In-reply-to: Your message of Fri, 16 Oct 1992 09:09:24 PDT
Message-id: <"o_qAn.0.ZM3.nOBCn"@sul2>
Sender: Rare Books and Special Collections Forum <EXLIBRIS@RUTVM1.BITNET>
What's this??? A bulletin board meant to be "primarily an avenue for
communication for professional librarians working in the rare books and mss
racket"? Well, this is a puzzler, ain't it?
I have pored over my sign-on, welcome-to-the-list message repeatedly but
cannot find anything about Ex-Libris being a list for "professional
librarians" (a term Randolph Adams would have deemed an oxymoron). My
message says that the list exists "for the purpose of discussing matters
relating to rare books and manuscript librarianship, including special
collections and related issues." It continues, "Membership is open to
anyone who wishes to subscribe."
Maybe I've missed something here. There's probably a place in this world
for "elitist" communications, but I hope Ex-Libris will not be it. The
sign-on message certainly does not give that twist to the list. Maybe we
need to all get together, heavily moderate the list, and come to an
agreement that access will be limited to the cognoscenti, say those with
at least 10 years direct experience in running rare book libraries.
My sign-on message also remarks "You may leave the list at any time."
Everett Wilkie
The Connecicut Historical Society
everett@chs.org