Choosing the Right Free IM Providers and Clients for Your Library

Fuente: ERIC Institute of Education Sciences

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Izenstark, Amanda K.
Format:	Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:	en
Published:	2009
Subjects:	Reference Services Library Services Computer Software Reviews Computer Software Evaluation Computer Software Selection Academic Libraries Online Vendors Synchronous Communication Computer Mediated Communication Technological Literacy Electronic Libraries
Online Access:	Acceder al recurso
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author	Izenstark, Amanda K.
author_facet	Izenstark, Amanda K. Izenstark, Amanda K.
collection	Education Resources Information Center
contents	Choosing the Right Free IM Providers and Clients for Your Library Izenstark, Amanda K. Reference Services Library Services Computer Software Reviews Computer Software Evaluation Computer Software Selection Academic Libraries Online Vendors Synchronous Communication Computer Mediated Communication Technological Literacy Electronic Libraries With virtual library services increasing, public services librarians may find themselves with questions such as: What instant messaging services (IM) are available? Which IM service would best suit my patrons' needs? Which IM service best suits my library's technology profile? This column describes the features and functionality of major instant messaging providers and clients as they relate to library needs, specifically for the provision of instant message reference services. The sites reviewed in this column have been selected as quality examples of IM providers that have great potential for use within libraries, enabling library professionals to better collaborate with one another and reach out to patrons. In this issue, the "Internet Resources" column features narrative and commentary from one reviewer, Amanda K. Izenstark, who presents a comprehensive review and comparison of the various IM providers currently available. The "Public Services Quarterly" Internet Column is designed to highlight resources librarians can use to increase their awareness, augment their skills, and provided better services to their patrons. While strengths and weaknesses of each site are included in these reviews, the sites chosen are recommended or highly recommended for use by academic librarians. All sites are listed and easily accessible from http://psqInternet.googlepages.com/home. All questions and comments about the "Public Services Quarterly" Internet Column can be directed to Nicole A. Cooke at: PSQInternet@gmail.com.
format	Recurso educativo Open Access
id	eric_EJ867004
institution	ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language	en
publishDate	2009
record_format	eric
spellingShingle	Choosing the Right Free IM Providers and Clients for Your Library Izenstark, Amanda K. Reference Services Library Services Computer Software Reviews Computer Software Evaluation Computer Software Selection Academic Libraries Online Vendors Synchronous Communication Computer Mediated Communication Technological Literacy Electronic Libraries Choosing the Right Free IM Providers and Clients for Your Library Izenstark, Amanda K. Reference Services Library Services Computer Software Reviews Computer Software Evaluation Computer Software Selection Academic Libraries Online Vendors Synchronous Communication Computer Mediated Communication Technological Literacy Electronic Libraries With virtual library services increasing, public services librarians may find themselves with questions such as: What instant messaging services (IM) are available? Which IM service would best suit my patrons' needs? Which IM service best suits my library's technology profile? This column describes the features and functionality of major instant messaging providers and clients as they relate to library needs, specifically for the provision of instant message reference services. The sites reviewed in this column have been selected as quality examples of IM providers that have great potential for use within libraries, enabling library professionals to better collaborate with one another and reach out to patrons. In this issue, the "Internet Resources" column features narrative and commentary from one reviewer, Amanda K. Izenstark, who presents a comprehensive review and comparison of the various IM providers currently available. The "Public Services Quarterly" Internet Column is designed to highlight resources librarians can use to increase their awareness, augment their skills, and provided better services to their patrons. While strengths and weaknesses of each site are included in these reviews, the sites chosen are recommended or highly recommended for use by academic librarians. All sites are listed and easily accessible from http://psqInternet.googlepages.com/home. All questions and comments about the "Public Services Quarterly" Internet Column can be directed to Nicole A. Cooke at: PSQInternet@gmail.com.
title	Choosing the Right Free IM Providers and Clients for Your Library
topic	Reference Services Library Services Computer Software Reviews Computer Software Evaluation Computer Software Selection Academic Libraries Online Vendors Synchronous Communication Computer Mediated Communication Technological Literacy Electronic Libraries
url	https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ867004

