Listserv Monitoring Report
- 1. Fiona B. Griswold October 6, 2009 Electronic Listerv Monitoring and Evaluation: ISLMANET-L The term “listserv” has come to be used as a general term for any electronic discussion list, though it originated as the name of software (LISTSERV) developed in the mid 1980s to automate the management of e-mail discussion lists in that individuals could join or leave a list without an administrator having to intervene (LISTSERV 2007). Though somewhat low-tech in today’s Web 2.0 world, the listserv continues to be popular as a low-effort yet efficient means for a group of individuals sharing a common interest to communicate with each other. One common use for electronic discussion lists is to provide a means of information sharing and networking to individuals in a specific discipline or professional field. In my previous work experience as a university Study Abroad Administrator, I maintained a subscription to the primary list for individuals working in similar jobs--SECUSS-L--which allowed me to passively monitor the information being shared and questions being posed by people throughout the world or to actively post my own queries or respond to those of others. Now, as I make the transition to a career in youth librarianship, I have begun to explore the resources, including listservs, available to me for networking and for learning more about the field and about current issues or “hot topics.” For a librarian working with youth, there are a number of discussion lists that could provide the sort professional connections and exchange of ideas that can enhance an individual’s professional development. These discussion lists are frequently, though not always, sponsored by professional associations such as the American Library Association (ALA) and will usually have a specific audience, such as school librarians, young adult librarians or public youth librarians, at which the list is targeted. For this assignment, I chose to monitor and evaluate the electronic discussion list sponsored by the Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA) and hosted through the Early Childhood and
- 2. Griswold / Listserv Monitoring Parenting Collaborative (ECAP) at the University of Illinois. ISLMA was founded in 1988 by a group of school media specialists who saw a need for a state-based organization of school media specialists that was separate from the Illinois Library Association (ILA). As such, ISLMA has affiliated with the nation- wide American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and cooperates with other library associations to ensure that school librarians have a role and voice in collaborative projects with librarians serving other populations (ISLMA 2009). The listserv, known as ISLMANET-L, is open to any individual with an interest in school library programs and an e-mail address to send and receive messages. While the list must have an “owner” or a person or persons who started the list and are responsible for its continuance, it does not appear to have an active “moderator” or someone who would monitor the list for inappropriate postings and, perhaps, approve individuals who seek a subscription to the listserv. This means that virtually anyone who adds themselves to the list can be a subscriber, though, during the time I was monitoring the list, virtually all the postings came from either school librarians or individuals closely associated with school libraries, such as authors of books for children, other school staff or people who work in organizations that offer professional development or education to school media specialists. Unlike some other electronic discussion lists, which provide very specific instructions to subscribers about appropriate use of the list, tips on general “netiquette”, policies for posting advertisements or jobs and general instructions for modifying and updating subscription options, ISLMANET-L provides very minimal guidelines. The page on the ISLMA Web site concerning the listserv simply provides subscription instructions and reminders that automatically replying to a message will send the reply to the entire list and that users should be careful about not sending unnecessary replies that will clutter e-mail inboxes as a courtesy to others. To some extent, it seems that ISLMA is putting a lot of faith in users’ knowledge of discussion list participation and ability to be considerate colleagues. I would be interested to know how many 2
- 3. Griswold / Listserv Monitoring people subscribe to the list and whether there have been problems that have resulted in someone being reprimanded or banned from the list. It is possible that, while there isn’t a formal monitor for the listserv there may be an informal means of ensuring proper usage that is not readily apparent to a short-term observer. The actual mechanics of subscribing to and using ISLMANET-L are quite simple and straightforward. Individuals can subscribe and unsubscribe by sending a simple message to the CITES e- mail address for the list. Once an individual’s subscription is confirmed, they can then visit the CITES LISTSERV Web interface to make changes to their subscription preferences, including temporarily opting out of the listserv for a period of time, such as vacation, or choosing to receive the postings in digest form where all the messages for one day are sent in just one e-mail message. An archive of messages for the previous year is also available through the CITES Web interface. This archive is accessible to non-list-subscribers through a browse option which reveals message content, but blocks e- mail addresses of the individuals who posted them. List subscribers can, after logging in to the LISTSERV Web interface, search the archive for key terms that can be narrowed by date, author or subject line, and are able to view the e-mail addresses of the senders. The search feature is important, particularly in instances where an individual may have seen a topic of interest mentioned in an earlier post, but then cannot find the specific message. While I have been subscribed to ISLMANET-L since last March or April, I have not been an active reader of the messages sent through the listserv, nor have I posted to the list. Because of the quantity of e-mail, I have used the filtering option available in Gmail to make it so that messages from this and several other lists to which I subscribe automatically bypass my inbox and go directly to dedicated folder. Using this setup, I do not need to go to the archive to skim through or search for messages, they are easily accessible for when I have a few moments to spare and can browse through the 3
