Proposed Archives & Archivists (A&A) List Terms of Participation

The Society of American Archivists is asking members of the association and Archives and Archivists Listserv subscribers to send comments regarding a proposed new version of the listserv's Terms of Participation. Based on earlier feedback from members and subscribers, we have edited these terms to make them more internally consistent and easier to understand, and to ensure that they better address comments we have received.

To comment on the Revised A&A List Terms of Participation, please complete this form. Comments will be received until August 3, 2015.

Revised A&A List Terms of Participation

(Posted for comment July 2015)

Background and Mission

The Archives and Archivists (A&A) List was established in 1989 by Donna Harlan and John Harlan as an open forum for all topics relating to archival theory and practice. Over the years, A&A has had various homes. In late 1993, the list was migrated to Miami University. In 1998, the Society of American Archivists (SAA) assumed sponsorship of the list as a service to the archives profession. It remained hosted at Miami University under the stewardship of Robert M. Schmidt until September 2006, at which time SAA assumed full ownership of the list and responsibility for its ongoing maintenance.

Audience

The principal audiences include archivists, archival educators, and students enrolled in graduate archival education courses and programs. The list is open to all individuals with an interest in the archives profession and in the preservation and promotion of archival materials. SAA membership is not required for participation in the list. Participants are required, however, to “register” with the Society of American Archivists. Please see “Responsibilities of Participants” below.

Scope of the List

The purpose of the list is to foster discussion of archives and archives issues, including all aspects of the theory and practice of the archives profession.

Messages that are unrelated to the archives profession are off topic and are prohibited. Prohibited subjects include the following:

• General interest posts unrelated to archives.
• Discussion of the listerv itself or the behavior of individual posters. (Direct complaints or concerns about the list or individuals on the list to the list administrators.)
• Commercial advertisements for goods and/or services. (Vendors are not prohibited from posting responses to list messages, but such postings must contribute in a useful way to an existing discussion or line of inquiry without attempting to sell goods or services.)
• Messages directed to specific individuals. (Instead, contact them directly).
• Personal attacks.
• Political speech unrelated to archival issues, including, but not limited to endorsing or attacking a particular political candidate or party, or the views of any candidate or party.
• Virus warnings.

 For those interested in following archives-related news content, we recommend the “Archives in the News” list: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/archives-in-the-news.

General Rules

All list subscribers must follow these general rules to help ensure the value of the list to all subscribers:

• Do not post more than three original postings to the list in any twenty-four hour period.
• Do not include the full text of long messages. Delete extraneous text from the previous messages to make reading the message easier for the other subscribers.
• Do not post shortened hyperlinks to the list (such as those produced by bit.ly, Google URL Shortener, or TinyURL). Always use the entire URL on the original site, which allows subscribers to see where the link is sending them.
• To help other subscribers quickly evaluate their interest in a posting, include the following headings, when appropriate, at the beginning of the subject lines of relevant postings:
  • “ANNOUNCE:” at the front of any announcement for a conference, workshop, exhibition, or other event or release.
  • “JOB:” at the front of any job posting
  • “NEWS:” at the front of any news item
  • “QUERY:” at the front of any posting asking a question of the list

  Note that these headings must be used for all relevant postings, but headings do not otherwise need to be used. However, participants can create short headings if they believe them to be helpful to others.

• Links to external content (such as articles, news, blog posts, and announcements) without relevant commentary intended to promote discussion are prohibited.

Netiquette

Participants are expected to follow the core rules of netiquette. See an excerpted version from the book, Netiquette, by Virginia Shea at http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html.Some key points are summarized below (based on the SAA Visual Materials Section List Terms of Participation):

• Messages must be designed to trigger discussion through a question or observation, or must further a discussion by adding something new.
• Participants must keep in mind that other readers receive messages in a different context from the author.
• Messages, especially responses, must be long enough to be understandable, and they must include enough of the original message to provide context.
• Avoid inflammatory remarks of a personal nature. Similarly, when reading a message, be slow to take offense. In general, assume that an individual has good intentions when posting a message but that the rapidity of the medium, the lack of visual cues, and other factors may make an otherwise innocent message seem insulting.
• Participants must consider whether their reply is of interest to the list as a whole.
• Avoid posting styled text (messages formatted with HTML code) to the list, as many email readers and the digest readers are unable to read these messages easily.

Copyright

As a professional association concerned with protecting intellectual property rights of authors whose works are held in archival repositories, SAA expects participants to set a high standard of respect for copyright. Copyrighted material beyond brief quotations must not be posted to the A&A List without first securing the appropriate permissions.

Responsibility of Participants

Participants agree to restrict their messages to the scope of the list; to follow SAA’s Code of Conduct (http://www2.archivists.org/statements/saa-code-of-conduct) and generally accepted principles of netiquette, to respect the interests and rights of other participants and of the Society of American Archivists, and to respect the law. Participants are solely responsible for their postings.

By subscribing to the A&A List, participants grant SAA permission to record essential contact information (e.g., names and email addresses) in its central database. Personal contact information will be administered in strict accordance with SAA’s Privacy and Confidentiality Policy (http://www.archivists.org/privacy.asp).

The Archives & Archivists List is a professional forum. SAA reserves the right to block or permanently remove participants if off-topic or abusive messages threaten to disrupt the functioning of the list. SAA may also block or remove participants for violating the copyright of others or for any other actions that do not conform to these Terms of Participation. Punitive action is rare and generally follows wanton and/or persistent disregard for these Terms of Participation. In order to ensure due process, punitive action shall take place only after formal notification of an infraction and initiation of a 90-day probation period. Upon additional misconduct within the 90 days, an individual may be banned by approval of the Council. Misconduct after the 90 days will result in a one-year probation. (Upon misconduct within this longer probationary period, an individual may also be banned by approval of the Council.) A banned subscriber may petition the Council for reinstatement after one year. Such appeals must be accompanied by a written and signed statement agreeing to comply with the Terms of Participation.

List Ownership

The Archives & Archivists List is owned by the Society of American Archivists. The SAA Council is charged with setting policy on the list. Two Council members are assigned the responsibility of monitoring the list and making recommendations for responses on behalf of the Council when issues arise. The A&A List Coordinator, reporting to SAA's Executive Director, oversees the daily operations of the list, including assisting participants with their subscriptions and enforcing the Terms of Participation.

A&A List Coordinator: Melanie Mueller (mmueller@archivists.org)

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed on the Archives & Archivists List do not necessarily represent those of SAA and are not endorsed by the Society.

(The current Terms of Participation can be found here.)