Special Announcement
Important News about CoOL and the Conservation DistList
Date: 19 Jun 2009
From: Eryl Wentworth
Subject: Conservation OnLine and the Conservation DistList
CoOL is Coming to AIC
Having reviewed a proposal from AIC and following several discussions, Stanford University Libraries has agreed that AIC will be given responsibility for CoOL and the Conservation DistList. The transfer of content from the Stanford servers will take place immediately with expert guidance from Walter Henry, John Burke, and technicians at Stanford.
Our first goal is to have the DistList operational as soon as possible. Watch for one or more announcements on the DistList for periodic updates regarding the resumption of activity. Other CoOL resources will come online under new URLs as expeditiously as possible. Discussions with allied and affiliate organizations will continue.
AIC is pleased to be entrusted with these invaluable resources and for the opportunity to sustain and develop them into the future. Our goal is to keep CoOL and the DistList safe, viable, objective, and accessible for the conservation community worldwide.
Please note that the DistList is not yet accepting submissions or new registrations. Comments or questions can be sent to
coolinfo@conservation-us.org
Thank you for your support of this major initiative.
-- AIC Executive Director Eryl Wentworth and
the AIC Board of Directors
Background
Date: 10 Jun 2009
From: Catherine Tierney
Subject: CoOL and the Conservation DistList
Dear Colleagues,
This is a difficult posting to write. For twenty two years, it has been Stanford University Libraries' great pleasure to serve and support the conservation community by hosting Conservation OnLine. Sadly, Stanford---like so many other institutions---has been hurt by the economy. As a result, we have had to make difficult choices. It is with deep regret that I inform you that we are no longer able to support CoOL. We feel it is important to alert you to this change as we are aware that so many of you rely on the distribution list as a medium of communication; there are still a number of things to be worked out.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/june17/layoffs-061709.html
Catherine Tierney
Associate University Librarian for Technical Services
Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources
Date: 10 Jun 2009
From: Walter Henry
Subject: CoOL and the Conservation DistList
It has been a great pleasure and privilege to work with this community and I look forward to finding ways to continue to do so. I've always held that conservation professionals were, as a class, unusually committed to the cause they serve; we really do care deeply about the cultural materials we are lucky enough to work with, and that care takes form in a remarkable dedication to the profession, to the ethical foundations upon which it is built, and to the community of practitioners from whatever discipline or specialty.
So, at the beginning of what would have been the DistList's twenty third year it is with great sadness, but also with some sense of pride, that I finally give up this enterprise and that of Conservation OnLine as a whole. I don't know exactly what will happen to the resources here but I have every faith that their fate will be in good hands.
I would like to thank, with all sincerity, Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources, my own department, the systems and IT staff, and most of all the directorate, who have been unfalteringly supportive of my work all these years, and I know would continue to be so were the world in just a little better shape than it is now.
As DistList tradition demands, I leave you a final accounting: As of this day, the Conservation DistList comprises 9696 people from at least 91 countries. Conservation OnLine contains, at a very rough guess, 120,000 documents, possibly quite a few more. I hope they have been useful to you all, and I hope to be of service to you as we move into the future.
onward,
walter
The final instance of the Conservation DistList, as it was distributed may be found at
http://cool-palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/instances/2009/2009-06-11.dst
or in its archive (HTML) at
http://cool-palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/instances/2009/
