Text a Librarian at ALA Annual

Those attending the American Library Association's (ALA) annual conference in Chicago this July will have a new service to help them navigate their way around—Text a Librarian.

ALA has partnered with Mosio to maximize the conference experience by offering mobile information through a service called “Text an ALA Ambassador.” And with an estimated 25,000 librarians and information professionals expected to show up, there are bound to be lots of questions about the conference's many seminars, committee meetings, educational programs, exhibitor locations, the registration process—yes, and even fun things to do in the windy city.

Attendees to the July 9–15 conference at the McCormick Place Convention Center can text questions from their mobile phones and receive an answer from one of 250 volunteer ALA Ambassadors who will use Mosio's Text a Librarian technology to respond quickly.

“We are excited to partner with Mosio on our first-ever mobile information service,” says John Chrastka, ALA's director for membership development.

Currently being used in a number of public and academic libraries nationwide, Mosio's Text a Librarian service enables libraries to implement SMS/text messaging easily to reference and patron services. Patrons text questions to their libraries, and librarians respond by typing answers on a private web site.