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Draft Terms of Participation for the A&A List



To All List Subscribers:

Since it?s inception in 1989, the Archives and Archivist List has been an
unmoderated forum for the discussion of professional information and
opinions.  In 1998, the List?s founding sponsor and manager, John Harlan,
asked SAA to assume responsibility for the List.  SAA Council agreed, in
order to ?disseminate information and news and allow for free discussion of
issues of interest to the archival community? (SAA Council Handbook, C.24;
the Handbook is accessible via SAA?s website at www.archivists.org).  Bob
Schmidt graciously volunteered to serve as the List?s manager.

Council appointed an ad hoc committee to work with the manager to bring
issues regarding the list before SAA Council.  The current members of that
committee are:

Fynnette Eaton (chair)
Mark Greene
Richard Pearce-Moses
Helen Tibbo

Within the last six months, several issues relating to the list have arisen
for SAA Council?s consideration.  These have included:  changes in the law
regarding liability for copyright infringement on the Internet, and
particularly a lack of consensus among legal experts about how these
changes might effect list sponsors such as SAA; increased concerns
about ?spamming? on the list; uncertainty over the bounds of ?on-topic?
postings to the list; more frequent and serious threats from viruses
distributed as attachements in e-mail.  In an attempt to address these
issues, Council requested that the ad hoc committee work with Bob Schmidt
to draft formal ?Terms of Participation? for the list.

Following this introduction are the draft Terms, as approved by Council.
These Terms of Participation do not change the fundamental structure,
purpose, or operations of the list.  Most importantly, the Terms of
Participation do not alter the fact that the list is unmoderated, and that
SAA ?does not direct nor is it responsible for the content of discussion to
the list except in insuring that discussion is relevant to archival issues?
(SAA Council Handbook, C.24).

The Terms of Participation do, however, attempt to establish some basic
(though broad) definitions of topicality, to clarify copyright status and
responsibility, and to specify how violations of the Terms will be
handled.  The Terms of Participation are appended below.

During the next two weeks, we invite comments from List members on the
Terms of Participation.  Council will consider those comments, and revise
the Terms as needed before they become effective in thirty (30) days.  The
terms will then become part of the "welcome" message each new subscriber
receives, and will be posted on the list website.

Comments (favorable, unfavorable, or suggestions) are welcome, and should
be directed to:

Robert Schmidt [rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu]

##########################################################################

ARCHIVES AND ARCHIVISTS
TERMS OF PARTICIPATION
(Draft, 6/23/00)

Archives and Archivists is a high volume list begun in 1989 by Donna Harlan
and John Harlan as an open forum for all topics relating to archives and
the archival profession.  In 1998, the Society of American Archivists
assumed sponsorship of the list as a service to the profession, to foster
communication among the larger community of professional archivists.

MISSION
Archives and Archivists provides a venue for the discussion of all aspects
of the theory and practice of the archival profession.

AUDIENCE
The principal audiences include professional archivists, archival educators,
and students enrolled in graduate archival education curricula.  The list is
open to all with an interest in the archival profession and in the
preservation and promotion of archival materials.  Membership in the Society
of American Archivists is not required for participation in the list.

SCOPE OF THE LIST
Subjects appropriate to the list include all aspects of the theory and
practice of the archival profession, such as

* Appraisal and acquisition
* Arrangement and description
* Reference and access
* Reproduction and copyright
* Preservation and security
* Outreach
* Location of archival collections and information relating to a subject or
individual
* Archival education programs
* Continuing education programs
* Professionalism and certification
* Ethics
* Archival administration and policies
* Job announcements
* Exhibition announcements
* Publications announcements
* Archival humor, including humorous anecdotes or events that have happened
to you, that you created yourself, or are the fruit of your imagination,
quick comebacks, and wit, especially as they pertain to archives and a
current thread, have a long tradition on the List

Subjects to be avoided include

* Off-topic discussions
* Spam
* Messages unrelated to archives or the profession
* Commercial advertisements for goods or services
* Messages directed to specific individuals (contact them directly)
* Flames (personal attacks)
* Virus warnings, chain letters, or "please post widely" messages.
Generally, such messages are hoaxes.
* General humor.  Avoid forwarding jokes and humor from your in-basket.
Participants are encouraged to consider when enough is enough, and to
remember that not everyone considers such messages entirely entertaining.

PARTICIPATION
Anyone may subscribe to the list, receive messages, and review the list
archives at no cost.

Those wishing to post to the list agree to abide by these Terms of
Participation; to restrict their messages to the scope of the list; to
respect the interests and rights of other readers and of the list host; to
follow generally accepted principles of netiquette; and to respect the law.

