Nursing Informatics Discussion Lists and List Servs: The Collaborative Nursing Program of B.C. at Kwantlen University College

List Servs and Discussion Lists (page 1 of 4)

What are Listserves and Discussion Lists Anyway?
Listservs refers both to a mailing service for discussion groups and electronic conferences, and the discussion groups or lists themselves. There are literally thousands of Listserv discussion groups covering a bevy of topics. You must formally subscribe to a Listserv to become a list member. Messages written by other list members will then be sent directly to your email account where you can read, delete, reply to, or save them. An active discussion list can result in numerous messages everyday, so be sure to check your email account regularly, delete unwanted messages, and make sure you can manage the volume.

Listserv Addresses
Each list has at least two addresses: the Listserve host address and the actual List address. The Listserv host address is used to subscribe or unsubscribe to a Discussion List. Listserv host addresses are usually easy to recognize if they begin with the name Listserv. In recent years, though, that has become less of a commonality. Usually though, an information site is available to guide you through the subscription process. The List Name address is used for sending and receiving List messages to and from other List members.

Subscribing and Unsubscribing to a Discussion List

EXAMPLE: To subscribe to the list "nursing-l", a nursing informatics list on the Listserv host LISTSERV@lists.umass.edu you need to: Start an email session, and prepare to compose a new message.
Leave the subject line blank unless instructed to type something in it, for instance, the word "subscribe".

To: LISTSERV@lists.umass.edu
CC:
Attachment:
Subject:

- - Message Text - -

subscribe nursing-l jane doe

To Unsubscribe from the same list, send an identical message, except replace "subscribe" with "unsubscribe".