Learning to love online chat
How instant messaging is changing the library reference desk; Quill & Quire Magazine May 2009 pg. 27 [PDF].
“While chat and instant messaging may be sternly disapproved of in many workplaces, reference librarians at Canada’s public libraries and academic institutions are learning to LOL - and love it - with the rise of chat-based reference services.”
Several other provinces offer collaborative chat-based reference services.
Askaway (BC)
Live Help/Novanet (Nova Scotia)
Others offer email-based provincial services.
Web 2.0 and social networking tools
askON works to provide staff and visitors with experience with web 2.0 and social networking tools. Click to read testimonials.
KnowledgeBase
askON maintains a set of publicly available websites on a wide variety of topics bookmarked in delicious (the social bookmarking tool).