#7 Communication Tools 1, 2a, 2b, 2c

I have four email accounts--2 at work--city and SELCO and 2 personal accounts--hotmail and yahoo. That's four different usernames and passwords. People are always telling me that I should use the same username and password. I'm telling you it's not possible as they all have different requirements or the username and password is already in use. So that is one problem with email accounts. I also have two IM accounts--AOL and MSN--but I only use one. I belong to 3 Social Networking sites--MySpace, Facebook, and Ning--three more usernames and passwords. I think I will get rid of Ning soon.

I like to access my work email from home if I'm not working that day, so that I can get rid of SPAM, Junk mail, and info from work that I only need to read and not answer or save. (Like what the day's circulation was--read and delete). By the time I get to work, I don't have to waste time sorting through the junk. Also, reading work email ahead of time helps me understand it better by the time I get to work. I don't feel pressured to understand it and respond instantly at home. But since I've read it once at home, it's less stressful for me to do something about it when I get to work. Does that make sense to anyone? For instance, if I go on vacation for a week, I will quickly go through my work email everyday. When I get back to work I feel like I know what's going on (more or less) and don't feel like I'm out of the loop. (Well, of course there are some things that don't make sense until I get back to work, but not many.) One of my co-workers thinks I shouldn't read my email when I'm off, but I am much more relaxed if I do.

One thing I don't like about email is when patrons email me to ask a question. It hasn't been happening very often--maybe once a week so far. The trouble is that I don't always recognize a patron's email subject so I think it is SPAM. I don't open any email if I think it's SPAM so I imagine that sometimes I miss a patron's email. The Spammers are very tricky and make me think I know who they are when I don't, and the patrons don't often enter a meaningful subject in their subject line so I delete them. I try to save time, as mentioned in the "tips" by deleting anything I think is junk without opening it.

Also, patrons sometimes email for simple things like renewals or title requests but they don't send enough information, so that's a problem and wastes time trying to track them down when I would rather they just call.

Email is also a rather brusque way to communicate, and there are sometimes misunderstandings and people get their feelings hurt. Sometimes that is a very real problem.

Overall though I like email. I like that I can sort things into subject folders. But I still have too many "saved" emails--because you never know when you'll need to read them again.

I only use instant messaging to communicate with my family members in other states. I have a webcam on my home computers and can visit with my kids and grandkids. Anything else I have to say to people at work can be done by email, phone or in person. That is fast enough! Also, we don't allow instant messaging or chat at work because it supposedly takes up too much bandwidth or something . But I do use it all the time at home. My son is in Japan and we can't phone, so it's a wonderful communication device. My grandkids can't really use a phone yet, so it's nice for that too when combined with the web cam.