Discussion is encouraged to be free-flowing, open, and informal.
Participants are encouraged to err on the side of openness and posting
messages.

The list is unmoderated.  Hence, individuals are solely responsible for
their postings and are expected to be self-policing.

In general, participants are not sanctioned for failing to comply with these
guidelines. However, the list sponsors and manager reserve the right to
block an individual from posting if off-topic or abusive postings threaten
to disrupt the functioning of the list. Further, the list manager may, in
consultation with members of the Council Listserv Advisory Committee,  block
an individual from posting if he or she believes that the individual has
violated these Terms of Participation and has persisted in postings messages
that violate these Terms after notice from the manager.  An individual
blocked from posting may be allowed to resume posting when the list manager
and members of the Council Listserv Advisory Committee feel that the
individual is willing to abide by these guidelines.

ATTACHMENTS
The list does not accept messages with attachments.  The increased threat of
viruses, as well as confusion caused by non-standard encoding of
attachments, compels this policy.  Attachments will be stripped from
messages automatically by the list software.  This includes signature block
attachments.  Attachments should be converted to plain text and pasted into
the body of the message.

COPYRIGHT
Participants retain copyright to their individual postings to the list and
control all rights to the use of those postings.  Publication of the
discussion posted on the List requires the permission of the the individuals
who own copyright to the postings.

As a profession directly associated with protecting the intellectual
property rights of authors whose works are in our custody, participants are
encouraged to set a high standard of respect for copyright.

Participants forwarding messages written by others should recognize that
they are effectively publishing those messages.  Participants should assume
that any material not authored personally to be protected by copyright. As
such, the participant should consider the possibility that they are
violating the original author's copyright and that they are opening
themselves to the possibility of litigation.

Simply put, copyrighted material beyond brief quotations should not be
posted to the List without appropriate permissions.  Participants wishing to
direct others to copyrighted text are encouraged to post a link to the
copyrighted materials on the web as long as: a) such links do not circumvent
any fees charged by the site; b) the URL is not to a site which is itself in
violation of copyright.

Participants assume responsibility for all materials they post to archives
and archivists.

Individuals or organizations who feel their copyright has been
infringed should send a hard-copy letter (on letterhead, if appropriate)
to the Executive Director, Society of American Archivists, Chicago, IL
60607 (info@archivists.org).  Complaints should
a) specify the content they believe to be in infringing,
b) the date of posting,
c) other information necessary to identify the content in question, and
d) include a clear statement that the individual making the complaint is the
owner of copyright or authorized to act on behalf of the owner of copyright.

On receipt of a bonafide complaint of copyright infringement, the list
manager will contact the individual(s) responsible for the alleged violation
and request that the individual(s) cease future postings from that source.
If the complainant requests, SAA will also direct the postings to be purged
from the list archives.  If the individual making the post believes the
complaint to be in error or that that the material has been misidentified,
it is the responsibility of the individual making the post to earn
acknowledgement of error/misidentification either from the complainant or
from a court of law, at which point SAA will restore the material to the
list archives and permit future postings.

If SAA receives multiple, bonafide complaints regarding an individual
posting copyrighted materials, the list manager may block posts from that
individual as described in Participation (above).

NETIQUETTE
For a general discussion of netiquette, see _Netiquette_ by Virginia Shea:
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/index.html

Messages should trigger discussion through a question or observation, or
should further a discussion by adding something new.

Participants should remember that other readers receive messages in a
different context from the author. Messages-especially responses- should be
long enough to be understandable, including enough of the original message
(by quoting or paraphrasing) to provide context.  However, when replying to
a message, avoid including the full text of long messages.

Avoid inflammatory remarks of a personal nature.  Similarly, when reading a
message, be slow to take offense.  In general, assume that an individual had
good intentions when  posting a message, but the rapidity of the medium, the
lack of visual cues, and other factors may make an otherwise innocent
message seem insulting.  Countering with insults on the list is considered
off-topic.

Participants should consider whether their reply if of interest to the list
as a whole or only to the individual making the posting.  Do not
automatically use the reply key (which usually responds to the whole list).
The best and most experienced participants will occasionally make this
mistake, which is entirely forgivable.

Avoid posting styled text (messages formatted with html code) to the list,
as many e-mail readers and the digest readers are unable to read these
messages easily.

LIST OWNERSHIP
Archives and Archivists is sponsored by the Society of American Archivists.
SAA Council is charged with setting policy on the list.
Three members of SAA Council serve as an ad hoc List advisory committee,
to assist the List manager with policy interpretations and to serve as
liaison between the manager and the full Council.  A list manager
oversees the daily operations of the list, including assisting
participants with their subscriptions.  The list manager, in
consultation with the Council committee, may also block an individual
from posting to the list.

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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>