Converting from a paper to an on-line computing center newsletter

Access, Swarthmore College’s traditional desktop-published conzputizzg zzmusletterfor nine years, was conzlerted into an allelectrozzicforrzzat in 1992, and paper distribzrtiozz was ceased entirely. Tlze trazzsition has incvased readerskip and cut costs by several thousand dollars. Tlzis paper disczlsses the reasons we chose to do this, a description of how we inzplemented our systenz, other options available for implementing an electrozzic newsletter, tlze reactions of our riser conzmunity, sonze lessons learned, a look ahead at on-campus publication, azzd a general guide for those contenzplating szlch an idea. A major premise of the paper will be matching the pztrpose and izztended effect of comnzutzication and pztblic relations with the riglzt nzediztm. Methods of inzplemetzting an electronic newsletter to be discussed are: electronic mail; bulletin boards; Usenet News;file servers; azzd Gopher Server. Other topics to be addressed are integration with existing on-campus publications, institzrtional priorities in pzrblication, and adapting the same old editorial problenzs to the new nzediunz. Tlze paper talk will include [if technically possible) a live demonstration of the Gopker-based newsletter over the Internet, a disczrssion of how to provide formatted ozltpzlt and a comparison to siznple “text-only” newsletters, and the inevitable disczlssion of wkat didn’t zczork. Paper from the Computing People On-line documentation is nothing new to the Computing Center, but it’s a new horizon for the world at large. Even in this day of electronic journals, listserv discussion groups, and integrated help modules, most of our own everyday professional and technical information is still paper-borne. Notable among the many publications that make up the web of paper-based information is the Computing Center Newsletter. The desktop computing revolution and the consequent ease of desktop publishing has perhaps even caused a proliferation of publications from the computing centers on campus. In the name of “increased communication” and better user service, we regularly provide our users with more paper to be eagerly digested, or perhaps more usually quickly skimmed or ignored on the way to the recycling bin. The newsletter is often the single medium for announcing changes from minor software tips to major system upgrades. We even have contests for the best newsletter at our professional conferences! Why do the electronic information specialists continue to publish paper news when so many technical means of distributing information electronically are at our disposal? While in computing we don’t like to use “we’ve always done it that way” as a reason for doing something, in essence that’s the reason most of us continue to publish using this method. Members of university communities are accustomed to getting and digesting large amounts of information in print, on paper, in their campus mailboxes; we still perceive this as the most effective way of getting information across. It’s nice to have a well-done, slick publication touting the latest achievements and news of your center, say, on the President’s desk or in the Admissions office. It provides a link to the part of the community for whom computing may be a new and possibly threatening entity in a familiar, easy-to-use