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KnowItNow24x7's statewide text messaging reference initiative will be going live on...

Monday, February 14, 2011

KnowItNow24x7's statewide SMS reference initiative was first announced in the October 2010 Newsletter, and now the date has been set for going live. KnowItNow24x7 librarians will begin to see questions come into the service via patron's text messaging on Monday, February 14.

One quick word on text messaging, texting, and SMS. Librarians will see all three of these terms used interchangeably in training materials and other documentation. All three refer to the use of mobile devices to send short, text-based messages of 160 characters or less. SMS is an acronym that stands for "Short Message Service," and, for those interested, Wikipedia has a basic introduction to what SMS and text messaging are.

Ohio's procedures will be very similar to those put in place by Oregon's L-net service, and those librarians who viewed L-net's online training videos will see lots of similarities to KnowItNow24x7's workflow. Links to KnowItNow24x7's training materials can be found below and posted to the KnowItNow24x7 Provider site.

Those who have been involved with virtual reference for some time will see little difficulty in responding to requests for information coming in via text messages. Even so, it is highly recommended that all librarians staffing the service read the KnowItNow24x7 SMS Reference Manual and/or view the screencast posted below. For those interested, KnowItNow24x7 will also be hosting several extra online forums in addition to the regularly scheduled ones to answer questions about statewide text reference. It is highly recommended that librarians read the manual or view the screencast before attending one of the live sessions since questions may be answered by those. For materials posted previously to the KnowItNow24x7 Provider site on SMS reference, click here.

SMS Reference Training Materials

KnowItNow24x7 SMS Reference Manual

The new KnowItNow24x7 SMS Reference Manual is being made available in multiple formats:

The manual also includes a short 8-step summary of the SMS reference workflow (only 5 of which are new to KnowItNow24x7 librarians), a list of best practices, and a bibliography of additional online resources about SMS reference.

SMS Reference Screencast

In conjunction with the manual, librarians can also view a screencast of how the new service will work at http://provider.knowitnow.org/KINdocs/video/TextRefDemo/. (Note, if you have trouble viewing the screencast, adjust your computer's screen resolution or click here for a smaller screencast screen.)

Live Online SparkRef Forums

SparkRef Forum: Thursday, January 27, 2:00 PM
Scheduled Topic: SMS Best Practices (Share your ideas with colleagues)
SparkRef Forum: Monday, January 31, 2:00 PM
Scheduled Topic: Statewide SMS Reference Q & A
SparkRef Forum: Friday, February 4, 11:00 AM (NOTE earlier time)
Scheduled Topic: Statewide SMS Reference Q & A
SparkRef Forum: Wednesday, February 9, 2:00 PM
Scheduled Topic: Staying Informed (review options for KIN24x7 librarians - Newsletters, RSS, Twitter, Calendar feeds, etc.) (NOTE: Can also discuss SMS here as well if interest warrants)

Local Texting Service Option

As mentioned in the past, KnowItNow24x7 is offering the opportunity to actively-participating KnowItNow24x7 libraries to offer their own local text reference service to their patrons through our partnership with Mosio Text-a-Librarian. Look for details on how to take advantage of this later today!

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