Last week, the New York Times published a story about the rise of instant messaging within corporate culture:

Years ago, when PC's were spreading through corporations, many companies eliminated secretaries on the theory that the machines would enable professionals to do their own typing and send their own messages by e-mail. But phishing attacks, viruses and spam have clogged e-mail networks, and voice-mail boxes are also overflowing.

Now a generation of office workers who grew up with instant messaging has gained control. They have made I.M. the new black, the latest trend in information technology. Along the way, they have changed how the corporate world converses and have built a series of new communication applications.

Granted, most of the examples included in the story involve technology companies, settings that tend to be early adopters of bleeding edge trends. But it would be foolish to dismiss the story's importance on that fact alone.

In a presentation on instant messaging at last month's Computers in Libraries conference, librarian and Walking Paper blogger Aaron Schmidt cited a poll that found that young people view email as a way to communicate with "old people." For today's high school and college students, IM and text messaging are the preferred method of communication. Email and telephones? Forget about it.

Why is this so important for law libraries? Because this generation of plugged in youth will soon become the law students and lawyers who make up our primary patron base. Perhaps more importantly, they'll eventually become law school faculty members. If we can't talk to them in the forum they prefer, they'll look elsewhere for help. They'll ask their classmates, their colleagues, friends at other law schools, or (gasp!) librarians at other institutions who ARE making an effort to adopt patron-friendly methods of communication.

Tulsa, North Carolina, and Widener are just three examples of law school libraries already making such an effort. For an example from the world of court libraries, check out the Massachusetts Trial Courts Law Libraries.

[NY Times] I.M. Generation Is Changing the Way Business Talks