E-Mail List Guidelines

About

SILO offers an e-mail list service to facilitate communication and information exchange among all Iowa librarians. Electronic mailing lists allow people to send e-mail to one address, where their message is copied and sent to all other subscribers. All SILO e-mail lists require you to subscribe before sending messages. All messages sent to an e-mail list hosted by SILO are scanned for viruses. Messages containing viruses are not sent to the list.

Benefit to Iowa Libraries

SILO e-mail lists are a service of the State Library. Subscription to any or all the lists maintained by SILO is a cost-free privilege provided to Iowa libraries.

Editorial Control

The State Library does not undertake editorial control of postings or actively monitor the lists for inappropriate postings. All action relative to a specific message can only occur after posting. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the State Library's attention, action will be taken which may include removal from the e-mail list.

Disclaimer

The opinions and information sent via e-mail lists are those of the originator only. The State Library does not accept responsibility for these messages, but provides an open forum in which opinions and/or conversations may occur. The State Library does not warrant (expressed or implied) the confidentiality of information posted to the e-mail lists to a specific target group.

Defamation

Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive or illegal materials. Individuals posting to the e-mail lists should familiarize themselves with developing legal opinion with regards to slander and libel.

Copyright

Do not post information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that it owns the copyright with respect to such material, or has received permission from the copyright owner, or that the material is an original work and that the author is placing it in the public domain. In addition, the posting party grants the State Library and users of the lists the non-exclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print and use such information or other material. Any material so distributed shall carry with it proper attribution to the original author, source of the material (this list), and original date of the posting.

Local Systems

Care should be given by each list member to ensure that their local computer system continues to operate without causing detrimental impact to any of the SILO e-mail lists or the e-mail list system. These include proper use of “vacation” programs, e-mail forwarding, etc. While the State Library will work with individual members who experience problems, the operators of the e-mail list system reserve the right to discontinue, either temporarily or permanently, access to any user whose local system causes problems for the e-mail list system itself.

Termination

The State Library of Iowa reserves the right to discontinue access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.

Common Etiquette

• Do not attack or criticize individuals.
  
• Use upper and lower case letters, all CAPS is SHOUTING.
  
• Be considerate of spelling limitations; it's the information and thoughts that are important.
  
• Summarize and post responses to surveys or post information to the whole e-mail list if you feel it is appropriate.
  
• Include a subject header that accurately reflects the message content.
  
• Do not send 'thank you's' and 'me toos' to the whole group.
  
• Thank the members in your message.
  
• Be clear in your message to reduce the risk of misinterpretation. 
• Do not post chain messages to an e-mail list.
  

Responsibilities of SILO e-mail list

SILO will provide the e-mail list service to Iowa libraries and will maintain the hardware and software necessary to operate the SILO e-mail lists. SILO will review applications for new e-mail list requests and review requests to close down old mailing lists. SILO will set up and close down e-mail lists.

Where to report problems

Send an e-mail message to Postmaster.

Instructions for participating in SILO e-mail lists:

To subscribe to or unsubscribe from an e-mail list on SILO:

As of 7/02/01:

There is a web page designed for subscribing and unsubscribing from the e-mail lists. Here is a link to the page:

http://lists.silo.lib.ia.us/mailman/listinfo

If you have any questions about the individual e-mail lists, click on the list name for information on that list.  On the information page to each list is a description of what the list is for, along with a place to subscribe, unsubscribe, or edit subscriber options.

To post a message:

To send a mail message to all of the subscribers at one time, you must already be subscribed to the list and use the address for the list.

Example: iowalib@lists.silo.lib.ia.us

Be sure to include a descriptive subject line.

The e-mail list software at SILO will then relay your entire message to the list population. Any replies to the message will be returned only to the sender, and not the whole list.