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Listserves

Listserves are electronic forums for requesting and exchanging information on a subject or professional area. There are a number of archives listserves which are worth subscribing to because they provide information about events, or projects that fellow-professionals are working on, and generally help to keep us in touch with the concerns of the profession as a whole.

This list represents the main archives listserves active at the moment. To subscribe you need to put the following formula as the only text into the body of a message to the address given, leaving the title line blank:

SUBSCRIBE <LISTSERVE NAME>   <YOUR OWN EMAIL ADDRESS>

This list represents the main archives listserves active at the moment. To subscribe, all you need to do is click on the address for subscriptions for your chosen listserve and your browser will generate a handy email which is ready to send. You can also use it to unsubscribe if you edit the message to read UNSUBSCRIBE.

UK Archives
This is the main-stream British Archives listserve. Although not everything is relevant to everyone, the debate is professional and informative.
Listserve name: archives-nra
Address for subscriptions: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=archives-nra&A=1
List archives: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra

UK Records Management
This is the new listserve for records managers in the UK, although many non-Brits subscribe.
Listserve name: records-management-uk
Address for subscriptions: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=records-management-uk&A=1
List archives: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=records-management-uk

Business Archives
This listserve appears to be the only English-language archives listserve dedicated to business archives, with the advantage that the North Americans and the Australians contribute. The traffic is not heavy, but it is professional and useful for all archivists.
Listserve name: busarch
Address for subscriptions: majordomo@gla.ac.uk
List archives: http://www.gla.ac.uk/External/BusArch/

UK Electronic Records
This list is for those concerned with the preservation of digital records.
Listserve name: digital-preservation
Address for subscriptions: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=digital-preservation&A=1
List archives: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=digital-preservation

Scottish Archivists Discussion List
This list is for Scottish Archivists.
Listserve name: scotarch
Address for subscriptions: majordomo@gla.ac.uk
List archives: http://www.gla.ac.uk/External/scotarch/

Australian Archives
This listserve gets a lot of traffic but a lot is domestic stuff regarding meetings etc. However, there is also a lot of traffic about resources, reports and publications and also professional information requests and contributions. Worth trying out.
Listserve name: aus-archivists
Address for subscriptions: http://lists.archivists.org.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aus-archivists/
List archives: http://lists.archivists.org.au/cgi-bin/mailman/private/aus-archivists/

American Archives
The Americans invented the concept of the listserve and there is a lot of traffic on this one. At times the debate can get downright silly, but as with the UK and Australian listserves mentioned above, it is useful to keep track of the concerns of the profession in the US, and for the useful information often exchanged.
Listserve name: archives
Address for subscriptions: http://saa.archivists.org/Scripts/4Disapi.dll/4DCGI/person/ListServ.html
List archives: http://forums.archivists.org/read/?forum=archives

US Electronic Archives
This list is dedicated to discussions about the preservation and management of records in electronic form. It is operated jointly by the Society of American Archivists' Electronics Records Section and SUNY at Albany. It is the only dedicated electronic records listserve.
Listserve name: ERECS-L
Address for subscriptions: listserv@listserv.albany.edu
List archives: http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/archives/erecs-l.html

ICA
This is the International Council on Archives listserve. There is not a lot of traffic, but if you are interested in international archival affairs it is the only one available.
Listserve name: ICA-L
Address for subscriptions: ica-l-request@mailman.srv.ualberta.ca
Subject line: subscribe
(There’s no need for an email address to be included in the body as it is assumed you want to subscribe the email address that the request is sent from.)

US Records Management
This is the listserve for American records managers.
Listserve name: RECMGMT-L
Address for subscriptions: listserv@lists.ufl.edu
List archives: http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html

Conservation OnLine
From the ConDistList Website: “An interdisciplinary forum, the DistList is open to conservators, conservation scientists, curators, librarians, archivist, administrators, and others whose work life touches on the preservation of cultural property.”
Listserve name: Cons DistList
Address for subscriptions: request@cool.conservation-us.org
List archives: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/

Links last verified: 28.06.2020. Links will open in a new browser window.