This is terrific work! I set up an account today, and am testing WebChat. It works much more smoothly than the MeeboMe? widget. Thank you.

My question is, is there a way to customize the WebChat so that you may brand it with the name of the library? Even if the username was included in the available message, that would be enough.

Thanks again. Jana Ronan, Smathers Libraries, University of Florida

Jana, thanks!

I just added a page to the wiki documenting the customization stuff: WebChatCustomization. Apologies - the info was on the blog but not the wiki until now.

This is a great widget, really easy to work with and customize. We were ready to launch MeeboMe?, but then we saw the UNC chat and quickly made the switch. We wanted easy integration with Pidgin and a custom message for 'unavailable' status. The flexible options offered in the PresenceApi are a big extra. I ended up using a 'not so easy' way to detect availability (the 'easy' way conflicted with existing jQuery on the page I think), then linking to a popup with an embedded widget. We're launching our libraryh3lp widget next Monday (http://www.usc.edu/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/). Thanks for the great work and for sharing.

USC, thanks for the very kind words! We're really looking forward to seeing your page when you're online. Y'all did an incredible job using the PresenceApi; we're just delighted.

Pam, you have made my day. At USF, our biggest objection to switching from our chat software (RightNow?) to IM has always been IM's inability to support a multi-agent environment. I can't wait to hear the results of Routings and Queues test phase!

Thank you, Barbara Lewis, University of South Florida Libraries

We're interested in setting this up for UT. However, we'd like to also add a gateway for Google Talk. Is that possible? It appears that the UNC version ( http://www.lib.unc.edu/ask.html ) works w/ Google Talk.

Thanks! Matt Lisle

In case anyone is interested in the Google Talk question, there is now a thread (the first real thread! woohoo!) about it on the Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/libraryh3lp

Short answer: UNC's still on Pidgin4Lib. We want a GTalk gateway in libraryh3lp, but it's actually trickier than the AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! gateways. It's on the list of things to develop.