NIH LISTSERV Facility
List Owner's Guide
October 2001

Division of Network Systems and Telecommunications
NIH Center for Information Technology
7550 Wisconsin Ave. Suite 416
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892-9110

Introduction

What is LISTSERV?

LISTSERV is an electronic mailing list management tool that enables people with common interests to correspond via e-mail. LISTSERV lists are available at computer sites around the world. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) LISTSERV facility is run by the NIH Center for Information Technology (CIT). The NIH LISTSERV facility is currently running LISTSERV version 1.8d.

With LISTSERV, people who are interested in a specific topic can subscribe to a list that deals with that topic. Once subscribed, they can easily converse, via e-mail, with others who share that interest, or receive announcements about it. Whenever mail is sent to a list, LISTSERV automatically distributes copies to all list subscribers. The sender does not need to know the names and network addresses of all the subscribers, since that information is maintained by LISTSERV.

LISTSERV was written by Eric Thomas and is the sole property of L-Soft International, Inc.



Who May Use LISTSERV?

Anyone with e-mail or World Wide Web access to the Internet may use LISTSERV. (At NIH, this includes anyone with a connection to NIHnet, e-mail software, and/or a Web browser.) Any employee of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may create and "own" a list on the NIH LISTSERV Facility. Use of the NIH LISTSERV Facility is restricted to official government business only.



Who's Who on LISTSERV

LISTSERV users fall into three categories:

  1. list owners - responsible for the management of individual lists
  2. subscribers - users who subscribe to a list and receive list mail
  3. postmasters - responsible for the operation and maintenance of LISTSERV


  1. List owners include any user who creates a list on the NIH LISTSERV Facility, or who takes over management of an existing list. List owners are responsible for lists that they "own"; each LISTSERV list must have at least one owner.

    List owners have special privileges that give them a great deal of control over their lists. They can:

    • add and delete subscribers
    • stop and start mail
    • suspend and resume list subscriptions
    • review mail before it is posted
    • determine who can join the list
    • add and delete additional owners
    • determine who can find out about the list
    • determine who can post to the list
    • set up list archives and decide who can see them

    For further details on how to become a list owner, see Setting Up a New List.

  2. Subscribers can join or leave a list ("subscribe" and "unsubscribe"); view list archives; post to a list; query and change their personal subscriber options; and change their names and addresses as recorded by LISTSERV.

  3. Postmasters have list owner authority for all lists on their LISTSERV server. In addition, they can stop and restart LISTSERV and maintain critical control files.



About This Document

This document contains the information necessary to create, maintain, and manage lists utilizing the NIH LISTSERV facility. Copies of this and other LISTSERV documentation may be viewed online or downloaded from the NIH LISTSERV Home Page. Click on For List Owners, then click Instructions for List Owners.



For Further Information

For further information concerning LISTSERV at NIH, please consult the NIH LISTSERV Home Page.

If you are a list owner and are experiencing problems with your list, you may send e-mail to the NIH LISTSERV Administrators at listmaster@list.nih.gov.

If you are still experiencing difficulty, please contact TASC at 301-594-6248 and ask for LISTSERV support.



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