Does your firm's library staff answer reference questions and otherwise assist attorneys via an IM-type application?

This is an IT decision, not a library decision.

Our library reports through the IS department. Since the majority of our IS staff have access to and use IM, we are looking into obtaining access for the library staff.

We'd like to, but our IT department won't allow it. At all. They claim it's a security decision.

Like others commenting here, our IT department has disabled IM firmwide. However, I've contemplated ways to provide my cell phone number as an IM option. I don't know how others on the library staff would feel about this. But it is a workaround for the firm security issue. All lawyers have a Blackberry, so we could communicate via IM from BB to cell.