🚀 go-pugleaf

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Date: Fri, 05 Feb 93 08:39:47 EST
From: Howard Pasternack <BLIPS15%BROWNVM.BITNET@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu>

I guess I am going to disagree with Professor Newby on several points, the
first being the ease with which most subscribers to this list can control
and/or change the system with which they can do electronic mail. Most
employees of academic libraries have very little choice about e-mail or
other computing systems.  A lot of people are still stuck on IBM mainframes
running RiceMail or Profs or similar Dec Vax facilities. Only where the
institution has provided workstations directly connected to the Internet
do real choices begin to occur, and even there, for most people the choice
is among the systems which the institution officially supports.  So, let's
be a little more tolerant of the people doing RiceMail on VM machine with
1 meg of virtual memory and 1 cylinder of "free" hard disk space.  And let's
also keep in mind that there are some institutions where departments
are charged real dollars for computing usage. Because it's easy for you
does not mean it is easy for someone else.

What Professor Newby does not address in his message is the environment
which is necessary to encourage people to read and contribute to the lists,
while at the same time preventing abuse.  The new medium is not the same
as the old, and several individuals have already discovered that they can
use the lists as marketing tools for themselves or their products or
as vanity presses.

Now, since this list is about training, let me ask a training question.
Is there a document of an official or semi-official sort which discuss
proper netiquette. Something which we can hand to users and discuss with
them. And something which in turn we can use to judge the recent controversies
on this list.

Howard Pasternack
Brown University


----------- Original message below forwarded by NETTRAIN moderator ------------

Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1993 09:26:25 -0700
From: Mary Lynn Rice-Lively <lyaa100@utxvm.cc.utexas.edu>

In response to Lee Jaffe's comments.....

I cannot agree more with the following:

"I don't think there'd be any point in blaming the medium for overload."

"The importance of these points of recognition is that there may be a key
role for librarians right now in developing and teaching effective coping
strategies."

Our own organization is struggling with these issues.  I have given a great
deal of thought to the "changing role of the information professional."  My
current conclusion is that the role itself == assisting in providing access
to information and a commitment to service == has not changed, though the
tools have.  Because the "tools" are changing it is imperative, in my
opinion, that librarians must shift priorities to teaching themselves, each
other, and their users the best ways to "exploit" electronic information
resources.  Additionally, library organizations must also reassess
priorities and reallocate staff and financial resources accordingly.

Mary Lynn Rice-Lively

LIS and MSIS Librarian
General Libraries
University of Texas at Austin
ml.rice-lively@utxvm.cc.utexas.edu