Thanks David and others. Good points, all.
More than anything, I suppose I was trying to get a handle on how
*active* most list members are -- not only as contributors but as
readers as well. I for one, will admit to deleting most posts but,
to David's point, and owing to the diverse membership of ARSC, not
all threads will appeal to all members.
Fair enough.
In the interests of honesty, I should say that most replies in
favor of the current listserv system are from highly active
contributors. This would include, but is not limited to, folks who
spend a generous amount of time at digital workstations,
(presumably) making them more likely receive ARSClist messages "as
they happen". To the contrary, at least one member mentioned that
trying to catch up to the list, in cases where one has been away
from the computer for expended periods of time, is next to impossible.
Another point: Because most replies in favor of keeping a listserv
came from active contributors, it is perhaps not surprising that
there was little mention of the cumbersome search function and the
fact that one must click each individual post as s/he browses
though a conversation in the online archives. (The solution being
the ability to view threads as entire "conversations" rather than
isolated emails.)
I guess the question is, how much are we tailoring this thing to
our own needs and conveniences vs. perhaps making the list's
contents easier to navigate for the greater archival/collector/
discographer/etc community? No, this is not a rhetorical
question. I'm asking because an answer in either direction will,
in turn, answer almost all of my questions above.
Seems we're providing a bountiful wealth of knowledge to the
public...provided they're wiling to cross a swamp to get it.
(Again, this goes back to the question about whom our target
audiences are for these posts.)
again thanks,
Brandon
_______________________________________
Brandon Burke
Assistant Archivist for Audiovisual Collections
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6010
voice: 650.724.9711
fax: 650.725.3445
email: burke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx