Review of Mosio's Text a Librarian

The January 2009 issue (Vol 10, No. 3) of The Charleston Advisor has a review by Joseph Murphy of Mosio's Text a Librarian service (paywall link...sorry). Murphy gives a thumbs down to the product that is being marketed to libraries as a solution for SMS reference services:

Mosio's beta Text A Librarian product does not live up to its claim of being “an easy to use text messaging solution that enables libraries to set up cost-effective SMS reference services” . This product is not cost effective for libraries, does not compare well with existing alternatives, is not able to integrate with existing library services, is not easy to use, does not facilitate feasible staffing models, is unable to adapt to future services and trends, and is not optimal for patrons. It is a good beta attempt but is not yet viable for libraries.

Murphy singles out the following problems:

• Cost is higher than many other options for providing SMS reference service (minimum of $1398 a year)
• Librarian web interface doesn't auto-refresh to show new queries
• Email and IM notifications that library staff can get as alerts to new queries can't be used for sending a reply (library staffer must go back to web interface to compose reply)
• Doesn't work for patrons using T-Mobile
• No functionality for exporting interactions
• URLs sent in text message replies from the library aren't live ones
• A question thread can only have a maximum of four reply messages from the library

Is anyone out there actually using Mosio's service at their library now? What are your experiences like with the product?

SMS reference service at Bryant University

The February 2009 issue of C&RL News (Vol. 70, No. 2) has an interesting article by Laura Kohl and Maura Keating on the SMS reference service that was launched at the Krupp Library at Bryant University. Most of the SMS reference services that I've heard about allow patrons to send their questions as text messages on their cell phones and then have the librarians compose their reply in some web-based interface; those replies are then passed back to the patron's cell phone as a text message. The service at Bryant University is a little different: the library purchased a smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard that librarians use to receive incoming text messages and to send their replies with. The person staffing the reference desk is the person also keeping an eye on the phone for new text message queries.

The authors of the article note that when planning a text message reference service they decided against going with a commercial service that would help them set it up and run it (such as Altarama's Reference by SMS because of cost concerns. They also looked into a hack that allows you to use AIM to send and receive text messages (see the Ask a Librarian page at the American University Library for an example of this); the library staff decided against this approach out of a concern that some students might be put off by the steps required to make it work. By purchasing a phone and signing up for a plan that included 200 messages a month, the library spent $340 to set everything up ($240 went toward the annual service plan).

Kohl and Keating report that "[m]ost questions that we received were academic or ready reference questions" (p. 106). Although there were some pranksters at the start of the service, it sounds like that problem has faded.

I like the idea of a library having a smartphone around to answer reference questions. If I could set up a service like this up at my school, I'd also use the phone for the telephone reference service. We have a large enough staff for our reference desk that we could monitor the text messages and phone calls from our office. Each day a different librarian would be assigned the phone and would take the texts and calls as they came in. If the librarian was on a call with a patron and needed to run to the stacks to look for something related to the patron's query, the librarian could just carry the phone with him/her. It would be great to advertise the service to students by just telling them about our "cell phone service" that allows you to text us, call us, or IM us from your phone. I recall that a few years ago, Michelle Jacobs spoke at ACRL in 2007 about using her smartphone somewhat in this manner (here's a PALINET Podcast in which she spoke about that project).

Trends in digital reference

This post is meant to be just a quick list of notable things going on in digital reference in the last few years:

New IM/chat software options

• Library H3lp (allows for collaborative IM reference service)
  
• Open access software used by L-net's statewide service in Oregon and KnowItNow's statewide service in Ohio
• Increased use of widgets for chat/IM (QuestionPoint's Qwidget, Meebo, Chatango, etc.)

Public sharing of reference interactions

• L-net's Conversation Archive
  
• Reference Extract
• QuestionPoint's KnowledgeBase (see also related posts on QuestionPoint blog)

Outreach by reference librarians on answer boards

• Answer Board Librarians

Growing interest in SMS reference (text message reference)

• Mosio's Text A Librarian service
• Southeastern University of Louisiana (a long-running service)
• Yale University's Txt a Science Librarian and Maui Community College's Ask Ellen (related slide presentation)

Increase in collaborative/cooperative reference services

• Collaborative Virtual Reference Symposium 2007
• Library H3lp finally making it possible for IM software to be used for collaborative reference services
• QuestionPoint service adds University of California libraries, New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and Queens Library to its cooperative reference service

What other trends did I miss?