Oh, Richard, would that I could phrase things of topical interest so
clearly!. You are, of course, quite right. The original intention of the
Newsletter was just that - a NEWSletter. It also bridged the gap between the
long publishing dates of the Journal. Many of the items that now fill the
Newsletter used to be printed in the a section of the Journal called Shorter
Communications, and most of the Society's business was published in, I
think, something called The Society's Chronicle.
It seems to me that the editors of the Society's two communications media
are losing touch with their original objects. Of course we want the Journal
to be learned and intellectual, don't we? But we do want the Newsletter to
have less 'articles' and more news and I think the date lines you have
listed are ridiculous. It surely doesn't take that long to cobble a few
pages together and get it printed and distributed. Pat Aldridge, the
original newsletter editor, did it on on both sides of one piece of
foolscap.
Now it seems to me we're getting too clever.

Incidentally, does the editor of the Journal ever speak or commune with the
editor of ther Newsletter? Perhaps they could contact each other through the
mailbase.

As for Richard's other comment. Of course all good professionals should want
to keep in touch with other professionals. And this mailbase serves that
purpose admirably, especially for people who work in small offices and don't
have much contact with other professionals. And please don't plead poverty
as an excuse not to have access to the Internet. A long coil of telephone
wire attached to the back of a computer and for £5.99 a month I can speak to
any body after six p.m., and all weekends for free. Mind you, you'd have to
do that in your own time!

Len McDonald
46 Weaver Ave
Rainhill
PRESCOT, Merseyside
Phone: 0151-426 5273
Mobile: 07775 914796
e-mail: [log in to unmask]

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Taylor <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2000 12:13 PM
Subject: Purpose of the list


> 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
>
>
> ==================================================
> 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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