Library Listservs

Library IT maintains several internal mailing lists to facilitate communication among Library employees:

  • LibAllEmployee-L — All library employees are automatically added to this list, which serves to disseminate information from Library Administration to all Library employees from all classifications, including temporary, hourly, and all student employee types.
  • Libnews-L — All library employees are members of this library’s internal listserv.
  • Libfac-L — All Library faculty and Academic Professionals are members of this internal library listserv.
  • Libuntenfac-L — All untenured library faculty are members of this internal library listserv.
  • Libap-L — All library Academic Professional employees are members of this internal library listserv.
  • Libstaff-L — All library Civil Service Employees are members of this internal library listserv.
  • Libcirc-L — All library staff who are working for circulation in the UIUC Library are members of this internal library listserv.
  • Libcat-L — All library staff currently doing cataloging in the UIUC Library are members of this internal library listserv.
  • Libref-L — All library staff providing reference services in the UIUC Library are members of this internal library listserv.
  • Cpslib-L — All library staff working in the UIUC Library Central Public Services Division are members of this internal library listserv.
  • Libcomm-L  — Library staff in various units who deal with communications responsibilities.

Post a Message to a Library Mailing List

Send an email to list_name@lists.illinois.edu, everyone on the listserv will receive your message.

  • For example: send an email to libnews-l@lists.illinois.edu, all library employees will receive the message.
  • Please note: all library mailing lists are internal, the message needs to be sent from the email address that subscribes to the mailing list, otherwise the message will be rejected.

Subscribe to or Unsubscribe from a Listserv

If you have questions about an existing mailing list or want to be added to or removed from a listserv, please contact the list owner at list_name-request@lists.illinois.edu.

  • For example, if you want to subscribe to Libnews-L, send an email to libnews-l-request@lists.illinois.edu
  • Please note: only U of I email addresses (ones that have illinois.edu in them) are permitted by the library mailing list.

Request a New Mailing List

Please log a work request if additional listservs are needed for library groups, and include the following information in your request:

  • A name for your list
  • The reason you need the list
  • The NetIDs of the faculty/staff/GAs who will be list members.

Mailing Lists Web Interface

Listserv members can log in the University of Illinois Mailing Lists web interface to manage subscriptions. Using your U of I email address and Active Directory password to log in. On the left, you’ll see a list of mailing lists that you have subscribed to. Click on a mailing list name to go to its home page.

Changing Frequency of Emails

By default you’ll receive an email as soon as it’s delivered to the listserv. Click ” Subscriber Options” in the left pane, then click ” Receiving mode” drop-down menu and select how you want to receive these emails. For example, instead of receiving individual messages, you can choose to receive batched messages in a digest, or if you’ll be on leave for a period of time, you can choose not to receive any email until you come back. Click the ” Help” button next to the ” Receiving mode” field to see explanations for available options.

Accessing Online Archives

Messages sent to a mailing list are archived and available online through the mailing list web interface. To access a list archive, click ” Archive” in the left pane. You can read messages in chronological order or search for a specific message.

Listserv vs. Email Alias

In some cases, it may be preferable to set up an email alias for a group rather than creating a listserv.

Listservs, or mailing list, is commonly used to facilitate discussion among the members of large groups. Each listserv has an owner who monitors the list and manages subscriptions to the list. The content of a Library listserv can be archived for one year.

Email Alias, or distribution list, may be effective for a small group. All emails addressed to the alias are delivered to each of the individual email accounts associated with the alias. There is no owner for a group email alias. There is no archive.