sound advice redux

As afar as IM in libraries, I found a "best practices" type of article that goes over the ins and outs of chat reference pretty well. It is “The Chat Reference Interview: Practicalities and Advice.” Bobrowsky,Tammy, Lynne Beck, and Malaika Grant. Published in The Reference Librarian (The Haworth Information
Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) No. 89/90, 2005, pp. 179-191. There is online access to it through the publisher in PEAK.

some highlights:
-keep messages brief
-use elipses and other punctuation to express yourself, avoid "emoticons."
-alleviate tension between the desire for brevity and speed and the desire to provide instruction by breaking instruction into steps, or reffering to outside sources, or to another medium (i.e. face-to-face).
-Disconnections happen. It's not you.

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