Unshelved by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes

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Monday, May 17, 2010

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The Future Of Unshelved Answers

by Bill ( link to this post | email me | my twitter )

Last fall we introduced Unshelved Answers, a place to share your expertise about libraries and the things in them. It uses software called Stack Exchange originally developed for a software answers site called Stack Overflow which I use and admire. When I heard they were allowing companies to make their own Stack Exchange sites we jumped on the opportunity. Since then we've been gratified to see our site become a resource for thousands of librarians and other book nerds.

Unfortunately, just as Stack Exchange was due to come out of beta, the creators decided to make a major change in their business model. Instead of relying on outside companies and organizations to create Stack Exchange sites, they are going to do it themselves using a community-based model. Read about it here.

Here's what we know:

We'll keep Unshelved Answers up and running as normal until April of 2011.
Ideally between now and then a library-centric Stack Exchange site will emerge to replace it. We'll let you know when and how you can influence that decision.
Before Unshelved Answers goes away we will archive all your questions and answers and make them available online.
We don't know if they can be exported to a hypothetical replacement site.
We don't know if your accounts will transfer over.

So for now feel free to ask and answer your questions on our site. After all, we're all in this together.

P.S. Have more questions about this? Ask them, of course, at Unshelved Answers.

Wiley

by Bill ( link to this post | email me | my twitter )

Years ago Wiley helped get Unshelved's sponsorship program off the ground, and this week we're happy to have them back. They'll be featuring a different book each day, Monday through Friday. We invite you to investigate each and every one!