AUTOCAT needs a new home!

From: Eleanor Cook <cookei_at_appstate.edu>
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:12:59 -0400
To: ACQNET <acqnet-l_at_listproc.appstate.edu>
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[ED. NOTE:  I picked this up from ALA Direct. As a fellow listowner,
I can sympathize with this plight! Please note: ACQNET is in no danger
of being shut down, as far as I know, anyway]


Monday, October 23, 2006

Changes at AUTOCAT

This message was posted to AUTOCAT Friday.

It is time for AUTOCAT to find a new home and new management.

During my recent visit to Buffalo I discussed the future of AUTOCAT with 
the Acting
Vice-President for University Libraries and with an official in the 
computing center. The
consensus was that we need to find a new site to host Autocat and new 
owner(s). If that is
not possible AUTOCAT will go out of existence.

AUTOCAT: Library cataloging and discussion group began in October 1990 
at the University
of Vermont under the ownership of founder Nancy Keane. On April 28, 1993 
it moved to the
University at Buffalo and I became listowner. At that time it had 1880 
subscribers in 24 countries;
today it has 4600 subscribers in 42 countries.

AUTOCAT utilizes Eric Thomas' LISTSERV electronic discussion list 
software. Any host wishing
to assume responsibility for AUTOCAT needs to have a Listserv 
application that will continue to
support and maintain the list's database archival capabilities. The 
University at Buffalo currently runs
Listserv version 14.5 but any version 1.8e or later (14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 
14.4 or 14.5) should be OK.

Listserv is available on a wide range of computer operating systems. The 
hardware should be powerful
enough to handle the volume of messages without getting bogged down. 
AUTOCAT averages around
25 posts per day with a distribution of 4600 subscribers, so we're 
looking at a daily traffic of about
115,000 messages.

It is also desirable that the list's archive file (dating from January 
2, 1991 and currently containing over
120,000 messages) be exported to the new host and mounted as a 
searchable resource. AUTOCAT also
has a listfile of files on various frequently-discussed topics that 
subscribers can retrieve; these should also
be moved to the new host.

The requirements for the listowner(s) are that you should have some 
experience in running an electronic
discussion list, have your supervisor's approval, and, of course, are 
interested in being a listowner. The amount
of time required will vary from day to day but you should expect to 
spend about an hour a day on this job.

Those interested in becoming the new AUTOCAT listowners should send me 
an offer that contains your
name, job title, e-mail address, and a brief description of your 
experience with running a list. Also needed
is a description of your hosting environment (operating system, Listserv 
version, etc.) and the name, title, and
e-mail address of the person responsible for managing lists at your 
site. All offers will be reviewed by me and
by Jim Serwinowski of the UB Computing Center.

Please address your offers, questions, etc. to ulcjh_at_buffalo.edu. Copy 
all offers to cit-listserv_at_buffalo.edu.

The deadline for receiving offers is October 27, 2006.

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Received on Thu Oct 26 2006 - 13:40:54 UTC