REFCHATTER
RefChatter™ is Web-based software for chatting with patrons who use common Instant Messaging options or a widget to contact your library. Using this single tool, one or more staff members can monitor multiple queues, and can maintain multiple, concurrent online reference sessions.
And as a part of the Altarama Integrated Reference Services (AIRS™) family of products, RefChatter gives libraries great statistics, access to transcripts, and the option to integrate with other powerful reference management tools.
Almost since the advent of online reference services using commercial chat software, libraries have been trying to find ways to use IM to reach out to the large and growing portion of library users for whom IM is part of their daily routine.
The challenge, so familiar to librarians seeking to adapt software created for other markets, has been making the one-to-one nature of IM somehow work in the context of libraries. Staffing realities, the need for statistics, and even IT policies that frown on IM, have been barriers to success in these efforts.
RefChatter represents the breakthrough that many libraries have been waiting for! Created, delivered, and supported specifically for libraries by librarians and library automation experts, RefChatter is an affordable Web-based solution for reaching a critical part of your user community in a mode with which they are already familiar. As a hosted tool, you can use RefChatter with whatever range of IM networks you need, without ever involving your IT department.