Week 12 IM Instant Messaging

I created an account with Yahoo Messenger with the address jaluddy@yahoo.com I played around with adding addresses of family and school colleagues. It wasn't as easy as I had thought. I need to go back and work with it again. With schools on vacation, it will take a while to connect with colleagues.
Then I established an account using Meebo. I found this process much easier to navigate. I used Meebo to link to the Yahoo account and my new Facebook page.
I used the help pages to learn about widgets. I created one but have had problems working with it. For both Yahoo Messenger and meebo, my computer blocks pop-ups which I find out later were important. This is the link to meebo but I am guessing that it is not the widget. http://www.meebo.com/ Something else that I will need to play with.
I thought that the articles about IMing and texting as tools for reference services expanded my awareness of how these new applications can be used. I was suprised that public libraries tell email reference patrons that they have to wait 24-48 hours for an answer. Back in the Dark Ages when I did telephone reference, we had to reply to the patron before the end of the day, even if to say that we were working on the question. I guess that with email the number of questions per day has greatly increased. With that situation, using meebo to manage questions from many patron IM formats makes sense. Libraries need to stay current with the information seeking styles of younger patrons.
I shall keep checking my blog and the other 23 to see if IM communications occur. In the meantime I will keep playing with Yahoo Messenger and meebo.