Decline in Web4Lib message volume

[Sloan, Bernie]

In case any of you are ever feeling swamped with the volume of postings coming from Web4Lib, just be thankful it's not 1997 again. :-)

Web4Lib message volume peaked in 1997, with 6,521 postings that year, an average of 543 per month. Last year (2004) there were 2,919 postings, which averages out to 300 fewer postings per month than in 1997. (Not that there's anything inherently wrong with getting fewer e-mails).

Seriously though, Web4Lib traffic has tapered off significantly over the past few years...2004 may have been the lowest volume year ever. Just curious if anyone has any theories about why this might be the case? Has this happened with electronic discussion lists generally?

In case you're curious, here are the year by year totals:

> YEAR    TOTALS 
> 2004    2919   
> 2003    3324   
> 2002    3892   
> 2001    4591   
> 2000    4645   
> 1999    4521   
> 1998    4566   
> 1997    6521   
> 1996    3648   
> 1995    2627 (total is for nine motnhs)

Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant, ILCSO
University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
616 E. Green Street, Suite 213
Champaign, IL  61820

Phone: (217) 333-4895
Fax:   (217) 265-0454
E-mail: bernies at uillinois.edu