Testing testing 1,2... it's instant communication, which is kind of old school. IM i mean. It's a service that comes with your sign-on to the major email sites such as Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL. Just as mobiles were hitting the market, IM was already full swing with teens chatting to one another between after school and bedtime.
As a tool for libraries, I can see it being useful like the examples in the US during opening hours. Yet the drawback is that someone would need to be sitting at the computer waiting for patrons to sign in. Also the question of how many can log in simultaneously and how many can ask at the same time would need to be addressed.
Skype, the telephony service over the internet, has also been about for many years though more in Europe than Australia. The company does promote to small & medium businesses as well as private use, but i can't see any major reasons why libraries should change from landline to Skype (apart from price - you'd still need to upgrade the equipment so the profit will be noticable in time).
As for Twitter discussions... well with the word limits you need to be brief, clear, to the point and understandable. Not terms i associate with Twitter. Perhaps certain tags such as http://www.squidoo.com/SocEntChat can show that Twitter is a communication tool that can be used for good but as an option for libraries... it's a galaxy far far away.
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