Thing 12 Not so instant messaging

This week we are exploring Instant Message Reference services. I tried out the VBPL site which was supposed to be available Thursdays from 3:00 - 7:00 p.m. Service started late--it was offline until after 3:37 p.m. Then my question took almost ten minutes for the librarian to answer. I found the answer myself by googling in the first three minutes. So...while impressed with the concept, I was disappointed with the reality.