Presented by: Kathryn Courtland Millis and Tiffany Hebb
Students regularly use a variety of chat programs with their friends: AOL, MSN,
Yahoo, etc. DePauw University librarians use a freeware program, Trillian, to
help students no matter what program they use. By doing so, we meet the students
on their own e-turf. They don’t have to download and learn yet one more piece of
software to get our help.
Trillian is a freeware program that enables the user to log into multiple chat
clients and accounts simultaneously. This means we can chat online with students
who are using AOL, MSN, and Yahoo, while we’re logged into only one interface,
instead of all three. This creates an easy opportunity for us to provide
point-of-need reference assistance to students in a way that’s convenient,
familiar, and meaningful for them.
While there are several extensive specialized virtual reference software
programs available, they’re expensive, especially for small, residential
colleges such as DePauw, where the amount of use would not justify the cost.
Additionally, they require students to do the work of learning another program.
Because we use Trillian, each student uses the interface with which they’re
already comfortable. The student sees and uses the exact same thing they always
do when chatting with their friends. And we too use only one program, Trillian,
whether we're helping someone via AOL, MSN, or Yahoo. We only have to be fluent
with one program, not all three.
Our electronic poster shows how we use Trillian to provide reference and
research assistance to our students, faculty, and staff and to communicate with
out colleagues in and beyond the DePauw Libraries.
Link to Trillian website - http://www.trillian.cc
The information (including content and links) in this guide will not likely be updated after the time of the presentation. Please contact the presenter(s) with any questions.
At the IHETS / IPSE conference, in addition to our
presentation above, we had information about how to:
• download and install Trillian
• set up chat accounts with AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and other chat providers
• manage multiple accounts coming from the same provider (for instance, a
general reference account, and personal accounts for each librarian)
• manage address lists of students who've asked for help, library staff, etc.
• market and promote the service to students, faculty, and staff
• communicate instantly and without cost with librarians and colleagues at other
institutions
• harvest information (such as times most questions are asked, and the types of
questions posed)
Pew
Internet & American Life Project: How Americans Use Instant Messaging
(2004)
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Instantmessage_Report.pdf
“Instant
Messaging by American College Students: A Case Study in
Computer-Mediated Communication”
Naomi S. Baron
nbaron@american.edu
Many articles on chat report that its users rely heavily on
abbreviations, acronyms, & shortened versions of words (e.g., "c u ltr"
for "see you later."). Librarians, faculty, & others in higher education
may not be comfortable communicating this way, & hesitant to chat. But
Baron reports that college students use little of these when chatting -
they're found more among high school chatters.
n
“Undergraduate
Research Behavior: Using Focus Groups to Generate
Theory,”
Valentine, Barbara, Journal of Academic Librarianship, 00991333, Nov93,
Vol. 19, Issue 5
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&an=9407125746
(available from Ebsco by subscription to
Professional Development Collection)
Includes an interesting section on how students select research
tools, often picking resources they're already familiar with, or asking
friends & acquaintances for help. We hope that by providing chat help,
we can join their circle of readily accessible acquaintances, &
consequently get asked for help by students who would otherwise ask
someone else.
