Is your library using text messaging to communicate with your patrons? About 2 weeks ago I attended a webinar by text a librarian.

It was quite interesting and we are still deciding whether or not to use it. The main focus of the webinar was on how to answer patron questions that they submit to you using a keyword on their mobile phones and then you use an internet based platform to answer those questions. Prior to listening to the webinar we had considered the idea of using text messaging to notify our patrons about library fines and holds. Apparently this is not part of the basic feature of this service but it can be done with some additional features.

I also noticed that most of the other librarians on the line where with public libraries. As an academic librarian, I am wondering, do any other academic librarians use text a librarian or any other mobile texting service for answering reference questions? What about for notifications of fines and holds?

The other issue we have is that we do not always have a reference librarian on duty since we are small and therefore sometimes have only student employees at the desk who may not be able to answer questions and we are quite busy as it is, so this may be just one more thing for us to worry about.

I’d love to here the thoughts of other librarians using texting, especially small and academic ones, so please share.

Do you think texting in libraries will become a normal thing in the future?