GOVDOC-L is a LISTSERV(c)-based discussion forum about all types (federal, state, local, and international) government information with an emphasis on the Federal Depository Library program. Many subscribers are librarians in and out of government, although private and public information producers are represented as well. GOVDOC-L gratefully acknowledges Pennsylvania State University's and Duke University's computing support as well as the hosting services of GreenGeeks (We happily used LISHost for many years, but that service was retired in 2020).

Current Moderators are:

GOVDOC-L is NOT:

• a Bulletin Board or a netnews group. It is an interactive, e-mail based discussion list.
• affiliated with any government, government agency, professional organization.

If you wish to adjust your subscription via email, please remember to do the following:

• send to LISTSERV@LISTS.PSU.EDU
• use no subject line
• remove ALL text in the body of the message except for the command itself, e.g. delete your contact information.

• Go to https://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=GOVDOC-L&A=1
• Select an email address to use - this list gets a lot of traffic, so you may want to use an alternative address from your standard one.
  
  OR
   
• Send an e-mail message to LISTSERV@LISTS.PSU.EDU that contains the line: SUB GOVDOC-L Yourfirstname Yourlastname
  
  

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Participants on this list all agree that the topics of discussion should relate to government documents and information issues, particularly in library settings. Topics can include related issues, such as the impact of electronic dissemination on access to information.

This list is moderated. The moderators reserve the right to refuse to post any message. Messages that will not be posted include:

• Inappropriate subject for this listserv
• Inflammatory or overtly political messages
• Unsigned messages, or messages with just initials or first name only
• Personal responses to individuals that are not intended to be shared with the list
• Messages that simply say "Yes" or "Me too"
• Extremely long threads of messages
• Questions regarding the technical processing of government information
• Messages with HTML coding
• Messages with attachments or virtual business cards

The list is willing to post job notices if, and only if, the position in some way relates to government information.

Previously the moderators notified each sender of a message that was not posted to the list, for whatever reason. At times the volume of messages makes it impractical to provide this courtesy in each and every case, so this practice is now more selective.

The moderators will post occasional commercial announcement messages from people and companies with products directly related to government information or documents librarianship, but will not post direct sales messages. As with all messages, we reserve the right not to post any message. Commercial emailers should also know that we will NOT provide a copy of our subscriber list to anyone.

Comments and suggestions on the functioning of GOVDOC-L and moderating policy should be sent directly to the moderators and will be considered carefully.

Please trust the moderator to handle all questions about the functions of GOVDOC-L's LISTSERV^® software as well as mailing errors which appear on the list.

Courtesy among subscribers is assumed.

If you cannot agree to be subject to these moderating policies, you will be unsubscribed from GOVDOC-L.

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Changing Your Address

• Go to https://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A0%3DGOVDOC-L&L=GOVDOC-L and log in to edit/manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the list.
• If the name and email boxes are empty, click on the "login with your LISTSERV password" link immediately above them and login (if you don't already have a password, you'll be prompted to create one).
• The screen should reload to show your name and current email address.
• Then you change to the new one and click "Update Options".
• To change your address via email, send the following to LISTSERV@LISTS.PSU.EDU: CHANGE listname old-email new-email

Set Topics

When you subscribe to GOVDOC-L, your options are set to send you all messages posted to the list. This includes a group of messages known as needs and offers (e.g. duplicates they want to share, people who are looking for a copy of a specific document). To deselect these messages, follow the instructions below.

• If you don't need to monitor needs and offers and are using the web form, be sure to uncheck the N&O checkbox under Topics at https://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A0%3DGOVDOC-L&L=GOVDOC-L.
• NOTE: be aware that the digest options will not work with the N&O: filter and you will receive all messages.
   
• To change your settings via email, send the following to LISTSERV@LISTS.PSU.EDU
  SET GOVDOC-L TOPICS=-N&O: (O as in Offers, not a zero, and notice the minus sign preceding the N)
• If you ever wish to resume seeing needs and offers messages, along with all the other postings to the list, send this command: SET GOVDOC-L TOPICS=ALL
• If you wish to receive ONLY needs and offers messages, use this one: SET GOVDOC-L TOPICS=N&O:
  
  This is why it is important to put N&O: at the beginning of the subject line of needs and offers messages you send to GOVDOC-L.

Set Digest

You can choose to receive GOVDOC-L messages once a week (or occasionally more often if traffic is heavy) by setting your subscription to Digest.

• From https://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A0%3DGOVDOC-L&L=GOVDOC-L, you can check the Digest option of your choice.
• To set it via email, send SET GOVDOC-L DIGEST to LISTSERV@LISTS.PSU.EDU.

Set Subjects

To simplify users' abilty to filter GOVDOC-L, they can set their accounts so that all GOVDOC-L messages will have at the beginning of the subject line "[GOVDOC-L]".

• From https://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A0%3DGOVDOC-L&L=GOVDOC-L, check "LISTSERV-style, with list name in subject".
• Via email, send the command: SET GOVDOC-L SUBJECTHDR to LISTSERV@LISTS.PSU.EDU.

Unsubscribing

• https://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A0%3DGOVDOC-L&L=GOVDOC-L, click on the "Leave GOVDOC-L" button
• Via email, send UNSUB GOVDOC-L to LISTSERV@LISTS.PSU.EDU.
  
