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The Museum Discussion List (Museum-L)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Last Revised: August 30, 1996
August 30, 1996 -- On July 2, 1996 the University of New Mexico switched to the Unix-based Listprocessor software to handle Museum-L Distribution. Due to the size of the list and problems with the newsgroup gateway under Listprocessor software it soon became apparent that Museum-L needed a new home. Eric Thomas, founder of L-Soft and the person who developed the Listserv software offered to host the list on his system.
Please note that the list recently moved to a new home. The list address is:
Museum-L@home.ease.lsoft.com
and the listserv address is:
Listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com
PURPOSE.
Museum-L is a general purpose, cross-disciplinary electronic discussion list for museum professionals, students, and all others interested in museum related issues. All museum related topics are acceptable for posting and discussion at this time. Membership in Museum-L is open to anyone with e-mail service.
HISTORY.
Museum-L was started in April 1991. Membership has grown rapidly and totaled 1099 on Nov. 1, 1994. The volume of message varies from a "few" per day, up to as many as 50 messages per day during peak periods. Museum-L was linked with USENET in September 1994. This cross-link is a full-functioning link with messages going in both directions. As of this update, August 30, 1996, there are 1400 subscribers in 27 countries.
On July 25, 1996, Museum-L was moved to a new home, on the world's largest and fastest e-mail distribution system. This move became necessary when the University of New Mexico switched to Listprocessor software on July 2, 1996.
For a number of technical reasons a move from the previous hosts had become inevitable. MUSEUM-L members will certainly have noticed the difficulties caused by the University of New Mexico having terminated the operation of its LISTSERV installation.
The owner of Museum-L, along with the owner of the ICOM lists, and entirely independently of each other, contacted L-Soft International, Inc., the firm which develops and licenses Eric Thomas's original LISTSERV software, to see if they might be able to provide assistance in keeping the lists within the environment to which all their members had become accustomed.
OWNER.
John Chadwick is the "owner", i.e. manager, of the Museum-L discussion list. Please direct any questions you have about the Museum-L to him at: chadwick@nmmnh-abq.mus.nm.us OR chadwick@unm.edu
SOFTWARE.
Museum-L is an electronic discussion list, based on an IBM mainframe computer, which is connected to the Internet network. The LISTSERV software used to support Museum-L was written by Eric Thomas, copyrighted 1986 through the present. The current release of the software is 1.8b. Most discussion list operations are fully automated by this LISTSERV software.
WARNING: There are several different discussion list software programsbeing used on the Internet. The specific command and function can VARY with each of these different software program. THIS CAN BE VERY CONFUSING TO PEOPLE. Some of the most frequently used LISTSERV software commands are listed in this document.
If you are unacquainted with the LISTSERV commands and software, you can request additional information by sending an e-mail message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com and in the body of an e-mail message enter:
GET LISTSERV REFCARD A five page "Listserv Command Reference Card" will be sent to you as an e-mail message.
JOINING / SUBSCRIBING.
There are several methods of joining or subscribing to Museum-L depending on which computer systems or network you are using. There is no cost for subscribing to Museum-L discussion list. HOWEVER, THERE MAYBE BE LOCAL SERVICE PROVIDER CHARGES or CONNECT CHANGES for the electronic mail messages that you will receive. Check with your service provider or local computer support person, if this is an issue.
From the Internet.
To subscribe to Museum-L from the Internet send the following in the body of an e-mail message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
SUBSCRIBE Museum-L Full Name
From the CompuServe commercial service.
To subscribe to Museum-L from CompuServe send the following in the body of an e-mail message to >INTERNET: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
SUBSCRIBE Museum-L Full Name
...Beware; it will behoove you to cut costs by using TAPCIS, CIM, AutoSIG, Navigator, or the offline reader of your choice if reading Museum-L from CompuServe; the volume reaches or exceeds several dozen messages a day. CompuServe also levies a per message surcharge after a certain number of Internet messages.
From the America OnLine (AOL) commercial service.
AOL doesn't have a text interface. Internet e-mail is integrated into AOL's graphical software, so to subscribe to Museum-L from AOL send the following in the body of an e-mail message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
SUBSCRIBE Museum-L Full Name
Some people use AOLs "FlashMail" feature to capture messages before reading them, this will save substantial connect time charges. AOL also allows reading Museum-L messages via the bit.listserv.museum-l Usenet newsgroup.
LEAVING / UNSUBSCRIBING.
If you absolutely don't want to stay listed at all on Museum-L and never want to have anything to do with the list again, from the Internet send the following in the body of an e-mail message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
SIGNOFF Museum-L
For other networks/systems use the same method you used to subscribe.
POSTING MESSAGES.
There are two addresses used in relation to the Museum-L discussing list, both are located at the host: home.ease.lsoft.com Administrative and management messages are sent to: LISTSERV Posting to the discussion list, which are then broadcast to the full membership are sent to: Museum-L
PLEASE DO NOT SEND ADMINISTRATIVE MESSAGE TO MUSEUM-L.
