LibraryH3lp + Pidgin

Up until Monday of last week, chat reference staffers at the University of Western Ontario’s Taylor Library have been monitoring our LibraryH3lp chat box widget and other 4 chat accounts (MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo! and AIM/AOL) via Meebo’s web interface. I like to be different, so I’ve been kicking the tires on Pidgin for the past month or so.

I’ve been a bit anti-Pidgin in the past because (a) it requires an install and (b) at my previous job I wasn’t able to install anything on my machine — I had to get library systems staff to do it for me. (This set-up has both its pros and its cons, but I digress.) I’ve changed my opinion about Pidgin because (a) my circumstances have changed and I can now install anything I want (within reason) on my machine and (b) Pidgin supports LibraryH3lp’s queueing functionality while the Meebo web interface doesn’t.

On June 23 I activated 4 LibraryH3lp ‘gateways’ which in effect map our 4 chat accounts to the same LibraryH3lp ‘queue’ we’ve been using to monitor the LibraryH3lp chatbox. Now I’m in the midst of helping chat reference staffers download, install and configure Pidgin on their machines. I’ve created a LibraryH3lp ‘operator’ account for each staffer, and have set each operator up as a user (monitor) of our shared queue.

I anticipated providing a bit of hand-holding witht the staff installations, but some of our staffers have been able to follow my instructions and have done the installation themselves. We have one Mac user who uses Adium, and it seems to work fine with LibraryH3lp.

This is no doubt going to be a period of confusion, in part due to the differences between Meebo and Pidgin. However, Taylor staff were using GAIM and then Pidgin prior to Meebo (they switched to Meebo so they could have a MeeboMe chat box widget), so they should be fairly comfortable switching back to Pidgin. During the switch from Meebo to Pidgin, staffers who continue to use Meebo can still boot out staffers using Pidgin (or Meebo), and vice versa. What will no doubt be most confusing for staffers is understanding how our LibraryH3lp accounts, queue and gateways work their magic. I anticipate receiving a lot of questions and supplying a lot of clarification.

Once all staffers have switched from Meebo to Pidgin, we’ll be able to:

• have multiple staffers logged in simultaneously, and transfer patrons from one staffer to another. This is useful for referrals and chat reference shift changeovers.
• be logged in on two machines at once, and transfer patrons from one machine to another. (Note: The machines must have different accounts — or operators — assigned to them.) This is useful when one is in one’s office ‘on call’ for the reference desk and simultaneously monitoring chat… and one gets called out to the reference desk.

My priorities will then become:

• training staffers in transfering calls
• installing an improved LibraryH3lp follow-me widget
• ensuring that our chat box and chat accounts aren’t buried in our new website

All in all, I must say that the LibraryH3lp + Pidgin formula is meeting my expectations, delivering everything that it’s promised. Staff appear to be quite flexible when the software in question promises to make their lives easier.