PAMnet Information

General Information

The Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics (PAM) Division of the Special Libraries Association maintains an electronic discussion group (formerly known as a listserv) which is referred to as “PAMnet”. The list is not moderated. The list is open to subscribers only, but you may be a subscriber without being a member of SLA or PAM (but note also that subscription to PAMnet does not make the subscriber a member of the PAM division). To become a subscriber contact the owner of the list.

Listowner: Thurston Miller (miller.115@nd.edu)

Address to which you send messages: PAMnet@listserv.nd.edu

Archive (starting with August 1998): http://listserv.nd.edu/archives/pamnet.html.

The purpose of PAMnet is to provide a forum for the discussion of library and information resource issues relevant to the fields of physics, astronomy and mathematics. PAMnet does not replace the PAM Bulletin, the Division’s newsletter. PAMnet may be used to seek help with reference questions. PAMnet may also be used to seek help in obtaining materials, but only when those materials are not available through a library’s normal ILL or document delivery suppliers or in cases when timing is critical.

No commercial products or services may be advertised on the list, but the list may be used to discuss commercial library materials, resources and equipment.

REMINDER: Use headers in the subject field. Many PAMnet readers have requested that all submissions begin the Subject line with one of the following words: ASTRO, COMPSCI, MATH, PHYSICS, GENERAL. Example: Subject: MATH:duplicate books. In this way people can quickly determine if they need to read the message.

Change Your Subscriber Settings (preferred method)

or use Basic List Commands

[Adapted from Appendix A: LISTSERV Command Reference for LISTSERV(r) version 1.8d]

 

List Statistics (as of July 2004)

The question was recently revisited of how many PAM members subscribe to PAMnet. These are the results of comparing the most recent PAM membership list with the discussion list subscription list:

PAM members: 241
PAM members on PAMnet: 175
Therefore, messages on PAMnet are NOT reaching about 27% of the membership (although this is down from approximately 40% in 1997).

PAMnet subscribers: 548 (including some duplicates)
Thus PAMnet continues to generate interest and participation from many non-PAM members.

For you 307 nonmembers out there: remember that membership in SLA-PAM (Special Library Association-Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division) includes many other benefits – check it out!

Jennifer Harter, jedelman@mit.edu, PAM Membership Chair, and
Kris Fowler, fowler@math.umn.edu

Listowner:
Thurston Miller, University of Notre Dame

Netiquette

[Adapted from RFC 1855: Netiquette Guidelines]

One-to-Many Communication: General Guidelines for Mailing Lists and Newsgroups

  • Read mailing lists and newsgroups for one to two months before you post anything. This helps you to get an understanding of the culture of the group.
  • Consider that a large audience will see your posts. That may include your present or your next boss. Remember too, that mailing lists and newsgroups are frequently archived, and that your words may be stored for a very long time in a place to which many people have access.
  • Be careful when you reply to messages or postings. Frequently replies are sent back to the address which originated the post – which in many cases is the address of a list or group!
  • Subject lines should follow the conventions of the group.
  • Messages and articles should be brief and to the point.
  • If you are sending a reply, be sure you summarize the original at the top of the message, or include just enough text of the original to give a context. This will make sure readers understand when they start to read your response. But do not include the entire original!
  • Be careful with monospacing fonts and diagrams. These will display differently on different systems, and with different mailers on the same system.
  • Be sure to have a signature which you attach to your message. This will guarantee that any peculiarities of mailers or newsreaders which strip header information will not delete the only reference in the message of how people may reach you.
  • If you find a personal message has gone to a list or group, send an apology to the person and to the group.

Mailing List Guidelines

  • Send subscribe and unsubscribe messages to the appropriate address.
  • Save the subscription messages for any lists you join. These usually tell you how to unsubscribe as well.
  • Consider unsubscribing or setting a “nomail” option when you cannot check your mail for an extended period.
  • In general, it’s not possible to retrieve messages once you have sent them.
  • Examine “Reply-To” addresses when replying to messages from lists. Most auto-replys will go to all members of the list.
  • When sending a message to more than one mailing list, especially if the lists are closely related, apologize for cross-posting.
  • If you ask a question, be sure to post a summary. When doing so, truly summarize rather than send an accumulation of the messages you receive.
  • Don’t send large files to mailing lists when Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) or pointers to ftp-able versions will do.
  • Some mailing lists are private. Do not send mail to these lists uninvited. Do not report mail from these lists to a wider audience.

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Site last updated April 23, 2013 @ 4:58 pm; This content last updated June 7, 2011 @ 12:53 pm