IM in for Informing

Yesterday afternoon, I had an IM. The student didn't have a question but a request to let someone know that there was someone who was drinking in the library. Student was at RVS (I was monitoring IM from EVC) but I called RVS Librarian to let her know that there was tea-sipper in the stacks.

Tea-Sipper was imbibing from a can of tea (or at least we think it was tea in that can) he was hiding under the desk. Student wanted to report Tea-Sipper but didn't want Tea-Sipper to know Student was the informant.

RVS Librarian was on the scene in a matter of seconds and asked Tea-Sipper to store his can at the front of the library and not under the desk.

Situation resolved with the power of IM!

Meebo oddness

Something weird has been going on with Meebo the last couple of weeks. When I sign in, it doesn't populate the buddy list, which makes me think that I'm not actually signed on. BUT on my own buddy list, AccLibrarian is showing as signed on. Over time more and more of my buddies appear in my buddy list, but usually as they sign on or off.

Apparently when this happens I am logged on and all of my buddies can see me in their buddy list, I just can't see them. I don't see this as too big of a problem because the most important thing is that they be able to contact us, but it did worry me until I figured out what was going on. At least one other person has mentioned that this happened to them, so I wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Sharing Praise

"Being able to IM is a real help for PT students that work. Thanks for youir help"

Thanks everyone for making IM a success!

Running Meebo Without a Browser

I read this post today from The Distant Librarian, which describes using a software program called Prism. Prism allows you to convert web browser applications to stand-alone applications. There's a helpful video that shows how it works.

With this software, you can create an icon on your desktop for Meebo, for instance, and not have to open it in the browser. This could eliminate the problem of disconnecting from Meebo when the browser is closed, since the Prism software allows you to run Meebo independently of the browser. I just tested it on the PC in my office, and it worked fine. I'm thinking of installing it on the reference desk here at EVC.

Apologies if this has already been discussed and I spaced it.