---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 15:26:31 -0600
From: Julia Franklin <JFRANK@ISL.STATE.ID.US>
Subject: My Review of the Serials list

Here is the final paper I am turning into my instructor. Let me know what
you think about it.  I feel lucky to be a part of this list, I feel it is
caring and helpful.

Review of the Serialst

Julia Franklin
LI 823
Dr. John Agada, Instructor

Serialst is the Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum. The scope and
purpose as laid down by the listserv is: SERIALST was established in
October 1990, with technical support from the office of Academic Computing
at the University of Vermont, in order to serve as an informal electronic
forum for most aspects of serials processing in libraries.  Appropriate
topics may include (but are not limited to): cataloging, acquisitions,
collection management, serials budgets and pricing issues, binding,
preservation, microfilm, union list activities, news, announcements and
job postings that may be of interest to the serials community.  SERIALST
is "NOT" a forum for the trade or exchange of duplicate, wanted and
unwanted serials.

The listserve ask that you keep messages to 350 lines or less and to
break-up longer messages into multiple short messages. In my experience
messages are usually, at most, no more than a couple of paragraphs.  The
language is English.  And the moderators are from the United States.

The subscribers are from thirty-nine countries throughout the world.
They are, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Chile,
Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, France, Germany, Great
Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea,
Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand,
Turkey, U.S.A. and the Ukraine.  There are forty-five subscribers who can
not be identified by country.  The highest amount of subscribers comes
from the United States at 2,166 subscribers while thirteen countries have
just one subscriber.

I sent a message to the listserv asking:

 "How International do you feel is the list?

Does the list center on American concerns over those of an international
nature?

I received back ten messages from the list.  One from a moderator for the
list, telling me about a way to look up the ratios of subscriber
composition for the list.  The other replies came from all corners of the
world.  The main answer was the list does dwell on primarily issues in
America, but the information was helpful to those of other countries.
There was rarely any mention of workshops, conventions or conferences
outside of the United States, but there were some that had come to America
for a conference they felt relevant to their position.

A subscriber in Greece is a library director who monitors the list to keep
informed of the issues facing her staff.  She feels the more connected
libraries are the more international the lists will become.  She mentions
the modernization of libraries in her country and the list is helping to
making partnerships with their foreign counterparts.  She is encouraged to
see that libraries around the world are facing some of the same issues.
She states:  "Personally I feel rather encouraged seeing that even in
countries with a good library tradition, the problems are very similar.
This gives this kind of "collaborative feeling" and brings people close
one another."

>From South Africa an electronic resource librarian finds the list "very
American centered" but still useful.  She said: But I find it useful to
see the sort of discussion that is going on, and at times I've even been
able to respond directly to certain question. And I've been able to submit
questions as well."

She states she takes what she can use and throws away the rest, but I
think we all do that in a listserv.

Personally, I have been a member of the list for the last two years and
have found the list to be centered on issues for the United States.  The
issues from countries outside of the United States gets the full attention
of the list, but I do find myself reaching for the delete button on some
international issues. The Serialst would be a great place to announce
international conferences, workshops and conventions.  Regional conference
around the world and more issues from other countries could be sent to the
list.

In the last few weeks the Serialst has been concerned with the differences
in prices between international subscriptions and subscriptions within the
United States. The list had a discussion on the "worse serial title
changes" for 2000.  There has also been an alert about the way Haworth
Press interprets four issues per year.

Although Serialst is centered in the United States, people from all over
the world glean information from off the list.  If those from other
countries would post information on meetings, workshops, local, regional,
national or international conferences for the list to see what is
happening beyond the borders of the United States. Then even if we cannot
attend just knowing what is available would be of interest to all the
members of the Serialst.

Julia Franklin
Serials LA I
Idaho State Library
Boise, ID
jfrank@isl.state.id.us
The opinions are my own, and not the opinions
of anyone, anywhere else...in the world.