Hi All,

In the past I used to send quite a bit of emails to lists but now do so
only on rare occasions as I DO WANT folks to read my posts when I have
something of importance to say.

I tend to be on quite a few lists and often get 5 of the same posts from a
few individuals which I feel is excessive.  Posting on 5 lists should be
for something extraordinary.  Reporting that you have a new blog is fine
and leaves the responsibility to the reader as to their interest in
following the blog on a particular topic.  One need not list all of what
they put in a blog to the lists!  Why then, have a blog?

I think another issue is using email lists as ways of promoting oneself
and listing all the presentations one is giving.  There are times when it
is appropriate to toot your horn but there are other venues for this and
not sure an email list is the place.  True, in some cases these
individuals end up being invited as an international speaker because of
all his email listings -- so there definitely is a personal advantage of
doing so.  Still, there seems to be a need for balance!

Finally, I do not believe lists should be in the business of censorship
but I hope those that take over lists take heed that at some point,
members of a list stop reading the posts and may end up unsubscribing
because of overload of emails from one individual.  This would be a very
very unfortunate result.  Maybe if enough people write directly to such an
individual rather than a public flogging would provide the results
desired.

Best, Marty Kesselman


Martin Kesselman, Librarian 1
Life Sciences Librarian and Reference Team Leader
Editor, Library Hi Tech News
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Library of Science and Medicine
165 Bevier Road
Piscataway, New Jersey 08854
[log in to unmask]; 732-445-1337 x202

> Dear Austin
>
> I sent the following email to Gerard last year, but it gained no response
>
> Regards
> Martin
> Martin White
> Managing Director
> Intranet Focus Ltd
> 12 Allcard Close
> Horsham RH12 5 AJ
> 01403 267030
> http://www.intranetfocus.com
>
> Dear Gerry
> Like you I am an Associate Professor, or more correctly a Visiting
> Professor, at the Department of Information Studies, University of
> Sheffield. Today I was at a professional meeting and the subject of your
> email barrage on list-serves came up. It transpired that many of us now
> just
> send your emails direct to our spam filters. It's not that we are not
> interested in the subjects you raise - indeed some of your comments are of
> considerable value. However we all feel that at least one email a day from
> you is just too much like spam.
>
> Like you I have opinions on what is happening in my particular space, and
> I
> blog on my web site. Some people around the world sign up to an RSS feed
> and
> are alerted to what I am saying - but the overwhelming majority could not
> care less.  The way that you use mailing lists means that I cannot even
> unsubscribe to your stream of emails without cutting myself off from a
> mailing list I find of considerable professional value. By all means set
> up
> some RSS feeds, and then I could subscribe and see a one line header that
> I
> could open up if I so desire.
>
> But I would be most interested to learn why you, as a distinguished and
> experienced information professional, justify sending out information to
> people who may not be interested in it without any means of them stopping
> the stream of emails arriving in their email boxes. How would your users
> feel at ISU if you just walked in to their office every day with all the
> chemistry journals that had arrived that day, providing them with no means
> of selecting which ones they wanted?  Equally how would you feel if you
> walked past their office door an hour later to find that the journals were
> all in the trash can unread?
>
> Your output contains much that is of interest and value to the profession
> but the impact would be so much greater if you did not scream at us
> through
> email but whisper in our ear when we need inspiration
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: UKEIG: the UK eInformation Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On
> Behalf Of A C L Hall
> Sent: 12 May 2009 11:17
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Gerard McKiernan - too much
>
> My eMail seems to contain about half a dozen emails from him via you
> each day.  Is there anyway short of filtering them to junk that you
> could cut down on his prolixity? Or shall I contact him direct; I
> don't want to hurt his feelings but ....
>
>
> Austin Hall
> 47 Burbage Road, London SE24 9HB
>
> 020807333297
> [log in to unmask]
>