Method 9

I've chatted before. It's why I can type fast now...kinda sad.

I think AIM was the easiest chat for me until I started using Meebo. Gmail is ok, I like that you can email a person if they're not on to chat. MSN is the one I like the least, but that's probably because no one I know is ever on that one! Yahoo is ok. I like that Yahoo and Gmail have the little chat box right there. The chatting was pretty easy on all of them once you had someone to talk to...

We currently use Pidgin for chat at one of my libraries and Meebo for the other. There are pros/cons to each of them.
Pidgin - popup boxes, don't need to open a browser to change status/IM, sounds, chat logs
Meebo - IM notifyer - popup box that doesn't go away on bottom
I'm glad we switched to Pidgin. We can still use Meebo's widget because Pidgin has a meebo plugin.

It was nice to read all the cool ways libraries are using the meebo widget. I hope that we might start using the widget that way. I really like putting a chatbox at a No Results catalog screen and for EZ Proxy login failure. I think that would help a lot.

One thing that was interesting that was mentioned was how users would use the widget. I have not received many wastes of time via IM - only one that I can remember. Sometimes, I like to surprise the ref desk while I am instructing a class by telling the class to IM the ref librarian (using their name)...this is awesome because they will see how it works AND its funny to watch the ref librarian's head shoot up to look at us. Always awesome.

Some of the messengers have a feature that will save messages from users when you're offline. We have a little blurb telling them to leave their contact info so that we can get back to them when we open.