I have been wanting to add IM (Meebo) to our website ever since I learned about it but have yet to work at a library willing to do so. I just read this fantastic idea on the ALA Techsource Blog which was posted by Michael Stephens earlier this year. WOW! Now I really, really want to do it and I want to do it all over our County on all kinds of websites ;0)
“Steve Butzel from Nashua Public Library in Nashua, NH wrote to me this week about my article in the current issue of Computers in Libraries entitled Embedding a Librarian in Your Web Site Using Meebo. Pondering how easy it is to embed a librarian IM widget in a web page, Steve was surely muse-inspired when he emailed:
“I have been toying around with adding a Meebo widget to our reference department web page, and we are soon going to add it to our Teen Services page. I am also exploring the possibility of putting our Meebo widget on other sites in cyberspace, for example, on the town’s City Hall web page, or the local newspaper webpage, etc. It certainly would be a way to reach beyond the walls of the library. Do you know of other libraries that have done this?”
Zing! Excellent idea, Steve. I haven’t heard of any libraries doing this yet but the mere thought of it is inspiring — has anyone done this? Are you going to give it a try now? I like the idea of finding an embedded librarian while I’m surfing the local animal shelter page or newspaper. Please, TechSource readers, if the library muse inspires you to try this, let me know.”
Thanks for the great idea Steve and thanks for passing it on Michael!
Mindy
