The University of Ohio Libraries has installed a kiosk in the lobby of its Alden Library for the usual quick info requests (hours, staff, maps). But the kiosk also sports a webcam and a link to Skype in order to provide instant reference with a live librarian. Chad Boeninger explains the system in a video on his blog. The system is not heavily used but it's an interesting concept.
An article, refered to in the video, has also been written on the topic:
Abstract:
Internet voice and video calling have demonstrated a dramatic rise in quality in the past several years and have quickly become communication technologies with a disruptive impact on society. Librarians, who regularly adopt such technologies in outreach and public services, should evaluate Web-calling programs as potential sources of innovative reference programming. This article describes the development of Skype video and Internet telephony pilot reference services at the Ohio University Libraries and considers the utility of Skype and VoIP in a library setting.
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