Librarians in virtual community : forum of the Croatian Library Association

Forum Hrvatskoga knjižničarskog društva postavljen je na mrežne stranice Hrvaskoga knjižničarskog društva (HKD) u prosincu 2005. godine. Statistika foruma trenutno bilježi 92 korisnika, 49 tema i 210 poruka (postova) što govori o poražavajuće slaboj posjećenosti i iskorištenosti ovog medija. U radu će biti riječi o raspravištu kao mediju, o prednostima i potrebama postojanja stručne forumske zajednice i o mogućim razlozima slabog odaziva korisnika na Forumu HKD-a. Također će se ponuditi rješenja kojima bi se podigla posjećenost Foruma i uspostavila kvalitetna i stručna virtualna zajednica koja bi ažurno stvarala raspravište te bila stručna pomoć i podrška kolegama iz struke, ali i mjesto neformalnog druženja.The Forum of the Croatian Library Association (CLA) was placed on the web site of the Association in December 2005. According to its statistics, the Forum currently has 92 users, 49 topics and 210 posts. The statistics testifies an extremely low number of visitors and usage of this Forum. The paper deals with forum as a media, stressing its advantages and the need for a professional forum community, while offering possible reasons for the low number of CLA Forum users. It also proposes ways to increase the number of participants in order to achieve a high-quality professional virtual community that would continuously upgrade the forum and provide professional assistance and support to colleague librarians, as well as offer casual social interaction