Group Project
General Information on Listservs
Listservs are, essentially, group e-mail which is sent to all the subscribers when a new message is recieved, or daily if you are set to recieve digests. Outside of those class listservs to which you are required to subscribe, listservs can be a great way to make professional contacts and "Get Your Name Out There" and network in general.
Subscribing / Unsubscribing
The way to sign up to a listserv is to send an email to LISTSERV@listserv.ServerName, where ServerName is the name of the web host (i.e. listserv@listserv.sc.edu controls the USC listservs) with the following in the body, and no information in the topic or anywhere else
SUBSCRIBE (LISTNAME) Firstname Lastname
To subscribe to the USC-SLIS listserv hosted on USC, for instance, you would send an email to LISTSERV@listserv.sc.edu containing the following in the e-mail body:
SUBSCRIBE USC-SLIS William Tell
This, of course, presumes you have a penchant for shooting apples off people's heads and having operas named after you.
Note that you cannot subscribe to a listserv by sending an e-mail to the specific list you wish to subscribe to containing the above. You must send it to listserv@listserv.ServerName instead, as described above.
However, many listservs have a webform which you can use instead. This requires no e-mailing whatsoever; you simply type in your name and e-mail address in the relevant fields and select "subscribe!" Normally, though, you will still need to click a link in an e-mail sent you by the system in order to confirm your registration.
Unsubscribing works the same way, except you type UNSUBSCRIBE instead of SUBSCRIBE, and you don't need to type in your name (usually, although it doesn't hurt anything if you do), as the listserv system can tell who you are by where your e-mail is coming from. So, if you have changed your mind and wish to remove yourself from the listserv, you would send an email to LISTSERV@listserv.sc.edu containing the following in the e-mail body:
UNSUBSCRIBE USC-SLIS
Note that in almost all cases, e-mailing the listserv with something asking to remove you will not work and, even if it does, will needlessly bother those running the listserv, as the 600 people on it will recieve your e-mail and the admin will have to go in and manually remove you.
A listing of listservs
General Purpose / Miscellaneous Listservs
CurrentCites: Sign-up page This listserv is a little unusual; people send annotated bibliography blurbs about library books to it, and a digest is sent out monthly (so far as I can tell).
ALA listservs: (Partial) List of ALA listservs Information and Sign-up Pages (All the listservs ALA maintains, with subscription information.)
Book Arts listserv: Information page
IFLA lsitservs: List of all IFLA listservs with links to sign-up pages (They have a lot of listservs, running the gamut from YA to Digital to Geneology and Local History)
NEWLIB-L: Subscribe by e-mailing LISTPROC@USC.EDU (Listserv for new librarians)
Academic Library Listservs
LIBEX-L: Subscribe by e-mailing LISTSERV@MAINE.MAINE.EDU ("Library Exhibits and Academic Libraries" list)
LIBPLN-L: Subscribe by e-mailing LISTSERV@UKANVM.CC.UKANS.EDU
Acquisitions/Cataloguing Listservs
ACQNET listserv: Information page (Acquisitions)
AUTOCAT listserv: Sign-up page (Cataloguing)
COLLDV-L: Sign-up page (Collection Development)
OLAC-List: Information page (Audio-visual cataloguing)
SERIALST: Sign-up page (Serials cataloguing)
Administration Listservs
LABMGR: Sign-up page (For computer lab managers)
LIBADMIN: Subscribe by e-mailing LISTPROC@LIST.UMARYLAND.EDU (For Library Administrators)
Archival Listservs
[Archives] listserv: Sign-up page (click the Subscribe link to the right)
A List of other SAA-run listservs: on the SAA page (Many, if not all, contain automated subscription via webforms)
Business Library Listservs
BUSLIB-L: Sign-up page
Digital Listservs
Web4Lib: Sign-up page
XML4Lib: Sign-up page
DIGLIB: Sign-up page
LIBLICENSE-L: Sign-up page (Discussion of licensing as it pertains to digitization, digital libraries, and electronic resources)
ILL Listservs
ILL-L: Sign-up page
Information Literacy/Instruction Listservs
ILI-L: Sign-up page
International Librarianship Listservs
List at ALA site
Job Announcement Listservs
LIBJOBS: Sign-up page (Don't be scared by the .fr in the link; it's in English.)
Medical Library Listservs
MEDLIB-L: Sign-up page
Public Library Listservs
PubLib: Sign-up page
Prison Library Listservs
PRISON-LIB: Sign-up page (May need to join the site on which the listserv is hosted)
Reference Listservs
LIBREF-L: Sign-up page
School Library / "Media Center" Listservs
IASL-LINK: Sign-up page (Official listserv of the International Association of School Librarianship; You need to be a member of IASL to sign up for the list)
Support Staff / IT / Technical Services Listservs
COLT: Yahoo Groups page (Library Support Staff; You may need to be a member of COLT)
LIBSUP-L: Sign-up page (Support Staff)
SYSLIB-L: Sign-up page (For Systems Librarians)
USC SLIS Listservs
All of these listservs can be subscribed to by sending an e-mail to listserv@listserv.sc.edu, as explained above. Do not send an e-mail to the specific listserv containing your subscription information, as this will not work.
USC-SLIS General discussion list
SLISINFO Only for information/announcements
SLISJOBS Contains job announcements only
Got a listserv that's not on the list? Edit it in!
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.