IM Reference @ APL

Staff Training Presented by Marissa M. Priddis

Getting Started…

IM stands for Instant Message or Instant Messaging

BIGResearch tell us that almost 80% of 18-24-year-olds use Instant Messaging

IM is more popular than email or the telephone with the younger age bracket

Most folks use Yahoo, MSN, or AIM (AOL’s interface) to IM with each other

We’re going to be using an interface called “Trillian”

Trillian allows us to receive messages from Yahoo, MSN, and AIM users

You only have to use one interface, and learn one way to IM

To download Trillian to your own computer, go to www.trillian.cc and select the “Trillian Basic” choice

To start, click on the Trillian icon on the desktop of the computer

We’ve opened Trillian, but it’s not connected yet

Our username is : askalexandrian

We will set Trillian at the ASD desk to automatically login as askalexandrian

You can see all the contacts currently listed for our login

To connect at the beginning of the day, or disconnect at the end, simple click on…

Trillian > Connections > Global Reconnect/Disconnect

This will connect you to all our IM names (Yahoo, MSN, AIM)

Now that we’re connected, let’s look at the panel and see what we can find…

It’s important to note that APL staff will appear in the Trillian contact list for askalexandrian, but our patrons will not. We will not be adding patrons to our contact list (otherwise known as a “buddy list”). They can add us, but we want to keep Trillian’s contacts just for staff.

Let’s send a message to Carrie… Double click on her name, and a box will appear

to type in your message.

Type in what you want to say in the bottom box, and then you can either hit “enter” or click “send” with the mouse.

After sending the message, it will pop up on Carrie’s screen. IM will keep every line sent via the IM conversation in chronological order.

After receiving the message, Carrie will compose a reply and send it back the same way you sent yours.

Carrie has written a response, and it appears in the top box. Each user will be a different color to make it easier to read.

Our response back to Carrie…

What happens if someone else initiates the IM?

You can always minimize Trillian into the tray and still have it running…

Things to Remember about Reference IM @ APL… The ASD Reference Desk will be the

primary host of IM Reference. We will be offering IM Reference on

Monday – Thursday from 3-7pm. Just like every other reference transaction,

be sure to prioritize IMs with in-person and telephone questions.

More Things to Remember…

We will have a small tally sheet in the reference binder – please mark it if you have a IM Reference interaction.

We won’t answer medical, legal or complex questions (like a family history question) via IM.

The website about our IM services is here: http://www.apl.lib.in.us/im.html

Still More Things to Remember…

Staff are welcome to download Trillian onto their terminals, set up a username, and use it for inter-staff communication.

When you receive an IM, be sure to answer promptly. If you are assisting another patron, simply type that you will be with them in a moment…

You can send URLs and files via IM. Linking patrons to an online source is a great way to answer a question!

IM Etiquette…

IM users tend to worry less about punctuation, capital letters or the occasional misspelled word. Do not be offended by this type of language!

IM is very casual compared to face to face. Some convos you might receive are… “Are you a real person?”… “Wanna chat?”… “Is anybody there?”

Just answer professionally, quickly and courteously – just like in person or on the phone!

IM Etiquette…

Remember that IMers can’t hear the tone of your voice, so be careful how you word responses…

“Hi, can I help you?” instead of “What?” A lot of initial contacts will be folks just

finding out if you are approachable – just be your usual professional self!

Typical Shortcuts… Most IMers use truncated language/abbreviations online to save

time and typed letters. Here are the most common ones used: BRB -- Be right back

CYA -- See you around, See yaGR8 -- Great! H8 -- Hate IMO -- In my opinion IOW -- In other words IRL -- In real lifeLMAO -- Laugh my a** off LOL -- Laughing out loud L8r -- Later NP - No problemPLS - PleaseROFL -- Rolling on the floor laughing Thx -- Thanks Tks -- ThanksTTYL -- Talk to you laterWB -- Welcome Back XLNT – ExcellentYR – Your

Final Thoughts… Please don’t forget to log on and off each day! Ask if you have questions, or want to “practice

IMing” with someone For the time being, we will allow computer

reservations to be made via IM. Our askalexandrian username can only be

logged in at one computer at a time – be sure to coordinate if you are going to IM from a different desk (YSD one night instead of ASD, for example)

Have fun!