Thing 7. Web 2.0 Communication Tools

• Describe how your library uses email. Has it improved productivity?
  

Email is a much more efficient way to communicate than telephone or in person. You choose when and how much. Studies have shown that interruptions take about 20 mins for your brain to get back to the task it was working on prior to the interruption.

• Share your thoughts on online reference using some of the other Web 2.0 communication tools.

Kids could use the library as an online reference from school - their own personal Google.

• Are you an active user of text messaging, IM, or other communication tools?

Only email. I can't afford a phone and I'm not on my computer consistently enough to use IM.
Which OPAL or MINITEX Web conference (Webinar) did you attend? How was it? What do you think of this communication tool? According to Tom Peters, Web conferencing is telephone conferencing on steroids. Anyone who's done it knows what an inefficient use of time telephone conferencing really is. Can drive ya nuts. I attended an online writing conference. I liked how I could do it from anywhere. I went to OH during the conference, but was able to participate even though I wasn't in MN. However, when I started, I didn't know how to do web conferencing, and that was a nuisance. It wasn't an intuitive thing. That's why doing the Things is so beneficial to us non-L2 types.