Active participation in DistList

For the record, no responses were received to my recent query
regarding RFQ's or RFP's for integrated library systems.  I plead
guilty of inviting people to respond to me off-line to this most
recent query, as has been my habit in the past.  Having always been
diligent about following through and summarizing responses received
to my queries for the List, I'd like to offer an opinion in defense
of this practice.

Over time, numerous messages have been posted to the DistList such
that my reading of them revealed neither any clue about what
original message they were in response to nor any way of judging
whether they were helpful. Thus, to me, they would have been better
summarized. Another concern was that in some instances I retained
enough recollection of queries to recognize the time lapses between
them and the responses unbelievably long. I choose, however, not to
delve into the issue of whether people respond to the list first and
foremost to help with the problems posted or for posterity's sake.

    **** Moderator's comments: This (quite legitimate) comment
    reflects a problem I'm aware of and which will someday be
    corrected. For the time being, the best I can do is maintain
    consistent (if not always obviously so) subject headings and try
    to include enough context in the message to help make some sense
    of. Eventually, I hope the archives will include some level of
    subject-thread cross-referencing, but it will take a while.

I suspect that whether one responds to the list or to the person
posting a query is a matter of opinion and stand by mine.  I prefer
summaries of responses.  The qualifier, however, is that the kind of
information I seek tends to be more routine and not open to the
kinds of debates that do take place on the DistList from time to
time, which I find these as interesting as the next person.

Regina A. Sinclair
Preservation Librarian
100 Main Library
University of Iowa
Iowa City  IA  52242
319-335-5286
Fax: 319-335-5900

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:4
                  Distributed: Thursday, June 18, 1998
                        Message Id: cdl-12-4-006
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