Dear Colleagues,

   Since June 2008, the SERIALST moderators have been experimenting
with compiling and distributing a Commercial Digest once a week,
generally on Friday afternoons, with messages containing content from
commercial bodies (i.e., publishers, aggregators, vendors, etc.)

As Bob Persing, SERIALST Associate Moderator, noted in a June 24
message, "SERIALST receives many advertising messages from commercial
bodies [...] which the moderators don't pass on to the list.  We do
post messages from these same people or companies that are primarily
informational, or that are participating in list discussions.  We get
a third type of message, though: a mix of information and promotion
..."

We began compiling the Commercial digest to look at ways to handle
these hybrid messages with both informational and promotional content.
   To date we have received mixed reactions to the Digests -- from
reserved to favorable, to advice about not wanting to see such
messages.  The yays are currently outnumbering the nays, so we are
continuing with the experiment. However this week, we did not receive
messages that fall into the scope of the digest!

We have also received messages from folks in the commercial sector
asking for clarification about guidelines.  To this end, we've revised
the scope and purpose statement with a few sentences about guidelines,
notably for Commercial Digest content.

Essentially, here is what we've been doing for Commercial Digest
content:  The moderators review submitted messages for informational
content that may interest our subscribers. Messages that are purely
for advertising or product/service solicitation, with little or no
informational content beyond the solicitation, will not be included in
the Commercial Digest.

For additional information, please see:
http://www.uvm.edu/~bmaclenn/serialst.html#scope

If you have thoughts or feedback about the Commercial Digests, please
let us hear from you.  Contact information for the SERIALST moderators
is at:  http://www.uvm.edu/~bmaclenn/serialst.html#contacts

Best wishes,

     -- Birdie MacLennan
      SERIALST Listowner/Moderator

--
          Birdie MacLennan
          Bailey/Howe Library            E-mail:  bmaclenn@uvm.edu
          University of Vermont           AIM/IM:   birdieatbailey
          538 Main Street                  Phone:   802-656-2016
          Burlington, VT  05405, USA         Fax:   802-656-4038
      Library Associate Professor ; Coordinator, Serials & Cataloging
                 Interim Head, Collection Management Services