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Terms of Participation for the List



Dear List participants:

The draft version of the Terms of Participation for the List, posted 23
June, received 21 comments from 14 subscribers.  Based on these comments,
SAA Council approved one minor and two major changes to the Terms.  The
minor one was two additions to the "topics to be avoided list.?  The two
major changes were:  limiting posts to subscribers; major revision of the
copyright wording.

Limiting posts to subscribers will, we hope, reduce the incidents of
commercial spamming.  Regarding copyright, comments both on and off the
list prompted a complete overhaul, specifically aimed at clarifying and
strengthening the explanations and encouragement of ?fair use.?  One
commentator suggested, specifically, the H-Net copyright statement as a
model and we did, in fact, borrow heavily from that statement.

These terms are now in effect--they will become part of the "welcome"
message each new subscriber receives, and will be posted on the list
website.  We would like to stress again, however, that 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).

Council will review and if necessary revise the Terms of Participation
before the end of 2001.  Further comments can be directed to list manager
Bob Schmidt, or to any one of the members of the Council ad hoc committee
for the List:  Fynnette Eaton, Mark Greene, Richard Pearce-Moses, Helen
Tibbo.



ARCHIVES AND ARCHIVISTS
TERMS OF PARTICIPATION
(8/4/00)

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)
*apologies for accidentally posting something to the entire list
*censures of people who have obviously posted something accidentally to the
list
* 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. Only members of (subscribers to) the list may post
messages to the list.

Subscribers who wish 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 (adapted from  ?H-Net?s Policy on Copyright and Intellectual
Property, November 8, 1999,? at < http://www2.h-
net.msu.edu/about/intellectualproperty.html>)

The list is a nonprofit communications service intended to advance the
teaching, research, and service of scholars, educators, and students.
Preserving copyright rights is a collective responsibility: Subscribers to
the list must respect the intellectual property of others. 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.

Consistent with the objective of encouraging professional education, users
are encouraged to transmit copyrighted works to or through the list, with
the express permission of the copyright holder or in accordance with the
fair use provisions of copyright law. SAA advises subscribers that posting
to the list or Web, as contrasted with private e-mail correspondence, may
legally constitute publication."

Although authors of messages to the list retain the copyright in those
messages, sending a message to this list for posting will constitute
permission to SAA and to the list subscribers for electronic distribution
and downloading for nonprofit educational purposes with proper attribution
to the author, the originating list, and the date of original posting.
Original messages to this list are not in the public domain, and may not be
used for other than educational, nonprofit purposes without the permission
of the copyright holder and notification to SAA.

Senders of messages must obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted work
beyond the scope of "fair use." Posters must make a good-faith effort to
confirm that material whose origin or content appears to be entirely
derivative or nontransformative and which exceeds fair use does not violate
copyright in the original.  Please note, the fact that the list is an
educational, nonprofit venture does not alone entitle subscribers to
duplicate copyrighted materials in toto. The Supreme Court has indicated,
in Campbell vs. Acuff-Rose (1994), "the mere fact that a use is educational
and not for profit does not insulate it from a finding of infringement"
(114 S.Ct. at 1174). In general, this means that the mere labeling of a
duplication as "fair use" or the transmission of a copy to a non-profit,
educational listserv for does not alone establish it as a fair use.

Given the legal uncertainty surrounding "fair use" in the digital
environment, subscribers are encouraged to provide summaries of the work,
reinforced by quotations or excerpts and references to the original source,
rather than reproducing entire works.  In general--with the exceptions of
messages already posted to this list, government documents, materials whose
copyright has expired, and journal tables of contents, all of which may
usually be reprinted without permission--copyrighted material beyond brief
quotations should not be posted 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.

In instances where public domain material is quoted extensively, or where
extended quotes are fair use, the author, copyright holder, original
source, title, copyright statement, and, in the case of materials obtained
from the World Wide Web, the URL of the material being reproduced, should
be included in the message. Care should be taken in formatting and
presentation to preserve the integrity and legibility of the original. Mel
Page's Internet Citation Guide as well as the major style manuals provide
specific guidance as to the proper form for citing digital materials.

PARTICIPANTS ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL MATERIALS THEY POST TO ARCHIVES
AND ARCHIVISTS.

COPYRIGHT VIOLATIONS (modified from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
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.

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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