Text a Librarian

1) Compare and contrast these three technologies for offering reference services.

I think each application has benefits and drawbacks. Email reference, you have more time to find the answer but you can't ask those important clarifying questions, if needed.
Chat reference you can ask the questions but initially there is the added pressure of the person "standing" waiting for the answer. Also, people may feel more inclined to say things they might not if they were in a face to face interaction.
Texting is neat, it allows a concise question and an equally concise response. It may be easier to ask the clarifying questions because you are responding to someones cell phone.
All of the different technologies are important to keeping librarians in the forefront of peoples minds.

2) What do you think about the Text A Librarian product? Was it easy to use? Do you have any suggestions for improving the product?

The product was easy to use and understand. It was difficult to keep the response in the character limit. It's interesting that you can send more than one or two texts to the person. I wonder what the patrons think of multiple texts to a simple question (in order to fulfill the librarian tendency to tell you who, what, why, where and how!).

Great service, glad that we had the opportunity to try it out!