ACQNET v1n007 (December 20, 1990)
URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acq-v1n007

                   ACQNET, Vol. 1, No. 7, December 20, 1990
                   ========================================
 
(1)  FROM:     Rosann Bazirjian
     SUBJECT:  Out-of-print searching, BookQuest (9 lines)
 
(2)  FROM:     Joe Barker
     SUBJECT:  Using vendor names in our discussions (33 lines)
 
(1) ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date:      Thu, 20 Dec 90 08:34:23 EST
From:      Rosann Bazirjian <LIBRVB@SUVM>
Re:        Meta Nissley's out-of-print, Bookquest question:
 
    We do not yet use BookQuest or SerialsQuest at Syracuse, but I thought you
might be interested in knowing that Faxon announced, at a recent Service
Seminar that I attended, in approximately 6 months both of these services will
be available through the Internet. That should make access very easy.
   Rosann
 
(2) ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 90 13:33:34 PST
From: Joe Barker <acq@library.Berkeley.EDU> (Acquisition Department)
 
More about giving vendors' names in ACQNET...
    I believe it was my note to Richard Jaspers that got all this started.
    The issue is adequate context, as I see it.
    I agree that giving vendors' names in ACQNET would be helpful for the
reasons Carol Chamberlain, Meta Nissley, and others have voiced.  And I
believe many of you know that I am not timid about criticizing vendors by
name or discussing their individual strengths and weaknesses with other Acq
folks or directly with vendors.
    However, I have had the experience of being misinterpreted, and having
the inference drawn from my words result in significant and unwarranted
reduction of a vendors' business from the misinterpretor.  I believe I was
not legally at fault, but probably was at fault ethically.
    I prefer to give vendor information that can be construed as based on
performance evaluation in a setting (meeting, phone call, cocktail party,
etc.) where I can verify how I am being interpreted.  I also think the
vendors mentioned have a right to know what's being said about them, to
whom, and in what context.  From there on, it's the other person's
responsibility to use the information ethically.
    In communications such as "Whom do you use for ___?", or does anyone have
experience using with a vendor for such and such, or how do you evaluate
vendors for such and such service, it seems fine to name names in ACQNET.
And we should identify questions for discussion groups in ACQNET.  But when
we name names in how we switched from A to B, or did a test in which C came
out better than D, we need to watch out that readers do not make decisions
about A or D that will be bad for A or D or for the decision-maker's
library.
    I recommend for a discussion group the topic:  Acq Libns' and Vendors'
Ethical Issues Surronding E-Mail.  It's good for about 30 minutes of heated
debate.
                                JOE BARKER