SERIALST turned one year old at 11:09 EST today.  Current e-mail
addresses on the distribution list number approx. 665 (impossible
to estimate number of individuals, as many of these addresses
are group sites).  I guess ice cream and cake wouldn't be well
received by a machine... or the software that feeds it.  Or maybe
this is carrying electronic sentimentality too far... !

For the anniversary date, I have an item that is not particularly
related to serials, but might be of interest to folks who have
come to rely on electronic communications as their mainstay in
professional and scholarly communications...  Thanks to Cindy
Hepfer for telling me about it...

The Nov. 1991 issue of ONLINE has an article called "Putting Out
the Flames: The Etiquette and Law of E-Mail" by Joanna Goode and
Maggie Johnson, pp. 61-65.  An interesting discussion of net
etiquette, e-mail guidelines, mail management, and survival skills.
What I found most interesting in the article was the discussion
about the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and how
much privacy e-mail users *really* have... Please allow me a quote:
"In other words, company snooping and Big Brotherism is not a
felony or even a misdemeanor under the ECPA.  It is entirely
legal."  Does this appeal to anyone's innate sense of paranoia.
The article says that ECPA is the only existing law governing e-mail.
Read the article for more details!

So... here's to the next year...

Birdie MacLennan, Listowner
University of Vermont