Text Messaging in an Academic Library: Integrating SMS into Digital Reference

Abstract

In spring 2005, Sims Memorial Library at Southeastern Louisiana University initiated "Text A Librarian," a service that enables Southeastern students, faculty, and staff to use the text message feature of their cell phones to send questions to and receive answers from the library. Librarians at Sims use a dedicated text messaging telephone number and "e-mail/SMS" conversion software, provided by Altarama Systems and Services, to send and receive text messages.

Exploring the use of text and instant messaging in higher education classrooms

“…These results are consistent with Hill, Hill, and Sherman (2007) findings, which suggested that students are willing to use mobile phone technologies to communicate with their instructor, and Kennedy et al's (2008) study which identified that students wanted to incorporate social tools such as instant messaging and texting into their academic studies. Given the high student comfort level with mobile phones and instant messaging, it is not surprising that students are willing to use these technologies in the academic setting.…”

“…Holley and Dobson (2008) added that students also bond; text messaging morphed groups that had been formed originally for academic purposes into longer lasting ''friendship groups. '' There is some evidence to suggest that students are willing to use text and instant messages for academic purposes including communicating with their tutors (Hill, Hill, and Sherman 2007) and asking questions on field placement (Young et al 2010).…”

“…For example, students can be reminded of upcoming due dates for library books (Anderson and Blackwood 2004) or to contact librarians for assistance with research (Hill, Hill, and Sherman 2007). Jeong (2007) adds that instant messaging can be used for virtual office hours, thus transcending geographical challenges on the part of both students and faculty.…”

“…Given that a single-text messages is limited to 140 characters, faculty and students may be challenged by the short message length and brevity of language required (Hill, Hill, and Sherman 2007).…”

Texting 4 Answers

“…Hill et al mention that the majority of questions are of the short-answer variety and relate to the library or the university; Giles and Grey-Smith report that the majority of questions require a simple explanation and can be answered in one text message; Kohl and Keating state that most questions are academic or ready reference questions and there are intermittent joke questions too; Wiemer finds that circulation questions, ready reference questions and database access questions are the three types of question that rank highest in number; Stahr summarizes that 86 percent of the questions are library reference questions with varying complexity, splitting between regular reference questions and questions concerning different aspects of library services such as library hours, circulation, behavior complaints, database, and remote access; Cole and Krkoska discover that about half of the questions are quick questions that only need a brief factual answer, and another half are substantive questions related to course assignments, research, or resources. 13 So far there has been one published study dedicated to the analysis of text reference transactions. In this study, Pearce et al focus on a number of transactional variables.…”