forums work!

Christian van der Ven Offene Archive Spyer, Germany 22 November 2012

FORUMS

WORK

About MeAbout Me

Christian van der Ven

Coördinator Reference and Digital Services

Brabant Historical Information Center

’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands

Digital Archivist / Blogger Archives 2.0 / Social Media

@cvanderven

TopicsTopics

Forums work! Goals BHIC Overview Strategy Results The good and the bad Questions and discussion

Bonus: Chat works! (only when there’s time left)

Forums work!Forums work!

In between all new Web 2.0 tools and Social Media, forums have been underestimated and neglected

But forums have been there since the start of the Internet... and there’s a good reason for that:

Forums work!Forums work!

Cheap for archives, easy for users All about content, users and interaction Customizable and expandable Largest and most active online communities use a

forum as platform

Goals BHICGoals BHIC

Build user communities for local history, genealogy and historical research in North-Brabant

Crowdsource for new and additional information related to local history, and archives and collections

Create an alternative for traditional reference, a platform where researchers can help each other

OverviewOverview

OverviewOverview

Forums forForums for

Local History Pages (2006) Genealogy & Historical Research (2007) Water Map (2009)

All forums consist of new posts and comments Local History Pages and Water Map forums also

include comments on stories and photos on the website

OverviewOverview

Forum managementForum management

Started in 2008 Became a scheduled task in 2009

Monitored & managed daily by Reference Archivists Supported by topic specialists

Management via rss feeds in Google Reader

StrategyStrategy

StrategyStrategy

Monitor constantly Initially: stimulate use by replying on each post No question? Still reply! Challenge patrons for new comments and information Stimulate connections between patrons Explore new frontiers services, without charge (at first) Don’t pull back faster than the community advances Stimulate use by referring to forums (via e-mail, chat) Be nice to ‘regulars’ (extra service, Christmas Cards,

special activity day for users etc.)

ResultsResults

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

New Posts Local History/Water New Posts Genealogy/Historical Research

Comments Local History/Water Comments Genealogy/Historical Research

347

618

2049

5950

8964

380

714

2120

5567

8781

Until October

New Posts and Comments Genealogy/Historical Research

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

New Posts Comments

Until October

Share of Posts Genealogy/Historical Research

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

BHIC Users

Until October

Graph shows posting messages, not monitoring them

Avarage Amount of Comments

0,0

5,0

10,0

15,0

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Local History Water Genealogy/Historical Research Total

Until October

Community in 2011

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Posts

User

s

1 user posted 451 messages

707 users posted 1 message

(and she is from New Zealand)

Graph based on 5688 posts by 1283 people who left their e-mail addressThat’s 65% of the total amount of posts for 2011

The good and the badThe good and the bad

Patrons (and archivists) meet, share and help Loss of monopoly and natural authority Higher flow rate than traditional reference Mix with other service channels Online contact becomes more social and personal Public compliments... and complaints Change of work space and time Rise of community and new type of volunteers Bycatch in the form of stories, photos, indexes etc.

The good...The good...

“I find it to be a bit of a sport to try and find info on the internet, or in the case of the digital archives, from databases”

Dorethé, 29 januari 2009 (and she already posted 700 messages in 2012!)

Questions & DiscussionQuestions & Discussion

Chat works!Chat works!

Goals BHICGoals BHIC

To prevent people from clicking away from our website, by offering a direct, easy accessible help service via chat from each webpage

The digital archivist as moderator, oracle, support and anchor, as the digital face of the website

Wee

kday

s 7 P

M –

10

PM

Subjects

History

Genealogy

Research

General

Source data: 2009/2010

Handling

Answered

Followed by e-mail

Invited to study room

Invited to e-mail

Internally redirected

Referred

Not answered

OtherSource data: 2009/2010

ResultsResults

About 1.300 chats per year

First staffed reference desk in a virtual research room

Very, very, very happy patrons