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Re: "Reasonable" E-Mail Contact?



Now if we could just get more researchers to use those nifty SASEs . . .

Chris,

Do you mean those dirty, glue riddled, acid ink laden, problems of uncertain
origin and doubtful lineage (the recycled paper). Certainly the in you is
not advocating the use of such a destructive and vile product. We can only
harkin back to the halcyon days of PA's youth, go with me to see Hamurabi
laying down the first code, Papyrus being formed and the later introduction
of Papyrus, Velum and the other "true" mediums of  permanent record
information.

Keep in mind that we as archivists may influence change in some ways, but we
are not the arbiters of that change. It feels good to "rail 'gainst the
winds of change" but we must also recognize that we need to figure out how
to maintain the metadata of today. I would urge all archivists to become
friends with their Records Manager. Find out what the line of business is
deciding, create and expand your sphere of influence. We all must rely on
"some computer geek to "archive" the material for them still have to address
the problem of how to access thos records in a meaningful way". That we rely
on a person like this is not a bad thing. I personally do not get a charge
out of sitting microfilming, processing the film and then doing the QC on it
along with all my other duties. I would rely on another to do it. However I
would insist on the standards and methodology. This is the battle you must
win. Learn the information you need to perform your job. But understand that
others will need to work with you to endure you are successful at it.

Chris "deep thoughts on a payday Friday before April 15th" Flynn

 -----Original Message-----
From:   John Howard Fowler [mailto:johnhowardfowler@JUNO.COM]
Sent:   Friday, April 12, 2002 2:38 PM
To:     ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject:        Re: "Reasonable" E-Mail Contact?

While I'm sorry Christine's buttons are being pushed, I think she's in about
the same position as an engineer in the 1980's would have been, if he
refused to give up his slide-rule.  The time has come to give up the quill
pen.

Most professional journals and many academic journals already list the email
addresses of writers and correspondents.  This is a tendency that will only
increase as postage rates increase.  Back in the nineteenth century it was
not uncommon for individuals to correspond with each other on a daily basis.
Indeed, even in the 1960's, I could reasonably expect to pass two or three
letters from school to my hometown in a week.  That is hardly the case, now.
In an odd sense, using email returns me to those genteel days of daily note
correspondence.

There is also the simple fact that as the regular posts have become slower
and far more unreliable, some sort of electronic communication was bound to
become pervasive, and the only other alternative would seem to be the
telephone.  I for one, loathe speaking on the phone, where there is neither
the nuance of face-to-face conversation nor the relaxed response time of
literary composition.  Thus, for those of us who hate talking on the
telephone, email has, in fact, become a godsend.

In case we all hadn't noticed, telephone requests for information and
services have greatly increased over the past decade or so.  Referring
people to email gives them the opportunity to get a reasonably fast response
while saving you the hassle of trying to decode what some disembodied voice
coming over a wire is getting at.

As for lifestyle changes--well, I can't see why looking at one's email once
every day or so really is more strain than looking into the mailbox on the
front stoop.

I expect the real reason for most objections to email is technophobia.  We
archivists are a fustian lot, for the most part.  But we need to confront
this fear pretty soon.  The number of archivists who still haven't come up
with plans on how to handle their own organization's electronic
correspondence is astonishing.  And even those who can rely on some computer
geek to "archive" the material for them still have to address the problem of
how to access thos records in a meaningful way.

There has been far too little discussion of that problem on this list.

John Howard Fowler

---------- christine harper <harperc@SLU.EDU> writes:

From: christine harper <harperc@SLU.EDU>
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: "Reasonable" E-Mail Contact?
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 15:02:45 -0500

Dear Folks,

Steve Masar asked whether it's "reasonable" to expect researchers to
provide e-mail addresses along with/instead of U. S. postal mail
addresses. (I refuse to use the derogatory term "snail mail.")

Sorry, but the current insistence on e-mail addresses pushes all the
wrong buttons with me.  As an archivist, I don't care how people prefer
to be contacted, although I don't like playing phone tag any more than
Steve does, especially the long-distance kind.  Besides, I often end up
using an e-mail address only to request a postal mail address in order
to send the patron Xerox copies of the material requested. (No, we can't
scan the info or provide it all over the internet).

As a researcher, I simply am not interested in having a computer/Web
access/e-mail/etc. in my home.  The reasons are many: money, lifestyle
choice, comfort (or lack thereof) with technology.  I have lost contact
with my remaining high school friends because I cannot provide them with
a private e-mail address to which they can direct their e-letters!  So
be it.  But e-mail is only one of the legitimate choices of
communication open to us at this moment in time.  For many people, it is
still not a viable/desirable choice and may never be.  Who are the
"e-mail police" to demand otherwise?

Unfortunately, I see our society trending more and more away from choice
and toward mandatory use of e-mail.  I hope that we archivists,
committed as we are to equal access to information, won't lend ourselves
to this troubling abridgment of civic and personal freedom.

Now if we could just get more researchers to use those nifty SASEs . . .

Chris Harper
Archives Assistant, Saint Louis University
harperc@slu.edu

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