  NOTE: If your e-mail address changes after you subscribe, this may not work. In that case, contact one of the moderators who can manually delete your name.

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GOVDOC-L Address

• Send an e-mail note addressed to GOVDOC-L exactly as you would send an e-mail note to a person. Use the address GOVDOC-L@lists.psu.edu
• Mail sent to GOVDOC-L is distributed to every subscriber only after review by the moderator on duty. Submissions are not posted instantaneously, but generally distributed within one business day.

Including Your Contact Information

• Your name and e-mail address and other contact information must appear in the body of the message because not all email clients handle redirected messages the same way and you may not always appear as the message sender.

Needs and Offers

• Needs and Offers MUST have the following subject line prefix. Otherwise, the filter function of the list software won't work. Begin the subject line with N&O: (that's an O as in Offers, not a zero, and the colon is necessary. Also, there should be no spaces between characters in the prefix.).
  
  A header for such a message might look like this:

  FROM:       A. Librarian
  
  TO:         GOVDOC-L@lists.psu.edu (Discussion of Government Documents Issues)
  
  DATE:       Mar 28, 05 10:06:00 am
  
  SUBJECT:    N&O:  Duplicate hearing
  

• Excessively long N&O: messages will not be posted. Limit N&O: messages to a few items or include a link to a web page where lists are posted.

Cross-Postings from other Lists

• Cross-postings should indicate which lists the note has been posted to in the subject field. That way, it will be easier for people subscribed to several lists to delete them from their readers.

Reference Questions

• We encourage Reference Questions to have the following subject line prefix. Begin the subject line with Refq: (the colon is necessary).
  
  A header for such a message might look like this:

  FROM:       A. Librarian
  
  TO:         GOVDOC-L@lists.psu.edu (Discussion of Government Documents Issues)
  
  DATE:       Mar 24, 05 07:15:45 pm
  
  SUBJECT:    Refq:  Census Data
  

Attachments

• No attachments will be accepted and this includes virtual business cards as this is the primary method by which viruses are spread.
   

Copyright

• Messages must comply with fair use guidelines - copyrighted material should be linked, not reproduced entirely in a message or the message will be rejected.

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Replies to individuals rather than to the listserv

• Most email programs will, by default, send email to all subscribers to GOVDOC-L when you use the Reply Function of the email program because we've configured the software to work this way. Therefore, you must manually change the recipient from GOVDOC-L to the individual before sending if you intend to respond to the sender only, otherwise it'll come to the moderators for approval and you may not wish them to see your comments. Messages clearly intended for individuals rather than the list will be rejected.
   
• Examples of messages that should go directly to individuals include:
   
  • answering specific reference questions
  • responding to ILL-type messages with requested materials
  • giving advice on particular computer problems
  • sharing the information that you have received a particular document or serial issue
  • requesting publications from N&O: messages
     

Auto-Replies / NOMAIL

PLEASE do not use auto-replies without also setting your account to NOMAIL. While Listserv software can filter some auto-replies, it misses many more. If you forget, your account will be set to NOMAIL without notification.

• From https://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A0%3DGOVDOC-L&L=GOVDOC-L, log in and check NOMAIL to set it.
• Via email, send SET GOVDOC-L NOMAIL to LISTSERV@LISTS.PSU.EDU. Send the command SET GOVDOC-L MAIL when you are ready to receive mail again.

More Help

For more email commands, see the LISTSERV Users Manual, especially part 2.14.

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If you are new to e-mail and e-mail discussion groups, the following information should be helpful.

Extracted from:
Howard Rosenbaum and Gregory B. Newby, "An Emerging Form of Human Communication: Computer Networking" In ASIS "90: Proceedings of the 53rd ASIS Annual Meeting 1990, V. 27, Toronto, Ontario November 4-8, 1990.

Table 3: Points for Effective Computer Mediated Communication These points apply for personal e-mail, mail to a group of people, mail sent to a distribution list, or items posted to a Usenet or other bulletin board-type systems.

• Read carefully what you receive, to make sure that you are not misunderstanding the message
• Read carefully what you send, to make sure that your message will not be misunderstood
• If you are using humor or sarcasm, make sure it is clearly labeled as such.
• Remember that the absence of cues associated with face to face communication provide for an environment where it is easy to misunderstand what is being said.
• Know your audience. Make sure that the person or list of people you are sending your message to are the appropriate one(s) to communicate with
• Be tolerant of newcomers. Do not abuse new users of computer networks for their ignorance -- be patient as they first learn to crawl, then to walk
• Avoid cluttering your messages with excessive emphasis (such as stars, arrows and the like). It may make the message hard to follow
• If you are responding to a message, either include part of the original message in your message, or make sure you unambiguously refer to the original message's contents. It is very possible that people will read your response to the message before they read the original (A convention is to proceed each line of the original message you include with the ">" character
• Always include a descriptive subject line in your message. If you are responding to another message, your subject line should be the same, with "RE:" at the beginning. If you are going off track, change the subject line. For example, if the original subject was: "Email." the follow-up subject would be "RE: Email." A spin-off subject would be: "My view of the world (was RE: Email)."
• Keep messages to only one subject. This allows readers to quickly decide whether they need to read the message in full. Second subjects may be missed.

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