Specific address formatting varies slightly from different networks.
From the Internet. After you receive a subscription confirmation, send postings to the list using this address: Museum-L@home.ease.lsoft.com
8.2 From CompuServe. After you receive a subscription confirmation, send postings to the list to using this address: >INTERNET: Museum-L@home.ease.lsoft.com
8.3 From America OnLine. After you receive a subscription confirmation, send postings to the list using this address: Museum-L@home.ease.lsoft.com
MANAGING / CONTROLLING YOUR MESSAGES.
NOMAIL Option
If you're interested in staying registered with Museum-L but you don't want to participate actively (i.e.: can't handle the e-mail volume, not able to read your e-mail for a period of time ...), send the following in the body of an e-mail message to:
LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
SET Museum-L NOMAIL
Keep this file handy because you will not receive any messages while you have your e-mail options set for NOMAIL. We have suspended the annual renewal process because the listowner was swamped each December by more than 200 e-mail messages asking how to renew subscriptions. Therefore, you may go years without receiving a message from Museum-L, and if you want to start again, send the following message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
SET Museum-L MAIL
REVIEW Command.
To see the list of subscribers (including yourself, to see where LISTSERV thinks you are), send the following in the body of an e-mail message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com (subject doesn't matter)
REVIEW Museum-L
NOREPRO Command.
If you don't want to receive a copy of the messages you post, send the following in the body of an e-mail message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
SET Museum-L NOREPRO
DIGEST Command.
With the DIGEST option ON the LISTSERV software will send one large message per day from the Museum-L discussion list. This single message contains a simple table of contents and the full text of the day's messages. The DIGEST is distributed shortly after midnight local time. If you would like to switch to the DIGEST option send the following in the body of an e-mail message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
SET Museum-L DIGEST
QUERY Command. If you want to find out your current Museum-L distribution list options, send the following in the body of an e-mail message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
QUERY Museum-L
USENET GROUP: bit.listserv.museum-l
All Museum-L postings are now forwarded to the alternative Usenet newsgroup bit.listserv.museum-l. Postings to the newsgroup are automatically forwarded back to the list. Please remember this when posting to the newsgroup. Museum-L has been known to generate more than 50 messages a day, and the newsgroup was established to allow people with access to Usenet another option to read messages without having their mailbox fill up.
ARCHIVES.
Logged files are stored at LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com. To get a listing of available log files, send a one line e-mail message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
Get Museum-L FILELIST
To obtain a specific log file, such as the file for October, 1994, you can send a one line e-mail message to: LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com
Get Museum-L LOG9410
These files are often 500K bytes or larger. Many e-mail systems cannot handle such large files, and you may not want such a large file in your mailbox. In May 1994 University of California Museum of Paleontology was able to start storing Museum-L archives in a searchable WAIS database format. All postings since January 1, 1994 are in the database and updates are added monthly.
Gopher to host: ucmp1.berkeley.edu
**HINT** It is much quicker to search by key words rather than reading the file.
On the World Wide Web the archives are searchable at:
http://home.dc.lsoft.com/archives/museum-l.html
Search via e-mail. You can search the archives via e-mail. Send the search command to LISTSERV@home.ease.lsoft.com. A command such as:
search (science and education) and (job or position) in MUSEUM-L since 96/07/01
Will return and index of postings since July 1, 1996. You can then order individual postings via e-mail.
RELATED DISCUSSION LISTS.
This is a list I have compiled and available via anonymous ftp: darwin.nmmnh-abq.mus.nm.us
RETENTION OF THE MUSEUM-L FAQ.
IMPORTANT: PRINT OR SAVE THIS INFORMATION FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.
COPIES OF THE MUSEUM-L FAQ.
These instructions are available via anonymous FTP from two sites:
Host: darwin.nmmnh-abq.mus.nm.us
Login as anonymous and use your e-mail address as your password. This file is contained in the misc directory under the file name:
museum-l-faq.txt
Also host: simsc.si.edu
Login as anonymous and use your e-mail address as your password.
•Change directory to: museums •Change directory to: general •This file is under the name: •museum-l-faq.txt
These instructions are also available via gopher:
Host: world.std.com
•Go to: Membership and Professional Associations •Then go to: Museum Computer Network
AUTHORS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
This document was written by John Chadwick and David Bridge who are solely responsible for any errors. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions and suggestions of the following reviewers: Mignon Erixon-Stanford, Guy Hermann, Katherine Jones-Garmil and Suzanne Quigley.
Please send any corrections or suggestions for FUTURE additions or improvements to the "Museum-L FAQ" to the listowner, John Chadwick: chadwick@darwin.nmmnh-abq.mus.nm.us.
This FAQ file was originally modified for the Web on 2-7-95 by John Chadwick. The update was on August 30, 1996 with the help of Theresa Russell.