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Re: "Reasonable" E-Mail Contact?



<snip>

"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."

My experience has been just the opposite. I've been watching the
de-evolution of the English language in nearly unintelligible e-mails, and
often have to resort to calling the sender if I can for an interpretation.

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist/Web Editor
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax 419-352-6086
tberry@hcea.net
http://www.hcea.net



----- Original Message -----
From: "John Howard Fowler" <johnhowardfowler@JUNO.COM>
To: <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 5:38 PM
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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> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
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>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>