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  • From: Evelyn Daniel <daniel AT ils.unc.edu>
  • To: Chapel Hill Information Technology Advisory Committee <chtechcomm AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Chtechcomm] UNC Listserv Archive
  • Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 11:38:44 -0400

Terri and all,

The issues surrounding our email archive wherein we seem to have recently begun worrying about preservation and access to historical records are an immediate example for us of the much larger problem of preservation and access and records management generally for Chapel Hill -- and for all municipalities and businesses in general.

We backed into a really important issue. Our own experience will help us understand the broader issue better. If we can develop a workable solution for our small committee, it may have application to other groups. There's a parallel here to our use of the listserv and the open meetings issue.

Evelyn

--On Tuesday, August 30, 2005 10:23 PM -0400 Terri Buckner <tbuckner AT ibiblio.org> wrote:

To the group:

Earlier today, Steve's first attempt to send the message below failed.
Along with the correct address for posting to this list, I sent the
following note:

"FWIW, the technician (who is not part of this argument in any way and
shall remain nameless), informed Joel and I yesterday that he was
mistaken about the archives. It appears the deletion occurs through a
two-step process; first the archives and then the full list. He has
reinstated the list, I have verified membership and he is now working to
recover the archives. No one there has done this before so we don't know
how successful the effort will be, if at all."

I find it very curious that none of this concern for the UNC list
archives was raised when the decision to move the list to ibiblio was
announced back in June. Had the question be raised then, I would have
asked two questions. Should the archives be recovered, I think they
still deserve discussion:

1. How long should we expect UNC to host these historical documents?
2. If our list communications are such valuable references, shouldn't
the committee be urging the town IT staff to install its own email list
application?

Terri


Steve Irving wrote:

Terri and all,



I spent the weekend contemplating whether it would be productive to
respond to your latest salvo (Fri 8/26/2005 10:32 AM) in support of
deleting the supposedly non-existent UNC message archive dating back to
2001. Although I’m still not convinced this will be productive by any
conceivable measure, the tipping point came when I went back to the UNC
listserv site and found that ch-tech-advisory no longer exists.





You stated (Fri 8/26/2005 10:32 AM):



----------

According to the UNC technician assigned to the data recovery question,
"The ch-tech-advisory list is set to keep archives for only one day.
Since messages older than one day would automatically be purged each
night, there are no messages past that one day archive we'd have."



This report is consistent with my own investigation of the UNC list
archiving capabilities ...

----------



First, is this anonymous technician willing to come forward and discuss
the issue? I would like to know the basis for the “one day” comment, and
how this squares with the actual existence of an archive which far
exceeded one day. I would also like to know whether there is any
likelihood that the recovery will succeed and whether the recent
disappearance of our forum is a part of the recovery process or an
indication that the towel has been thrown in.



Second, your own investigation of the UNC List archiving capabilities
does not appear to have been terribly thorough, or included the simple
steps provided in my earlier message (Thu 8/25/2005 8:36 PM), or made
use of your resources ? such as the Anonymous Technician ? at UNC.



You go on to state (Fri 8/26/2005 10:32 AM):



----------

If Steve found a full archive of the UNC list, I applaud his technical
skills and feel sure the UNC staff would be interested in knowing where
their archiving process is faulty.

----------



No special technical skills were required (although I appreciate you
compliment and its thinly-veiled sarcasm), and I have not alleged any
fault in their archiving process, which seems to me to have worked just
fine until immediately after the messages were deleted.



Last Wednesday evening, before the messages were deleted from the UNC
listserv, I took a snapshot of the cover page of the message archive.
This can now be viewed at
http://www.morgancreek.net/tc_unc_listserv/Messages.htm, and I hope it
will be useful in clearing up the misconceptions you and the Anonymous
Technician hold.



My thanks to all for your forbearance, and apologies to any who find
this to be an unproductive rant.



Steve






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