Merging Digital Preservation & Libraries & Information Science?

Question

Proposal: Digital Preservation

The Libraries & Information Science QA site is struggling to get enough activity.

Maybe it should be united with Digital Preservation?

They are different, of course, but quite related, with a rather large intersection in topics and users.

What do you think about it?

See tags:

http://libraries.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/digital-archiving
http://libraries.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/digital-collections
http://libraries.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/internet-archive
http://libraries.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/preservation
http://libraries.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/software

Answer 1

Rather than focus the time to discuss a mechanical merger and figure out who is for or against, why not sate yourselves for now on what is already on-topic for Libraries? Feel the merge potential, rather than talk about it. You don't need the merger for approval to ask on the site. Might as well ask now rather than waiting for Digital Preservation to launch.

That'll be a much better judge of the appropriateness of whether the Digital Preservation community would be happy sitting in the same site. See how everyone fits with what intersection already exists, and consequently work out from there if people are happy with the current state, or if a separate site is best.

Answer 2

I'll second Grace Note: if you think expanding the scope of Libraries would benefit the site, push for it now. Ask (good!) questions about digital preservation. Be prepared to defend your position on Meta.Libraries.

If anyone tells you “we shouldn't expand the scope now, but maybe later”, don't listen to them. Expanding the scope is best done early, not when the site is ready to go gold and already has a logo and stuff. (Yes, I'm speaking from bitter experience.) If the topic extension is sufficiently natural, the community will naturally grow to it. Stack Exchange sites are not meant to contain questions in a narrow specialty, but somewhere around the size of a university department. So it isn't a problem if no one is an expert on the whole topic of the site — that is expected, it is a necessary factor in having a critical mass to sustain the site.

After you've kickstarted a handful of questions, advertise the site to the people following the Digital Preservation proposal.

Answer 3

There are quite a few digital preservation questions up on the Libraries site without answers - http://libraries.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/preservation. Even if these two groups don't merge, joining that group and answering questions will help your rep. (as well as helping by answering those questions!)