ADMIN: Target/Hit ->

[Mike Eisenberg <eisenber@ACS.ITD.UTS.EDU.AU>]

Greetings all!

Since I "invented" the Target/Hit concept I guess it's time to put in my
two cents as well.

LM_NET, as you all know, generates lots of mail.  On the one hand, that's
what we want - open interaction among people interested in library media
work.  On the other hand, we want to keep the amount of mail somehow
manageable.  There is no simple answer to this. Peter and I can tell you
that for every email that we personally receive asking us to find ways to
cut down on the amount of mail, there's another telling us how much they
value the open, free, (and sometimes even trivial) discussions.

The Target/Hit was instituted as an efficient way of soliciting
information, expertise, and recommendations on a specific item of concern
and then have the recipient sift through the responses, edit to
eliminate unnecessary duplication, and re-post to the list.  Target-Hit
works for these types of information gathering inqueries, for example my
own recent request for recommendations on readings for a seminar in
school library media.  Target/Hit is popular for some LM_NETTERs, and
it's also been adopted by other listservs as an effective tool.

But - Target/Hit is not appropriate for every type of question or
discussion, or for every member of LM_NET .  Those
issues/concerns/exchanges that are better discussed in interactive
conversations should be carried out that way.

And, every LM_NETTER has the choice of how they prefer to pose a question
or comment or even to respond to a message.

So, use the Target/Hit if you like, and don't if you don't.  One thing
however - we should all be sensitive to the numbers of messages posted.
Many LM_NETTERs pay for access by the number of emails received.  Others
have limited time.  We don't want to discourage interaction, but we do
want to cut out any truly unnecessary traffic.

In this spirit, I suggest that we have exhausted the discussion on
Target/Hit and can move on to other topics.

Happy Holidays!

Mike Eisenberg
Co-ordinator, LM_NET


p.s. - also please consider using the TOPICS in your subject lines.
These help users to go through their LM_NET mail more efficiently as well.