[388] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Help with searching archive,
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Eric Morgan)
Mon Jun 1 09:24:12 1992
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1992 08:19:13 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
From: Eric Morgan <eric_morgan@library.lib.ncsu.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
There have been a number of postings lately about searching listservs.
Has anybody created a front-end for this sort of thing?
I have. I call mine the ListManager. It is a HyperCard stack based on a
reference interview. It requires HyperCard 2.1, MacTCP, and a Macintosh with a
"direct connection to the Internet." (If you can use something like XferIt,
then your Macintosh has a "direct connection to the Internet.")
Here's how it works. The ListManger asks you questions. You answer the
questions. Depending on how you answer the questions, the ListManager asks you
other questions. The result of this question and answer process is a Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) message. Once the user clicks "Send the message"
a TCP/IP connection is made to the user's Name Server and the message is sent.
The message will eventually make it to the addressee. The addresse will respond
and the response is sent to the user's electronic mailbox. (In essence, the
ListManger is a specialized SMTP mailer.)
Some people here at NCSU Libraries use the ListManager to to the following
things:
* subscribe to lists,
* unsubscribe to lists,
* turn their mail off,
* turn their mail on,
* request a list of files available from a listserv,
* download a file from a listserv,
* query a listserv for postings on particular topics, and
* retrieve particular postings from queries.
I believe listservs are an untapped information resource. They are loosely
structured databases. The sorts of information you find in archived lists of
listservs is the same sort of information exchanged by talking people:
* names, addressess, telephone numbers,
* citations and bibliographies,
* full-text articles,
* reviews and opinions, ...
With the shear numbers of lists and listservs available (as evidenced by the
List-of-Lists and Academic Lists) there are a number of ways to use lists and
listservs to retrieve information. No longer do I keep a storage box full of
PACS-L messages. Whenever I need a particular piece of information I use the
ListManager to query ALMOST ANY listserv and retreive the information I want.
It has proven useful more than once.
Eric Lease Morgan
NCSU Libraries
P.S. Sorry, no, politics restrict my ablility to share the ListManager. :-(
