As the time of year approaches for people to go on vacation and avoid having
a large number of messages build up in their electronic mailboxes, here is the
FAQ file. I cannot personally respond to every request to sign off. If you
follow the instructions you WILL be successful or your e-mail service provider
has simplified your e-mail address to just the domain, in which case I will try
to help. Please, try following the instructions first. I am trying to finish
the semester and go away on a long overdue vacation of more than a couple of
days.

--john chadwick

Please note that the list recently moved to a new home. The list address is:

[log in to unmask]

and the listserv address is:

[log in to unmask]

This file will be updated soon.

========================= cut here ============================
               The Museum Discussion List (Museum-L)
                  Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
                    Last Revised:  September 11, 1996

1. OUTLINE.
     2. PURPOSE.
     3. HISTORY.
     4. OWNER.
     5. SOFTWARE.
     6. JOINING / SUBSCRIBING.
          6.1  From the Internet.
          6.2  From BITNET. (BITNET is being phased out)
          6.3  From CompuServe.
          6.4  From America OnLine.
     7. LEAVING / UNSUBSCRIBING.
     8. POSTING MESSAGES.
          8.1  From the Internet.
          8.2  From BITNET.
          8.3  From CompuServe.
          8.4  From America OnLine.
     9. MANAGING / CONTROLLING YOUR MESSAGES.
          9.1  NOMAIL/MAIL Option.
          9.2  REVIEW Command.
          9.3  NOREPRO Command.
          9.4  DIGEST Option.
          9.5  OPTIONS Command.
    10. USENET GROUP.
    11. ARCHIVES.
    12. RELATED DISCUSSION LISTS.
    13. RETENTION OF THE MUSEUM-L FAQ.
    14. COPIES OF THE MUSEUM-L FAQ.
    15. AUTHORS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.

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2. PURPOSE.

Museum-L is a general purpose, cross-disciplinary electronic discussion
list for museum professionals, students, and all others interested in
museum related issues.  All museum related topics are acceptable for
posting and discussion at this time.  Membership in Museum-L is open to
anyone with e-mail service.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
3. HISTORY.

Museum-L was started in April 1991.  Membership has grown rapidly and
totaled 1099 on Nov. 1, 1994.  The volume of message varies from a "few"
per day, up to as many as 50 messages per day during peak periods.
Museum-L was linked with USENET in September 1994.  This cross-link is
full functioning link with messages going in both directions. As of September
11, 1996, there are more than 1400 subscribers in 30 countries.

With the phasing out of BITNET the University of New Mexico switched
e-mail distribution software to Listprocessor software on July 2, 1996.
Because of differences in the functionality of Listprocessor and
LISTSERV, it became necessary to find a new home for Museum-L.

Museum-L is supported on L-Soft's Listserv software, version 1.8c, and
is hosted by L-Soft International and Eric Thomas as of August 25, 1996.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. OWNER.

John Chadwick is the "owner", i.e. manager, of the Museum-L discussion
list.  Please direct any questions you have about the Museum-L to him
at:  [log in to unmask]
     OR
     [log in to unmask]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
5. SOFTWARE.

Museum-L is an electronic discussion list, based on a Pentium PC. The mail
server is a Digital Equipment Corporation AlphaServer 2100 capable of
processing up to 90 e-mail messages per second. The LISTSERV software used to
support Museum-L is L-Soft's LISTSERV software, version 1.8c. More information
is available via the World Wide Web. Point your browser to:

http://www.lsoft.com

WARNING:  There are several different discussion list software programs
being used on the Internet.  The specific command and function can VARY
with each of these different software program.  THIS CAN BE VERY
CONFUSING TO PEOPLE.  Some of the most frequently used LISTSERV software
commands are listed in this document.

If you are unacquainted with the LISTSERV commands and software, you can
request additional information by sending an e-mail message to:
[log in to unmask]
and in the body of an e-mail message enter (with no other text following):

help

---------------------------------------------------------------------
6. JOINING / SUBSCRIBING.

There are several methods of joining or subscribing to Museum-L
depending on which computer systems or network you are using.  There
is no cost for subscribing to Museum-L discussion list.  HOWEVER, THERE
MAYBE BE LOCAL SERVICE PROVIDER CHARGES or CONNECT CHANGES for the
electronic mail messages that you will receive.  Check with your service
provider or local computer support person, if this is an issue.

6.1 From the Internet.
To subscribe to Museum-L from the Internet send the following in the
body of an e-mail message to:  [log in to unmask]

SUBSCRIBE Museum-L Full Name

6.2 From the CompuServe commercial service.
To subscribe to Museum-L from CompuServe send the following in the body
of an e-mail message to >INTERNET: [log in to unmask]

SUBSCRIBE Museum-L Full Name

...Beware; it will behoove you to cut costs by using TAPCIS, CIM,
AutoSIG, Navigator, or the offline reader of your choice if reading
Museum-L from CompuServe; the volume reaches or exceeds several dozen
messages a day.  CompuServe also levies a per message surcharge after a
certain number of Internet messages.

6.3 From the America OnLine (AOL) commercial service.
AOL doesn't have a text interface.  Internet e-mail is integrated into
AOL's graphical software, so to subscribe to Museum-L from AOL send the
following in the body of an e-mail message to:  [log in to unmask]

SUBSCRIBE Museum-L Full Name

Some people use AOLs "FlashMail" feature to capture messages before
reading them, this will save substantial connect time charges.  AOL also
allows reading Museum-L messages via the bit.listserv.museum-l  Usenet
newsgroup.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
7. LEAVING / UNSUBSCRIBING.

