Given that OCLC is the enemy, the worst thing that has ever happened to
librarys, particularly library cataloging, I don't know why I'm answering
this; let's say I'm in a fey mood.

On Wed, 14 Aug 2002, Humphrey,Mindy wrote:
> Is this possible?
>
> Is there a way to extract copies of the Digest from OCLC-Cat? I'd like to be
> able to send him the last 2 days' worth.

No, Mindy, you can't do that.  The DIGEST does not actually exist as such
except when it is sent.  The digest is merely a record of the items posted
to the list since the last digest was sent.  When the list's DIGEST is sent
LISTSERV pulls the items from the log/archive and sends them to the DIGEST
subscribers in a lump.  The digest has no "real" existence and you cannot
reconstruct a past DIGEST.

However, you can get a sorta approximation with a list search
s * in olac-cat from 2/8/13 to 2/8/13

for one day, or

s * in olac-cat from 2/8/13 to 2/8/14
for two days. Use with discretion according to list traffic.

If you really want to have the DIGEST available to send to those who have
lost out, well, sub to the list and set the sub DIGEST, retain the
distributed digest for about a month or so.  I started doing this for all
of my lists back when so many systems were picky about this or that, like
a period in the first column which would truncate the digest for some folk.
Easier to have a copy of the DIGEST at hand than try to reconstruct from
what people try to describe when they've a problem.

Ok, that entitles me to another dig at OCLC, which is *not* a nonprofit
organization.       Douglas [log in to unmask]