Life & Time on Campus
When trying to represent social software like IM & chat to librarians, I find the most difficult part is convincing them that these are tools their users are already using. If the librarians not participating in the community, how do can I prove to them it exists? I try stuff like, ‘to many of our students, NOT being on AIM is like not having a phone number.’ But, why should they listen to me? I’m already suspect. So when some proof comes to me, I practically don’t know what to do with it.
The UNH Office on Residential Life conducts a regular survey of on-campus students - those living in dorms. I feel safe in estimating these are mostly freshman and sophomores, with a few upperclassman sprinkled in, perhaps. The survey includes a section on how many hours a week the respondent spends on a number of activites. The top three according to the Fall 2005 report are: socializing (15.8), studying - excluding classes and labs (12.5), and instant messaging (9.3). Yep, to these these students, our users, IM is the THIRD most popular activity. They report spending almost 10 hours a week doing it. The survey itself provides some proof by making a distinction between IM and ‘personal internet use - other than IM’ (8.4). When trying to convince our librarians to go where the users are, I can’t think of a better argument than that.
