The topic of commercial posting on ARLIS-L has been robustly debated on the listserv and in private messages to me. To be clear, the prohibition of commercial posting is not a new policy but an enforcement of a long standing policy from
the early days of the listserv. The enforcement is the result of an incident where one vendor felt another vendor had been allowed to post something commercial while he had been denied. In order to treat everyone equitably and to remove the listserv moderator
from the time-consuming position of judging content, we simply decided to use the tools we had, our existing policy.
What this entire situation has revealed are broader issues of membership and commerce that need to be addressed in a thoughtful manner rather than a hurried response to a problem. Please know that I have listened to all of your comments
and suggestions. We also need to look at similar associations for their models. The Executive Board will incorporate many of your ideas into the new ARLIS/NA Marketplace and perhaps into a revised policy for ARLIS-L. We want to treat everyone fairly and still
do what is best for the Society. I have taken on the responsibility for the ARLIS/NA Marketplace and policy revision in my year as Past President .
While this debate has produced a lot of traffic on the listserv, it is overshadowing important new developments of our organization that have received no discussion. The release of our
Multimedia and Technology Reviews is an exciting new development for the Society. Likewise, our foray into virtual conference presentations not only allows those who are unable to attend the Washington conference the ability to observe four sessions
but allows conference participant the ability to listen to one session (albeit at a later date) while attending another. It is like being in two places at one time.
I am sure the discussion of commercial postings will join many other topics at our 42nd Annual Conference in Washington – now only two weeks away! I look forward to seeing many of you soon.
Best regards,
Gregory Most
Gregory P. J. Most
President
Art Libraries Society of North America
Chief, Department of Image Collections
Library
National Gallery of Art
Washington, DC 20565
URL:
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/research/library/imagecollections.html
phone: 202/ 842-6100