Re: GEN: New LM-netters

["Kevin T. Clement" <ktclemen@UNCG.EDU>]

Yes, there is an archive.  Unfortunately, I have to disagree about the
archives not being hard to search.  I have used the archives many times
and usually find that my time is wasted because the answers I am looking
for are not there.  It is true that the same questions are being repeated
however the answers are not always being return in the form of a hit so
all I am finding in the archives is the question. A lot of good that does
me. And yes I have e-mailed the posters of the original questions for
their results and have either received no response or the
e-mail address is no longer valid. Also the threads are not very helpful
because normally most responses are sent outside the list.

Also the subject titles do not always provide a clue to what the message
is and so when one does a search for key words, one receives a multitude
of false hits.  I recently did a search on book care.  And out of 97 hits,
only 7 were of any use to me.  That is not a great percentage.

I realize some do not want to do the research, but to automatically assume
that they are not is not a great rule of thumb.  Plus I have been on the
listserv for about a year and the archive being available didn't hit me
until this past August. After August, I have received e-mail from members
of the list who have responded to my questions under the assumption I
haven't even made attempt after I spent hours scouring the archives.  One
response was primarily a lecture on not wasting people's time when the
work had already been done. Fortunately I chose not to respond to the
untrue accusation.

I apologize for my rambling style.  And my comments about the archives are
not to say it isn't useful but that it isn't that easy to search.  This is
not the fault of any programming but due to the fact that the entrie are
being submitted by people who are not always using a distinct vocabulary
as would a professional indexer.

Thanks for listening

Kevin Clement
MLIS graduate student
University of North Carolina Greensboro
ktclemen@uncg.edu


On Thu, 30 Sep 1999, Dan Robinson wrote:

> Yes, some questions are from new members... But, there is a archive
> of all the messages posted on the list.  If each person will use it
> before asking the question,  we won't have that feeling of answering
> so many questions over and over again.  (for the address of the
> LM_NET website and the archives, just scroll all the way down the
> bottom of this message... or any message from the list <grin>)
>
> The archives are not that hard to search.  I've done some exploring
> and have found ways to let me find mostly what I want.
>
> First, increase the number of postings to 100.  There's a box to do
> that. Second, put in your search. You can use keywords, boolean or
> proximity operators, limit to a field (still exploring this one) and
> limit to a year.
>
> For example; I'll do a big search first, and scan the subjects to
> find something that looks right.  If it seems sort of on target, I'll
> repeat the search, but add an 'and' search to limit it by year, most
> recent first.  ( to limit by year add  ' and year=nnnn '  to your
> search).  Now you'll have a good set of messages to work with.
>
> Tell us that you've searched the archives.  You might even mention
> the search you used.
>
> Finally, I realize that some lmnetters can't get to the archives
> because they are blocked by many filtering programs.  But if you
> don't work it into the request, we won't know that you don't have
> access to them.
>
> Just consider the LM_NET website as the primary reference source for
> questions and answers.  Then come to the group for more answers.
>
> Dan Robinson
> Indexing Services
> H.W. Wilson Company
> Bronx, NY
> drobinson@hwwilson.com
> dlrbnsn2@eclipse.net
>
>
> On 30 Sep 99 at 15:06, HAZEL MALONEY wrote:
>
> > Just a thought - but some questions may seem to be repetitous simply because the
> > questioner just recently joined the group and isn't aware of past postsings  -
> > so Suby's B.P. advice is sound!
> > Hazel Maloney, Librarian
>
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Kevin Clement
MLIS graduate student
University of North Carolina Greensboro
ktclemen@uncg.edu

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