Our library uses email, and depending on your position, it is either a faster way to comunicate to the masses you need to communicate with, or it is a burden because too many people are sending you too many email messages (sometimes about things that are not very important or work related).
We also tried using Meebo for instant message reference. Some of our staff use it regularly (mostly to chat with each other because our patrons do not seem to have caught on the concept of IM reference), some of our staff avoid it (either because they don't understand it or they think it is waste of time--"If patrons want something from the library, they will call or stop in. They won't IM us," is something I heard one staff member say.
We do not text message, although I have "texted" with my young nieces, that is until their dad and I saw our respective phone bills and decided "texting" was way too expensive. Now we email each other. It is cheaper than phone calls. (They live fifteen miles away, in "Packerland", and the phone company charges us for long distance calls. As I said, email is cheaper, and sometimes you get pictures, too.)
I have attended the Minitex webinar M.O.R.E. Basic Reference Skills and viewed the archived sessions on podcasting. I have also attended a couple of podcasts from the SirisDynix Institute and I have a list of programs I plan to watch "someday" on OPAL. Other than a few technical glitches (like having the apporpriate software or a phone nearby for the Mintex webinar or the instructor not calling in for an EBSCO webinar), I think web conferences, webinars, and podcasts have great potential to increase learning and training opportunities while saving time and travel costs.
PS
The Google group, Google Librarian, which is listed in the challenge option for this exercise, has not been updated recently. The LibrarianinBlack had some interesting comments on Google Librarian in a July 3, 2008 post. You can read them here.
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