Something on the odd nature of e-lists Kathryn Wright <LIBKAT@INDST.BITNET> 17 Jul 1991 18:52 UTC
I guess this is a plea that if you see something of interest to other people on other discussion lists on one list, that you forward it on to the appropriate lists. I hope Ms. Wright isn't advocating a FCC for discussion lists when she mentions "uncontrolled discussion lists", but rather the fact that an up-to-date list of discussion groups and topics discussed is very difficult to maintain. Perhaps a publishing/commercial opportunity for some enterprising people. (Apparently some universities have people whose job is to read and route electronic conference/bulletin board/list messages to people or topical distribution files--ALA 1991 ALCTS Role of the Professional--Keeping up--is it possible?) Pam Deemer Emory U. Law Library, Atlanta GA libped@emuvm1 *** Forwarding note from MAILER --EMUVM1 07/16/91 22:55 *** Received: from GITVM1.BITNET by EMUVM1.CC.EMORY.EDU (Mailer R2.03B) with BSMTP id 0936; Tue, 16 Jul 91 22:55:05 EDT Received: by GITVM1 (Mailer R2.08) id 7051; Tue, 16 Jul 91 22:54:19 EDT Date: Tue, 16 Jul 91 21:22:22 EST Reply-To: "AUTOCAT: Library cataloging and authorities discussion group" <AUTOCAT@UVMVM.BITNET>, Kathryn Wright <LIBKAT@INDST.BITNET> Sender: "AUTOCAT: Library cataloging and authorities discussion group" <AUTOCAT@UVMVM.BITNET> To: David Chen <LIBDWC@EMUVM1.BITNET>, "<Pam Deemer>" <LIBPED@EMUVM1.BITNET>, Linda Visk <LIBRLV@EMUVM1.BITNET>, Susan Bailey <LIBSBB@EMUVM1.BITNET> Just an observation relative to electronic discussion groups that indicates their unique nature. Currently two discussions are in progress on AUTOCAT that are also being carried on on other lists: the question of citing and archiving electronic forums and journals is also on ARACHNET (A Loose Association of Electronic Discussion Groups and Electronic Journals of Interest to Scholars; Dan Lester, as a multi-listowner, is a member), and the discussion of raising dusty problems in cataloging older books was raised on NOTRBCAT by a nonmember who, I trust, is getting the benefit of NOTRBCAT responses through a colleague who is a member. At the moment I'm trying to retrieve the AUTOCAT log for July to determine whether the discussion actually started here. Besides pointing out the ease with which a single discussion can weave around among more than one forum, with some of the same participants in each, this situation also reminds us that topics of valid concern to a much wider potential constitutency tend to arise in various forums. Questions of copyright in the electronic discussion medium have been worked over on HUMANIST, LSTOWN-L, and ARACHNET, to my knowledge, and this is only one small example. Where is the organization and the indexing of this information? Various paths present themselves. It's good for the library community to begin concerning itself with issues involving the networks. But AUTOCAT is only part of the library community. And the library community is only part of the popu- lation that should be concerned. The formation of discussion groups is essentially uncontrolled. Kathryn Wright Indiana State University