[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Concern about tone of recent list messages

[Ruth Frasur]

Kathy,

Thanks for posting this.  I will say, if anything I said was offensive, I
apologize.  I second the comment, "I love Evergreen, and I love the
community that supports it."


On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 3:36 PM, Kathy Lussier <klussier at masslnc.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Over the past few days, I've heard from a few of our end users here in
> Massachusetts. They are people who don't typically post to the Evergreen
> list, but they do subscribe to it and keep up with the discussions in the
> community. We've always encouraged our end users to subscribe to this list
> because we think it's important that they be informed of Evergreen
> discussions.  We also would like them to be active participants in the
> community and in setting the future course for Evergreen. I suspect that
> other Evergreen sites encourage there users to subscribe to the list  as
> well and, as a result, there is a whole slew of end users lurking on these
> lists who we never hear from.
>
> The end users who contacted me this week were frustrated with the tone of
> some e-mails sent out as part of the discussion of problems with checkins.
> Many of the e-mails in that thread were very thoughtful and respectful as
> people identified potential problem points and described how they worked
> through similar problems at their libraries. However, some e-mails were
> laced with a bit of sarcasm and bordered on being disrespectful towards the
> people who are using the system on a day-to-day basis. The people I spoke
> to generally found that the tone was dismissive of the concerns of end
> users.
>
> Although it is rare for me to hear complaints about the tone of e-mails on
> this list, I must admit it's not the first time I've noticed dismissive
> comments made about users. Typically, I don't see these comments on e-mail
> lists, but they are sometimes made in publicly-logged communication
> channels. I don't see these comments as much as I did when I first started
> working in the community, but they still come up from time to time.
>
> I thought it would be worthwhile to send out a reminder to everyone that
> the e-mails on this list are read by all different types of people from the
> Evergreen community from front-line staff working on the circ desk to
> catalogers to the patrons served by our libraries. All of the discussions
> on the list and in the IRC channel are publicly logged and available for
> anyone to read.
>
> We aren't always going to agree on what causes a problem or even agree
> that a particular problem is important. However, when a concern is raised,
> we do need to treat the people who have that concern, whether they are the
> original poster of the question or a lurker who feels the pain of the
> original question, with the respect we would expect to receive if we were
> the ones who raised a concern. While sarcasm has its time and place (and,
> believe me, I use sarcasm quite a bit, even if I don't show it much around
> here), I don't think it's advisable to use it when talking about the
> primary users of our software.
>
> From the comments I've received, a result of that discussion was that some
> end users a) felt undervalued and b) were less likely to participate in
> future list discussions. I don't think we want to discourage that kind of
> participation from our users. The more we hear from them, the better
> position we are in to make Evergreen better for everyone.
>
> I love Evergreen, and I love the community that supports it. I truly
> believe that no offense was intended in any of the e-mails that were sent.
> I just request that everyone uses a little more care when responding to
> concerns raised on this list.
>
> Thank you,
> Kathy
>
>
> --
> Kathy Lussier
> Project Coordinator
> Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
> (508) 343-0128
> klussier at masslnc.org
> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
>
>


-- 
Ruth Frasur
Director of the Historic(ally Awesome) Hagerstown - Jefferson Township
Library
10 W. College Street in Hagerstown, Indiana (47346)
p (765) 489-5632; f (765) 489-5808

Our Kickin' Website <http://hagerstownlibrary.org>  Our Rockin' Facebook
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