Discussion lists: a wealth of expertise and full community support at your fingertips
As a librarian, with limited – even dwindling – time and budgets, tapping into the community for resources and support can be invaluable. Numerous email discussion lists exist, and are dedicated to providing forums and support ranging from general issues such as licensing to specific niches such as prison librarianship. They allow you to pose questions to colleagues across the world and to monitor the issues affecting others in your community. Here is a short, and by no means exhaustive, list of some of the most popular and insightful of them:
Lists run by associations
Lis-e-journals was initially set up to discuss matters relating to e-journal provision and management. In 2008, it is being re-launched as Lis-e-resources to officially extend its scope to include all e-resources, and to complement the Electronic Resource Management Handbook (freely available from the UKSG website). This list has global membership from all sectors – academic, commercial, business and government librarians; publishers, intermediaries and vendors. All members are encouraged to participate in discussions and to raise questions and issues of any size. It is run by the UKSG, an information community association that connects librarians, publishers and vendors from all over the world. This list publishes a browseable archive and is not moderated.
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Lis-e-journals.html
The American Library Association runs a number of lists for librarians to share ideas and receive legislative information.
http://www.ala.org/
The IFLA Diglib list is for librarians, information scientists, and other information professionals to share information about the many issues and technologies pertaining to the creation of "digital libraries." It welcomes submissions about digital library-related projects, conferences, policy developments, research-in-progress, finding aids, bibliographies, reviews, resources, technologies, theory and practice. The list is moderated and publishes browseable archives.
http://www.ifla.org/II/lists/diglib.htm
Lists run by libraries or library staff
Liblicense is an international, moderated online discussion list frequented by over 3,000 librarians, publishers, attorneys, students and numerous other interested individuals. Its core topic is e-content licensing for academic & research libraries, and it has been at the centre of the Open Access debate in recent years. It does also cover a range of related e-content issues including copyright, archiving, digitisation, repositories and more. It is run by Yale University Library, the Commission on Preservation & Access, and the Council on Library Resources.
http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/mailing-list.shtml
Serialst (Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum) serves as an informal, moderated forum for most aspects of serials processing in libraries. Topics covered include: serials in relation to libraries (e.g., cataloging, acquisitions, collection management, public services); problem-solving for resolving questions that evolve with quirky titles, irregular publications or publication patterns; serials budgets and pricing concerns; binding, preservation, microfilm, digital (or electronic) and other non print serials media; announcements, news, and job postings that are of interest to the serials community. Serialst is supported by the technical team at the Office of Academic Computing at the University of Vermont.
http://www.uvm.edu/~bmaclenn/serialst.html
Lis-bloggers is a relatively new discussion list for librarians and information professionals who create, edit or manage blogs for current awareness or user education. It aims to be a discussion forum for the growing number of information professionals who are developing innovative services using blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies. The list is owned by Duncan Chappell of the Glasgow School of Art.
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-BLOGGERS.html
There are countless more discussion lists that relate to specific countries, disciplines, fields of librarianship and so on – for example, New Zealand library discussion lists or medical library discussion lists. They thrive on new subscribers to share thoughts and expertise. So whether you’re looking for an answer to your question, a digest with updates of the latest industry happenings, reviews, or weekly newsletters bringing you news and views, there are endless resources right at your fingertips.
For more comprehensive listings and etiquette guidelines, see:
http://librarysupportstaff.com/4subscribe.html and
http://liswiki.org/wiki/Discussion_groups
For more information about what discussion lists are and how they work, see:
http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=766
For local lists or list related to your field, simply search for “library discussion lists” in a major search engine.