We have received a proposal below for a new newsgroup,
MICROBIAL-CULTURES/bionet.microbiology.cultures
Discussion on the following proposal will now be open through 10 May
on BIOFORUM/bionet.general (*not* on BIONEWS/bionet.announce). For
those who are not on the BIOFORUM/bionet.general newsgroup currently,
either read bionet.general on USENET or contact one of the following
biosci addresses to sign up by e-mail:
Subscription Address Location
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biosci at daresbury.ac.uk Europe, Africa, and Central Asia
biosci at net.bio.net Americas and the Pacific Rim
One warning, however: BIOFORUM/bionet.general is a "chatty" newsgroup
and many other items will be discussed there besides this newsgroup
proposal. USENET news access is definitely better than e-mail if you
want to monitor only this discussion.
Discussion Guidelines
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Please do not post one-line messages saying things like "I am in favor
of such a newsgroup". We will collect votes later. The discussion
period is an opportunity for anyone to bring up reservations about the
proposed charter below and to propose modifications prior to the vote.
If the charter is perfect as is, then there is no need for anyone to
say anything!!!
The newsgroup discussion leader may submit a revised proposal in light
of the discussion, and the new charter would be included in the call
for votes which will go out on 11 May (Newsgroup Discussion leaders -
please note this deadline - if no revisions are received before the
deadline, the original charter will be voted on.).
Please be aware that only one vote is counted per e-mail address, so
it is necessary to have your own account in order to vote. Multiple
votes from the same address are not accepted. If you are interested
in the following newsgroup, but do not have an e-mail address of your
own, please obtain one from your computer center before the call for
votes is issued.
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Proposal to establish MICROBIAL-CULTURES/bionet.microbiology.cultures
Proposed USENET name: bionet.microbiology.cultures
Proposed mailing list name: MICROBIAL-CULTURES
Proposed e-mail addresses: cultures at net.bio.netcultures at daresbury.ac.uk
Discussion leader: David Boone
boone at ese.ogi.edu
The main purposes of this discussion group are to discuss methods for
storage of cultures and to aid microbiologists in finding either sources
of microbial cultures or collections into which new isolates can be
deposited.
Many microbial strains can be found in national collections such as the
American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), but other cultures are stored
only in specialized collections scattered around the world. For instance,
many fastidious microbes can be cultivated only by experts in those
particular organisms, and even major culture collections do not have
sufficient staff to include experts for each of these groups. This
newsgroup should serve as a forum to help researchers find appropriate
collections for the deposit or acquisition of specific organisms.
Another important function of this newsgroup will be to find permanent
homes for important "orphaned" collections. Many scientists acquire
during their careers large collections of microbes that are not available
elsewhere, and when these scientists retire their collections are often
lost due to lack of maintenance or because the cultures are discarded by
the employing institutions. Often national collections are able to accept
only a few of the most important organisms or type strains, and this
newsgroup could help the scientist to find a permanent repository for the
rest of the collection.
Subscribers interested in the acquisition and storage of microbial
cultures are welcome from academic and commercial institutions.
Contributions consistent with the objectives of this newsgroup are
encouraged. The newsgroup will be unmoderated, and I will act as
coordinator.
David Boone
Professor of Environmental Microbiology
Oregon Graduate Institute
Portland, Oregon, USA
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