Thing 6

I've jumped from thing 2 to 6! I'll go back to the others at a later time. Circulation has selected 9 "things" that are most important for the department. Communications tools are of great importance. E-mail is definitely the dominant communication tool used by the library. In circ. we use e-mail to get important information to the entire department. It has been very important recently keeping track of the changes with holds. E-mail is also the way committees communicate and they way we get library-wide messages.

I haven't actively used IM for a several years now. When IM first became popular, I used it a lot during college to communicate with my friends and family in different cities.
The previous library I worked at, used IM for reference and circulation services. In circulation, it was easy to leave unattended when we got busy. IM might be useful in certain libraries, but every library situation is different so it would depend on if there was a need or demand. Also in the case of virtual reference, I would think that off desk time might need to be given in order to dedicate time to questions and the service. I have used online reference on a few occasions through the IU libraries and found it easy to use and convenient to get information from home.
Within the library, I can see it being useful to get messages between departments or between the different areas of circulation. Sometimes it's difficult to answer the phone, while helping a patron. An IM wouldn't be so distracting and I wouldn't feel like I was interupting the patron to answer the phone.