Dear Brian,
Thanks for this. I will take a look at the documents. Certainly we tend to find that discussion lists are very hard to enthuse beyond announcements, however I belong to lis-copyseek which is an absolutely brilliant resource for all copyright issues and does seem to have discussion. For professional information I often think it's easier to use something like lis-link rather than go to individual sites or join facebook. I think there may be a fair bit of off-list activity which isn't documented as certain areas can be a little sensitive to talk about in detail on the lists.
As regards to users, we are aligned to a Knowledge Services department which has a long history of encouraging online discussion, some are more successful than others...
You may find the following interesting if not too far off track;
http://community.eldis.org/?233@@.5a91590f!enclosure=.5a92e99f&ad=1
Best wishes,
Stephanie
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by UKSG - Connecting the Information Community [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brian Kelly
Sent: 18 April 2012 10:59
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [lis-e-resources] Decreasing usage statistics
Hi Stephanie
Thanks for the reply - I'm pleased you found the posts useful.
On post on "Gathering and Using Evidence of the Value of Libraries" [1] described a session in which people explored ways in which evidence could be gathered.
However as described in a post [2] the evidence may also suggest changing usage patterns which may challenge the relevance of library services, and such evidence may not be welcomed, as Aaron Tay has found [3].
It was interesting to note your comments about lack of responses on the Web 2.0 list. In a post on The Decline in JISCMail Use Across the Web Management Community I commented on how some sectors seem to have moved on from mailing lists, but evidence from the LIS-LINK list suggested this may not be the case for the Library sector. A year later another (basic) analysis, suggested that mailing lists seem to be used for announcements, not discussions [5].
Perhaps the interesting discussions are now taking place in blogs and on Twitter (which is where I found a reference to this discussion) and use of mailing lists is acting as a barrier to progress.
I'd be interested in comments on this.
Brian
References
1 Gathering and Using Evidence of the Value of Libraries, 5 Nov 2010,
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/gathering-and-using-evidence-of-the-value-of-libraries/
2 The Need for an Evidence-based Approach to Demonstrating Value, 28 Dec 2010,
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/the-need-for-an-evidence-based-approach-to-demonstrating-value/
3 "Is librarianship in crisis and should we be talking about it?", 25 Nov 2011,
http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/is-librarianship-in-crisis-and-should.html
4 The Decline in JISCMail Use Across the Web Management Community, 4 June 2010,
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/the-decline-in-jiscmail-use-across-the-web-management-community/
5 Are Mailing Lists Now Primarily A Broadcast Medium?, 4 May 2011,
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/are-mailing-lists-now-primarily-a-broadcast-medium/
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