We just had a discussion on the appropriateness of advertisments
on MLA-L. As you would expect, opinion was devided. Some (including
me) felt that brief annoucements of a commerical nature would
be OK and useful (announcing new catalogs, new products and so
forth with instructions about how to obtain additional information).
Music publishing (i.e.  classical music publishing which is a
major focus of a lot of public and academic music libraries) is
still close to being a cottage industry (that' also true for recordings
besides the Sony's and EMI's who rely on the pop market anyway).
From my perspective, it's important to maintain close relations
between the library and commercial communities.
Others adamantaly opposed "junk mail" in the MLA-L.
There was no clear consenses; typically the matter has been referred
to a committee.
P.s. BTW, over the past 6 years, there have been no more than
a handful of commercial announcements, and no public complaints about
those either (NB--MLA-L is also not moderated).
 
*GO*   Cordially, forever more,
*!!*   A. Ralph Papakhian, Music Library (Co-Listowner for MLA-L@IUBVM)
*IU*   Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405
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