Why is L-net telling Oregon libraries about Instant Messaging?

Making sure that L-net is effective means that we must keep up both with the technology and the literature in our field. A growing number of libraries are offering instant messaging services and even more are talking about it. We've learned a lot about IM and think that it is important to share with the Oregon library community.

There are already dozens of articles, blog postings and presentations that have discussed IM in libraries, but none of them seem complete to us. We are attempting to help fill that gap by giving a general overview of IM in libraries and by offering practical strategies for addressing concerns that library administrators and IT departments might have.

L-net IM team
August 11, 2006

Valery King, Oregon State University
Steve Roskoski, Multnomah County Library
Caleb Tucker-Raymond, Multnomah County Library