The screen name "TischLibrarian" has been relatively popular since its creation at the beginning of the semester, according to Librarian Laurie Sabol.
Manned by reference librarians, the screen name exists to provide students with an outlet to ask reference librarians questions about research techniques and library navigation.
Librarians have received approximately 50 instant messages (IMs) and will likely get an increasing amount in the future, Sabol said. "This is the beginning of the program," she said. "I think that it will get more and more popular through word of mouth."
According to Associate Librarian Chao Chen, the program has been well-received by those who have tried it so far. "The students that have used the program so far have been very grateful for the help in their research," she said.
One of the benefits of the new service is that students do not have to disrupt their study habits by moving around, according to Tisch's Assistant Director for Teaching and Research Laura Walters.
"Many students IM the librarian from far-off, quiet places in the library," she said. "They don't want to have to relocate all of their things to ask the librarian a question in person and they also don't want to disturb the quiet."
Although some questions cannot be answered over the computer, she said that face-to-face contact is not necessary in the majority of the cases.
"Like questions on the phone, many questions on [AOL Instant Messenger] can be answered fully, but sometimes students do need to still come in person to get a complete answer," she said.
Before this semester, Tufts relied on a 24-hour chat room provided by the Boston Library Consortium to provide similar services. Few Tufts students used it and those who did received answers from librarians in the Boston area, but not from Tufts.
"Ninety-six percent of Tufts students' questions were being answered by librarians from other schools," Walters said.
According to Tisch Library Director Jo-Ann Michalak, students are using the new service more frequently than the chat room, vindicating research that encouraged Tisch to launch the program. "Research has shown that students prefer [instant messaging] over a chat room," she said.
Despite the program's relative success, student reaction to it is split.
Freshman Brad Dreisbach used the service to ask about what books were available by a specific author for one of his classes.
"I probably could have just looked up the books myself, but it's quicker IMing the librarian. I also wanted to try it out," he said.
At the same time, sophomore Laura Patterson said that she is not convinced that the program is necessary. "If I need help, I'll just stop by and ask the librarians," she said. Although she said the service could be somewhat helpful, she was not enthusiastic about the chance to "chat it up with the librarians."
But according to Chen, more options are better, even if not everybody will use them. "Students can also ask questions on the phone and in person. It's just one more way to ask questions and find out where to go next in research," she said.
According to Walters, the creation of the screen name will be informative for librarians as well.
"We hope to use the service to see what students have questions about," she said. "We can then incorporate what we learn into workshops and onto our Web site to better serve students."
