[WEB4LIB] "Talking About Public Access: PACS-L's First Decade"

[Roy Tennant]

On Sun, 2 Apr 2000, Walt Crawford wrote:

> I've written an informal tribute to the first decade of PACS-L, and it's
> ready to read just a month after the New & Improved PACS-L started up
> again.

[snip]

I'm glad that Walt has not let the decade of PACS-L pass unnoticed. I
believe that PACS-L was a seminal contribution to the profession. Many of
us cut our networking teeth on it, and learned things that to this day
stand us in good stead. Charles W. Bailey, Jr. had the right idea at the
right time and the immediate success of the list in 1989 was testimony to
that fact. 

I have one small correction to make to Walt's review of PACS-L history.
The total number of PACS-L subscribers is bogus, and was likely bogus from
early on. For example, there are over sixty addresses still on the
subscriber list that use the outdated Usenet bang (!) routing syntax; many
of the staff members from the defunct Apple Library are still listed as
subscribers; others have dead BITNET addresses; and I have verified with a
colleague that an old address of his that is still on the list would have
been bouncing mail as far back as seven years ago. As Walt correctly
entreats us in "Being Analog," we should look critically at numbers stated
as fact. 

However, that is a minor nit-pick of the substantial PACS-L legacy,
particularly when measured against the clearly transformative effect it
had on the professional development of many of us. Charles, if you are
within the sound of my voice I'd sure like to hear your comments. I, and
I'm sure many others, are thankful to you.
Roy Tennant