e-mail in libraries

[Jim Hurd]

	With internet voice communication becoming more available, and
less costly than traditional telephone service(essentially available at no
extra cost), it would seem that it could become as an important a research
tool as email-- and one that that libraries should offer if at all
possible.  If email access or internet service is simply not economically
feasible-- that is an unfortunate reality that some librarians might have
to face.  What I find untenable is the position that neither has a place
in an adequately funded library.

	Indiana University has just expanded its PPP modem pool, so one
"fine" institution-- at least one that is generally regarded as being one
of the best wired in the nation-- is not currently taking the tack that
Mr. Johnson seems to be promoting.  Granted, continued expansion of high
speed internet access for the academic community may not be economically
possible, but it is not something that should be looked at as a positive
good.  

                ______________JIM HURD______________
               |         jhurd at indiana.edu          |
               |   http://php.indiana.edu/~jhurd    |
	       |___________(812) 339-0171___________| 	
              





On Wed, 28 May 1997, Millard Johnson wrote:

:I have to respectfully disagree with Mr. Bogage's argument below.
:The difference between good libraries and poor ones is not how
:many services they provide but how WELL they do what they
:consider their primary mission.  E-mail account administration requires
:resources.  Those resources could be applied to longer open
:hours, bibliographic instruction, institutional online archives,
:web page design - a zillion other things.  The quickest path
:to mediocrity is to do everything you might LIKE to do without
:insisting on the resources to do your primary mission well first.
:There is a trend now in fine universities to end PPP dial in
:accounts and ask users to get accounts from commercial
:providers.  Apparently the true costs are lower.  The telephone
:analogy is probably a good one.  Telephones are at least
:as necessary for research as Email and providing telephone
:service is generally a business that libraries define themselves
:as NOT being in.
:  MJ