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Re: CHANGE IN LISERVE OPERATION



I welcome anything that Robert Schmidt can do to decrease the amount of
traffic generated by the list and improve its quality.

I am finding that the signal-to-noise ratio on the Archives list is
becoming unbearable.  For every thoughtful, knowledgeable post from someone
like Cal Lee or Jim Lindner, there are innumerable asides; chit-chat that
would be more appropriate for a teen-age IRC server; well-meaning but
unresearched, off-the-cuff responses from people who feel they must respond
immediately to almost every request for assistance; and responses from
people who chose to ignore requests that people respond directly to a
researcher because the researcher does not subscribe to the list.  This
doesn't even count the "how do I unsubscribe" messages, the auto-generated
virus warnings, and the misdirected personal responses.

I have been a subscriber to the Archives list since its "IndyCMS" days and
have always supported the list as an important avenue, along with Archival
Outlook, American Archivist and Archivaria, and the national and regional
meetings, for improving the quality of archival work in the US.  Right now,
though, I have to use filters to try to identify those few messages a week
that might be worth reading.  The rest get discarded, unread.  At some
point I have to ask why I even bother with the filters.

The earlier, gentle request found in the list's terms of participation to
avoid off-topic discussions, messages unrelated to archives or the
profession, messages directed to specific individuals, and general humor
hasn't worked.  I for one hope this new test makes a difference.




---------------------------------------------------------------
Peter B. Hirtle
Co-Director                                pbh6@cornell.edu
Cornell Institute for Digital Collections     607/255-4033 (ph)
2B Kroch Library                                   607/255-9524 (fax)
Cornell University                <http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/>
Ithaca, NY  14853
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