- 4. Griswold / Listserv Monitoring subject lines to see if anything catches my interest. For the purposes of this assignment, I actively monitored the list for approximately three weeks, beginning on September 11, 2009 and running through October 4, 2009. During these weeks (and, from reviewing the archive, it would seem during most weeks), the discussion list was very active, averaging an estimated 4 to 6 separate “threads” or individual topics per day. Some topics, particularly announcements, elicited no replies, while others (especially “hot” or controversial issues) generated 13 or even 16 responses. In a paper I wrote for a class last year, I conducted a study of a neighborhood-based electronic discussion list, which included the coding of individuals messages and of threads by content or purpose and author in an attempt to develop a rough picture of this online community and how it could relate to the geographic community in which the listserv was situated. While I did not conduct a similarly formal evaluation of the ISLMANET-L list, it was possible from active reading of the postings to develop a rough set of message types as well as a sense of the people who were the most active participants in the list. The sorts of messages that frequently observed included the following categories: announcements containing information about workshops, conferences, grants, award winners and so on which were often posted by people in ISLMA leadership or representatives of educational institutions; advertisements of chances to win books, authors available for class visits and similar that were often vehicles for self-promotion; requests for advice or help that could run the gamut from recommended book titles or Web sites for particular subjects to recommendations for programming or technology purchases; job opportunities posted either by those who are hiring or those who are seeking employment; and comparisons where posters are looking for baseline info or “what everyone else is doing” in order to help in decision-making or support a proposal for their library. The participants in the list during these three weeks was quite diverse. True, there were a few names that appeared a number of times and I recognized some of the individuals as librarians that work with student teachers or 4
- 5. Griswold / Listserv Monitoring classmates from GSLIS classes, but in all, the participants represented a wide sample of the subscribers to the list in geographic distribution, age levels taught and areas of interest. The one most common element shared by participants was employment--it is clear that this list is being used by the school media specialists it was intended to serve. During these three weeks, two particular threads seemed to generate more interest than others. The first of these was a request for advice about hands-on activities to introduce 3rd and 4th graders to the Dewey Decimal System posted by Lori Peterson of Evergreen Elementary School (personal communication, September 10, 2009). Between September 10 and September 28, fourteen individuals responded to the original message with suggested resources, such as books or Web sites that contained lesson ideas, as wells as some specific suggestions about activities that they use, such as a Dewey Decimal checkout game (like bingo) or a poster creation activity. All of the responders in this thread seemed very willing to share ideas and a few commented on other responders good ideas while offering their own. The original poster posted a “thank you” response towards the end of the thread, letting everyone know that she was following the thread and appreciated the assistance. This exchange provided an excellent example of the sorts of useful information and advice that are regularly exchanged through this discussion list. The second thread was started by Sarah Scholl, a librarian at Deer Path School in Cary, Illinois posted a link to an article from that day’s edition of the Daily Herald (personal communication, October 1, 2009). The article recounted a recent meeting concerning the future of the Oak Brook Public Library and highlighted a particularly obnoxious lawyer, Mr. Xinos, who is working against the public library and stated to the reporter, “I wanted that kid to lose sleep that night” in reference to an 11-year-old girl that he told to “stop whining” at the recent meeting after she spoke in defense of the librarians who had been laid off (B. Constable 2009). In her message, Scholl expressed her dismay at this story and the 5
- 6. Griswold / Listserv Monitoring situation in Oak Brook and wondered if others on the list had further knowledge about what was happening there. The seventeen messages that followed the original post were mostly expressions of outrage at the situation, extreme dislike of Mr. Xinos and his actions and suggestions for ways to advocate for the library (including boycotting shopping at Oak Brook Mall to deprive the village of sales tax receipts from those stores). The article was certainly written to stir outrage and discussion, and, based on the responses on this listserv, it did that. For the most part, none of the comments got too heated and the tone among the responders was very civil (which might be expected, since they all more or less felt the same about the problems in Oak Brook, especially at such a sensitive time when a number of libraries have been threatened with closure or radical cuts in budgets, staffing and service). I chose ISLMANET-L for this assignment as opposed to LM-NET, a world-wide list for school librarians, for very specific reason that I believe there is value sometimes in spending more time learning about the local environment and making virtual connections with individuals that you have a good chance of meeting in person at some point in the future. While it is true that ISLMANET-L may not give as broad an overview of the field of school librarianship and that the suggestions and information that are shared on it might be more limited than on a larger list with more geographically dispersed members, the more intimate nature of ISLMANET-L also makes it more manageable/less overwhelming, particularly to someone just entering the field. I firmly believe that this list is an excellent resource for any current or future school media specialist in Illinois--no matter what an individual’s stage of career, they will find something to gain (and to contribute, if they wish) to this community. Furthermore, the big issues in the field of school librarianship are very likely going to find their way into this list, but they will presented with the overlay of how the big issue is at play or affects individuals working in Illinois (as opposed to Indiana or California or Australia). Also, as school librarians are often quite solitary within their schools, and school districts often don’t do a very good job 6
- 7. Griswold / Listserv Monitoring of facilitating interaction even among other librarians in the district, the ISLMA list can help to foster a sense of community and create interconnectedness and relationships between librarians who may be working in neighboring towns, but otherwise may never have the opportunity to meet or collaborate. 7
- 8. Griswold / Listserv Monitoring References Constable, B. (2009, October 1). Ugly battle has librarians in Oak Brook turning to Teamsters. Daily Herald. Retrieved from http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=325508. ISLMA (2009, August 14). ISLMA mission and goals. Retrieved October 6, 2009 from http://www.islma.org/about_islma.htm. LISTSERV (2007, November 27). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved October 5, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LISTSERV. 8