This is just a quick note to ping the library UX community to see where it is that most folks are gathering online to talk shop. If anyone can fill me in on the state of these communities and how viable they still are, I’d appreciate it greatly. As you will see in my quick review of the sites that I’m familiar with, I’ve got some preferences about spaces where I’d like to be a visitor and others where I’d rather be a resident (see David White’s work on the visitor and residents model for more on that concept).
Library UX on Slack
Home: https://libux.co/slack
Register: https://libux.herokuapp.com/
Until the pandemic set in last March, I used to be quite active here. It was a busy place at times, and then lately not so much. Among the online communities I’ve kept an eye on, this one was usually the busiest. One notable downside about it is that it’s a free Slack space, which means that only the last 10,000 messages can be viewed or searched.
#libux on Twitter
Home: https://twitter.com/hashtag/libux
Although I’ve been posting to Twitter since early 2007, almost all of that activity has been me sharing articles and blog posts that I’d saved in Instapaper and thought to be worth sharing (I’d set up an integration between the two services to auto-tweet any saved item that I’d favorited). Although I am more of a visitor in Twitter, I can envision becoming more of a resident there if the libux hashtag gets used more. There’s also a uxlibs hashtag, but that seems to be used mostly for the annual UXLibs conference in the UK that I’ve heard great things about since its launch.
UXers channel on code4lib Slack
Home: https://code4lib.slack.com/
Register https://code4lib.org/slack
Not a lot of traffic here in a while but it would seem (in theory at least) to benefit by being within the code4lib community, which has long been very lively in various online spaces. This is also a free Slack space, and so has limits on how far back you can view or search messages.
Library UX Community
Home: https://luxcommunity.web.illinois.edu/
Register: https://luxcommunity.web.illinois.edu/registration/
I’ve always been partial to the bulletin board style forum, which this WordPress site offers. It hasn’t had a lot of traction yet but holds promise.