Cool! Thanks for the links, Clay. Looks promising. Will definitely keep an eye on this.

- Gavin


>>> Clay Hill <[log in to unmask]> 04/30/08 10:31 AM >>>
 A consortium of NC Libraries have gotten together to come up with an open source IM/Meebo-like service for VR that they are adapting for library use.  They are adding features that we need that Meebo doesn't offer--like queueing of questions, more than one operator on an account, statistics, etc.  I'm not sure how far along they are--they've been beta-testing since Fall 2007.

Their blog:
http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/

Their wiki/google thing:
http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/


I am looking at it...We haven't made any decisions to use yet.

Thanks,
Clay


Clay Hill
Web Sites Manager,
Mississippi State University Libraries


>>> Gavin Spomer <[log in to unmask]> 4/30/2008 12:20 PM >>>
Hello everyone,

Our reference staff has decided that they want to "keep up with the Jones'" and enable our university students to contact the reference desk via a chat interface.

After a bit o research I decided to go with Meebo, specifically MeeboMe. I've also decided that I want to run it through ezproxy because of two benefits. First, this will reduce access to MeeboMe to our university students/staff. Second, if legitimate university students/staff abuse the service, they can be identified and dealt with by looking them up in the ezproxy log.

But it's still not air-tight because a legitimate student/staff can just copy the embedded MeeboMe widget from the html source and put it on another web page. Chances are small that this would happen, (or are they?) but like any decent sys admin I don't like to take chances.

Is anyone else on the list implementing some sort of IM at their library and if so, how are you going about implementing this?

Gavin Spomer
Systems Programmer
Brooks Library
Central Washington University