kinds of reference could be seen as one big pain; a person comes and interrupts my other work asking me questions. What prevents this is that reference service is someones job and like all jobs, it can sometimes be difficult. I believe it is important to focus on the positive and brainstorm ideas on how to only field legitimate queries. I agree it can be difficult when someone abuses the system, but a trained professional is generally able to handle the situation. All in all it is their professionalism and training that allows them to do more good than bad.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Nicco and you in terms of finding the difference between instant messaging and live chat interesting. I didn't really understand the difference fully in class so I am very thankful for your written summary and analysis here. Price wise I don't know what to do either. I know with pharmaceutical companies drugs are priced higher in order to fund future research and development but still the cost is too steep and is for profit. Perhaps it is a similar situation? The again I'm inclined to think like you that these are for-profit companies so of course turning a profit is important to them at the expense of the customer.
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