Dear Colleagues

In light of the recent discussion about the listserv and the professions
more traditional media I thought that an exchange of emails I have just had
with Jude Dicken (editor of the SoA Newsletter) might be of interest.

I wrote to Jude to get confirmation of the copy date for the next
Newsletter, as I have two news items that I wanted to get in.  The copy
date for the next (October) issue is 1st Sep.  Jude also told me that she
had moved the timetable forward so as not to push things to the last
minute, and that, as the October edition was a Preservation and
Conservation special issue, she might be pushed for space, and was what I
wanted to put in a "feature" or a "filler"?

The use of the term "filler" got me thinking.   It seems rather a
pejorative term for a "news item", which is what the Newsletter presumably
exists to carry.  The long copy deadlines for the Newsletter already mean
that much of the content is stale news by the time it reaches the readers,
and this seems to me to be compounded by sticking with a long copy deadline
that immediately follows a Bank Holiday, at the end of peak holiday time
for people with family committments, and when the content of the "current"
issue of the Newsletter is already effectively three months old.

I also could not understand why news items should suffer due to "pressure
on space".  News items and recruitment advertsing are the time-sensitive
commodities that the Newsletter exists to handle.  If there is any pressure
on space then the longer articles should be cut out or held over in favour
of news items.  In fact, if the feature content of special Newsletter
issues is starting to push out news items, and to require extra time to be
added to the production schedule of what is still called a NEWSletter then
isn't the tail beginning to wag the dog?  

If the specialist interest groups want to put together annual publications
of articles of common interest to the rest of the Society then these should
be done as supplements to the Newsletter with a separate copy date.
Alternatively the special interest group articles could be used as a
reserve from which to draw on to balance out the flow of copy over the
whole year.  They could even be passed on to the Journal...  I would rather
have a thinner and more topical Newsletter.

This is only one person's experience but from it I cannot find it
surprising that many now prefer to make news announcements and publish
recruitment ads via the list-serv, ignoring the print media.  In fact, I
recruited my last member of staff entirely from applications received in
response to list-serv announcements.  

Now, to be a little more controversial...
Although I note the point about non-internet linked members of the
profession, the current historically low costs of access to email and the
web surely mean that we are at the point where it is a basic professional
duty to ensure that you have some way of accessing this source of
information - either by making the case to your employer, by equipping your
home, or by use of cyber cafes or public library access points.  It is now
as basic to your profession as a telephone with an external line was 20
years ago.

As an informational professional working in the current technological
climate, claiming that you are excluded from professional information by
your lack of internet access is an issue where the remedy is now clearly in
your own hands.  Soon we will be entitled to ask why we should spend extra
time and money supporting those who will not take action on their own
behalf. (that should ruffle a few feathers)  

Cheers

Richard
"starting-a-Friday-discussion-just-as-he-is-about-to-go-on-a-weeks-leave"
Taylor

Given the recent debate on archives-nra about the purpose of the list and
its relationship to printed media I'm going to copy an edited versions of
this email to the listserv as a contribution to debate.

Regards

Richard Taylor


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Richard Taylor
Curator, Archive Collections
National Railway Museum
Leeman Road
YORK YO26 4XJ
ENGLAND

Tel 	+44 (0)1904 686 289
Fax 	+44 (0)1904 611 112
Email	[log in to unmask]
Website	http://www.nrm.org.uk




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