Should Libraries Be in the Texting Business?

According to an article in the October 2009 Library Journal by Alison Circle,

"*As few as 20 percent of email messages are opened.
*Over 95 percent of text messages are opened.
*The average time for the recipient to view an email message is 6.4 hours.
*The average time for the recipient to view a text message is 14 minutes."

2.4 billion people in the world have cell phones and text messaging is the preferred method of communication for most teenagers and young adults.
My son and his friends will sit directly beside each other and will text instead of speaking directly to one another. While I find face to face conversations, telephone and email (in that order) most agreeable, those under 18 have a very different perspective. This generation grew up with a game boy in hand and they love small mobile devices that allow them to watch videos, listen to music, play games and text their friends.
People still need information, and libraries excel at finding the information that people need. So how do we market and deliver these services to a mobile young generation? Of course the library as a physical place with study spaces, physical books and information specialists (librarians) is still very important, but increasingly we should be thinking about mobile technology. Our patrons and students live in a world of texting and social networking. We need to meet them where they work and play.
Many libraries are launching services like "text a librarian" and "chat with a librarian." Many larger public libraries and university libraries are already offer these services to students and library users. A consortium of international libraries has introduced My Info Quest (myinfoquest.info) a text-messaging service that provides live reference services for the public. The beauty of these services are mobility and reaching people where they are with the devices they prefer to use.
So should we offer text reference? I think if you asked anyone under 18 they would say yes.
TTYL
Cali Valley Librarian