PAMNet Discussion List
Cindy Mader Bryan
As we began preparations to conduct an electronic election of officers this fall, it was discovered that nearly one-third of PAM members are not currently subscribed to the PAMNet discussion listserv. To investigate the reasons behind this, we conducted a survey this summer of these members. The results of the survey are highlighted below.
However, the primary question that remains is "In today's electronic environment, what is the best way for information to be communicated to our PAM members?" Two of the suggestions currently being explored are (1) automatically subscribing new members to PAMNet (2) creating a division listserv for members only (to reduce the amount of e-mail). If you have any other suggestions or input about these ideas, please feel free to contact the Chair-elect, Parker Ladwig ladwig.1@nd.edu
Survey Results
71 surveys were distributed to PAM members identified as not being subscribed to PAMNet. During the process, 8 were discovered to already be subscribed, sometimes under a different e-mail address than reported to SLA headquarters.
An additional 41 other members responded resulting in almost a 70% total response rate. Of the 41 responses, 18 (44%) were not aware that the listserv existed, 2 (5%) don't want to receive so much e-mail and 16 (39%) listed other reasons such as working with different subject areas, retired, browsing archives regularly instead, and trouble subscribing initially.
When asked whether automatically subscribing new members was a good idea or not, 27 (66%) of the 41 agreed that it was a good idea, suggesting that people be provided the option to opt out while 7 (17%) did not agree with the idea.
A direct result of the survey is the addition of 29 (71%) of the 41 to the PAMNet discussion, reducing the number of PAM members not currently subscribed to the listserv to about 17%.