if (filemtime($filename) + $maxlifetime < time()) { unlink($filename); $count++; } } return $count; } /** * A function that is called internally when session data is to be saved. * * @param string $sessId The current session ID * @param string $data The session data to write * * @return bool */ protected function saveSession($sessId, $data): bool { $sessFile = $this->path . '/sess_' . $sessId; if ($handle = fopen($sessFile, 'w')) { $return = false; // Lock the file for exclusive access to avoid issues with multiple // processes writing session simultaneously: if (flock($handle, LOCK_EX)) { $return = fwrite($handle, $data); // Make sure that there's no trailing data by truncating the file to // the correct length: ftruncate($handle, strlen($data)); fflush($handle); flock($handle, LOCK_UN); } fclose($handle); if ($return !== false) { return true; } } // If we got this far, something went wrong with the file output... // It is tempting to throw an exception here, but this code is called // outside of the context of exception handling, so all we can do is // echo a message.

// Anecdotal testing Today and Yesterday seems to indicate destroy() // is called by the garbage collector and everything is good. // Something to keep in mind though. return 0; } /** * Write function that is called when session data is to be saved. * * @param string $sessId The current session ID * @param string $data The session data to write * * @return bool */ public function write($sessId, $data): bool { if ($this->writesDisabled) { return true; } return $this->saveSession($sessId, $data); } /** * A function that is called internally when session data is to be saved. * * @param string $sessId The current session ID * @param string $data The session data to write * * @return bool */ abstract protected function saveSession($sessId, $data): bool; }

* * @return void */ public function writeClose() { // The assumption is that we're using PHP's ext/session. // session_write_close() will actually overwrite $_SESSION with an // empty array on completion -- which leads to a mismatch between what // is in the storage object and $_SESSION. To get around this, we // temporarily reset $_SESSION to an array, and then re-link it to // the storage object. // // Additionally, while you _can_ write to $_SESSION following a // session_write_close() operation, no changes made to it will be // flushed to the session handler. As such, we now mark the storage // object isImmutable. $storage = $this->getStorage(); if (! $storage->isImmutable()) { $_SESSION = $storage->toArray(true); session_write_close(); $storage->fromArray($_SESSION); $storage->markImmutable(); } } /** * Attempt to set the session name * * If the session has already been started, or if the name provided fails * validation, an exception will be raised. * * @param string $name * @return SessionManager * @throws Exception\InvalidArgumentException */ public function setName($name) { if ($this->sessionExists()) { throw new Exception\InvalidArgumentException( 'Cannot set session name after a session has already started'

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ui	"standard"

Session

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SessionState	Laminas\Stdlib\ArrayObject {#938}
FlashMessenger	Laminas\Stdlib\ArrayObject {#1455}
SessionHelper	Laminas\Stdlib\ArrayObject {#1785}

Server/Request Data

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REDIRECT_STATUS	"200"
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SCRIPT_NAME	"/index.php"
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Environment Variables empty

Registered Handlers

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Environment & details:

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POST Data empty

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SessionHelper	Laminas\Stdlib\ArrayObject {#1785}

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REDIRECT_STATUS	"200"
VUFIND_LOCAL_DIR	"/usr/local/vufind/local"
HTTPS	"on"
SSL_TLS_SNI	"info.umar.mx"
HTTP_ACCEPT	"/"
HTTP_USER_AGENT	"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)"
HTTP_COOKIE	"language=en; VUFIND_SESSION=6f0f6fff058577746b9cf727804760ee; ui=standard"
HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING	"gzip, br, zstd, deflate"
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REQUEST_METHOD	"GET"
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PHP_SELF	"/index.php"
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REQUEST_TIME	1789173841

Environment Variables empty

Registered Handlers

0. Whoops\Handler\PrettyPageHandler

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Environment & details: