IM

My sister and I went to the same college in Oregon. The first year we were there together, I lived in an on campus apartment and she lived in a dorm room. If she wanted to talk to me, she would call my phone so I would go into my bedroom where my computer was then hang up before I answered. A few seconds later I would hear the familiar sound of someone starting a chat with me--it was almost always her. IM was the preferred form of communication on campus(and an excellent procrastination tool!). I also used it as way to keep in touch with family and friends who were in other areas of the country.

My one concern with text chat has always been that I am a horrible speller. I think most of my friends actually expect me to spell words wrong, so I don't worry about it much when chatting with them. But it would be a concern for me if I was chatting with someone I didn't know, like a patron.

I've found that I have been using IM less frequently in the last couple years. Part of the reason may be because most of my friends have "real jobs" now and all of us spend less time sitting at our personal computers for homework. But even my friends who are still in school are not logged on as much as they used to be. I think texting and comments on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook may be becoming more popular. That being said, I still think IM is valuable tool that libraries can use to connect with patrons.