If you absolutely don't want to stay listed at all on Museum-L and never
want to have anything to do with the list again, from the Internet send
the following in the body of an e-mail message to:
[log in to unmask]

SIGNOFF Museum-L

For other networks/systems use the same method you used to subscribe.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
8. POSTING MESSAGES.

There are two addresses used in relation to the Museum-L discussing
list, both are located at the host:  home.ease.lsoft.com

Administrative and management messages are sent to:  LISTSERV
Posting to the discussion list, which are then broadcast to the
full membership are sent to:   Museum-L
PLEASE DO NOT SEND ADMINISTRATIVE MESSAGE TO MUSEUM-L.
Specific address formatting varies slightly from different networks.

8.1  From the Internet.
After you receive a subscription confirmation, send postings to the
list using this address:  [log in to unmask]

8.2  From CompuServe.
After you receive a subscription confirmation, send postings to the
list to using this address:  >INTERNET: [log in to unmask]

8.3  From America OnLine.
After you receive a subscription confirmation, send postings to the
list using this address:  [log in to unmask]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
9. MANAGING / CONTROLLING YOUR MESSAGES.

9.1 NOMAIL Option
If you're interested in staying registered with Museum-L but you don't
want to participate actively (i.e.: can't handle the e-mail volume, not
able to read your e-mail for a period of time ...), send the following
in the body of an e-mail message to:  [log in to unmask]

SET Museum-L NOMAIL

Keep this file handy because you will not receive any messages while you
have your e-mail options set for NOMAIL.  We have suspended the annual
renewal process because the listowner was swamped each December by more
than 200 e-mail messages asking how to renew subscriptions.  Therefore,
you may go years without receiving a message from Museum-L, and if you
want to start again, send the following message to:
[log in to unmask]

SET Museum-L MAIL

9.2  REVIEW Command.
To see the list of subscribers (including yourself, to see where
LISTSERV thinks you are), send the following in the body of an e-mail
message to:  [log in to unmask] (subject doesn't matter)

REVIEW Museum-L

9.3  NOREPRO Command.
If you don't want to receive a copy of the messages you post, Send the
following in the body of an e-mail message to:  [log in to unmask]

SET Museum-L NOREPRO

9.4  DIGEST Command.
With the DIGEST option ON the LISTSERV software will send one large
message per day from the Museum-L discussion list. With the latest version of
LISTSERV software the default is to send the digest with each message as a MIME
attachment. You may switch the digest to send a single text message by sending
a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] with the following in
the body of the message:

set Museum-L NOMIME

This single message contains a simple table of contents and the full text of
the day's messages.  The DIGEST is distributed shortly after midnight eastern
time. If you would like to switch to the DIGEST option send the following in
the body of an e-mail message to:  [log in to unmask]

SET Museum-L DIGEST

9.5  QUERY Command.
If you want to find out your current Museum-L distribution list options,
send the following in the body of an e-mail message to:
[log in to unmask]

QUERY Museum-L

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10. USENET GROUP:  bit.listserv.museum-l

All Museum-L postings are now forwarded to the alternative Usenet
newsgroup bit.listserv.museum-l.  Postings to the newsgroup are
automatically forwarded back to the list.  Please remember this when
posting to the newsgroup.  Museum-L has been known to generate more than
50 messages a day, and the newsgroup was established to allow people
with access the Usenet another option to read messages without having
their mailbox fill up.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
11. ARCHIVES.

The archives are searchable on the Internet in one of two ways.

The archives are in searchable format at the University of California Museum
of Paleontology.

Gopher to host:  ucmp1.berkeley.edu

On the World Wide Web the archives are searchable at:

http://home.dc.lsoft.com/archives/museum-l.html

The archives at L-Soft are the log files, as the files are built with each
posting. The L-Soft archives have a graphical web interface for searching.

**HINT** It is much quicker to search by key words rather than reading
the file.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
12. RELATED DISCUSSION LISTS.

     [To be added later; it may be a different file.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
13. RETENTION OF THE MUSEUM-L FAQ.

IMPORTANT:   PRINT OR SAVE THIS INFORMATION FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
14. COPIES OF THE MUSEUM-L FAQ.

These instructions are available via anonymous FTP from two sites:

Host:  darwin.nmmnh-abq.mus.nm.us

Login as anonymous and use your e-mail address as your password.
This file is contained in the misc directory under the file name:
     museum-l-faq.txt

Also host:  simsc.si.edu

Login as anonymous and use your e-mail address as your password.
Change directory to:  museums
Change directory to:  general
This file is under the name:
     museum-l-faq.txt

These instructions are also available via gopher:

Host:  world.std.com
     Go to:  Membership and Professional Associations
       Then go to:  Museum Computer Network

----------------------------------------------------------------------
15. AUTHORS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.

This document was written by John Chadwick and David Bridge who are
solely responsible for any errors.  We gratefully acknowledge the
contributions and suggestions of the following reviewers:  Mignon
Erixon-Stanford, Guy Hermann, Katherine Jones-Garmil and Suzanne
Quigley.

Please send any corrections or suggestions for FUTURE additions or
improvements to the "Museum-L FAQ" to the listowner (see above).