Christian van der Ven presented on using forums to build user communities for local history, genealogy, and historical research. The Brabant Historical Information Center started forums in 2006 and saw growth in posts and comments over time. Their strategy was to constantly monitor and engage with users. This resulted in patrons meeting and helping each other, as well as the archives gaining additional information. While it brought challenges, forums overall helped the archives provide an alternative reference platform and build community."

2. FORUMS
WORK
Christian van der Ven Offene Archive Spyer, Germany 22 November 2012

3. About 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

4. Topics
 Forums work!
 Goals BHIC
 Overview
 Strategy
 Results
 The good and the bad
 Questions and discussion
 Bonus: Chat works! (only when there’s time left)

5. 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!
 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

6. Goals 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

7. Overview

13. Overview
Forums 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

14. Overview
Forum 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

15. Strategy

16. Strategy
 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.)

17. Results

18. 10000
8964
8781
9000
8000
7000
6000 5567 5950
5000
4000
3000
2000 2120
2049
1000
714 618
380 347
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Until October
New Posts Local History/Water New Posts Genealogy/Historical Research
Comments Local History/Water Comments Genealogy/Historical Research

19. New Posts and Comments Genealogy/
Historical Research
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Until October
New Posts Comments

20. Share of Posts Genealogy/
Historical Research
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Until October
BHIC Users
Graph shows posting messages, not monitoring them

21. Avarage Amount of Comments
15,0
10,0
5,0
0,0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Until October
Local History Water Genealogy/Historical Research Total

22. Community in 2011
Graph based on 5688 posts by 1283 people who left their e-mail address
That’s 65% of the total amount of posts for 2011
800
700
707 users posted 1 message
600
500
400
Users
300
1 user posted 451 messages
200 (and she is from
New Zealand)
100
0
1
3
5
7
9
13
15
19
37
43
45
62
11
17
21
23
25
30
39
50
71
86
7
1
24
45
Posts

23. The 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.

24. 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!)

25. Questions & Discussion

26. Chat works!

27. Goals 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

28. W
ee
k da
ys
7
PM
–
10
PM

29. Subjects
History
Genealogy
Research
General
Source data: 2009/2010

30. Handling
Answered
Followed by e-mail
Invited to study room
Invited to e-mail
Internally redirected
Referred
Not answered
Other
Source data: 2009/2010

31. Results
 About 1.300 chats per year
 First staffed reference desk in a virtual research room
 Very, very, very happy patrons 