Trillian: Meeting Students Where They Are
Poster presented at Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System (IHETS)/Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education (IPSE) All Partners Conference
Indianapolis, IN - April 2005
by Kathryn Courtland Millis (millisk@depauw.edu) and Tiffany Hebb (thebb@depauw.edu)

Abstract:
Students regularly use a variety of chat programs with their friends: AOL, MSN, Yahoo, etc. DePauw University librarians use a freeware program, Trillian, to help students no matter what program they use. By doing so, we meet the students on their own e-turf. They don’t have to download and learn yet one more piece of software to get our help.

Trillian is a freeware program that enables the user to log into multiple chat clients and accounts simultaneously. This means we can chat online with students who are using AOL, MSN, and Yahoo, while we’re logged into only one interface, instead of all three. This creates an easy opportunity for us to provide point-of-need reference assistance to students in a way that’s convenient, familiar, and meaningful for them.

While there are several extensive specialized virtual reference software programs available, they’re expensive, especially for small, residential colleges such as DePauw, where the amount of use would not justify the cost. Additionally, they require students to do the work of learning another program. Because we use Trillian, each student uses the interface with which they’re already comfortable. The student sees and uses the exact same thing they always do when chatting with their friends. And we too use only one program, Trillian, whether we're helping someone via AOL, MSN, or Yahoo. We only have to be fluent with one program, not all three.

Our electronic poster shows how we use Trillian to provide reference and research assistance to our students, faculty, and staff and to communicate with out colleagues in and beyond the DePauw Libraries.

At the IHETS / IPSE conference, in addition to our presentation below, we had information about how to:
• download and install Trillian
• set up chat accounts with AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and other chat providers
• manage multiple accounts coming from the same provider (for instance, a general reference account, and personal accounts for each librarian)
• manage address lists of students who've asked for help, library staff, etc.
• market and promote the service to students, faculty, and staff
• communicate instantly and without cost with librarians and colleagues at other institutions
• harvest information (such as times most questions are asked, and the types of questions posed)
 
Link to Trillian website - http://www.trillian.cc
 

Presentation (PowerPoint file on the web): Trillian- Meeting Students Where They Are

Sources used for the presentation:

nPew Internet & American Life Project: How Americans Use Instant Messaging (2004)
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Instantmessage_Report.pdf
 
nPew Internet & American Life Project: Internet Goes to College (2002)
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_College_Report.pdf
 
nPew Internet & American Life Project: The Internet and Education (2001)
 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Schools_Report.pdf
 
nThe Mercury Project for Instant Messaging Studies
 http://www.stanford.edu/class/pwr3-25/group2/main.html
Several student studies by students report on how Stanford students use chat to communicate with friends, & to maintain friendships with friends they're far from.
 
n“Socialization in the “Virtual Hallway”: Instant Messaging in the Asynchronous Web-based Distance Education Classroom” (2002)
http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/archive/00000735/01/virthall.pdf
Reports that students in distance education use chat not only to discuss coursework, but also to develop a sense of community with other students.n

 

“Instant Messaging by American College Students: A Case Study in Computer-Mediated Communication”
Naomi S. Baron
nbaron@american.edu
Many articles on chat report that its users rely heavily on abbreviations, acronyms, & shortened versions of words (e.g., "c u ltr" for "see you later."). Librarians, faculty, & others in higher education may not be comfortable communicating this way, & hesitant to chat. But Baron reports that college students use little of these when chatting - they're found more among high school chatters.

n
“Undergraduate Research Behavior: Using Focus Groups to Generate Theory,”
Valentine, Barbara, Journal of Academic Librarianship, 00991333, Nov93, Vol. 19, Issue 5
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&an=9407125746 (available from Ebsco by subscription to Professional Development Collection)
Includes an interesting section on how students select research tools, often picking resources they're already familiar with, or asking friends & acquaintances for help. We hope that by providing chat help, we can join their circle of readily accessible acquaintances, & consequently get asked for help by students who would otherwise ask someone else.
 

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