Just a brief notice to inform you that the listowner will be out of
town from Aug. 13 - Sept. 4.  SERIALSTers, feel free to carry on, as
usual.  There are folks in my area who are monitoring for any possible
technical problems that might happen.  However, no one will be here to
answer questions from individuals, or to initiate command options from
this end.  So I'm appending the usual assortment of reminders...

Also, the list passed the 600 subscriber mark yesterday.  Thanks to all
of you who have made this forum possible.  --  Birdie

                       SERIALST SCOPE & PURPOSE
                  (INCLUDING SELECTED COMMAND OPTIONS)

                                                 (Revised Aug. 1991)

SERIALST (Serials in Libraries -- a user discussion group) was established in
October 1990, with technical support from Computer Operations at the University
of Vermont, in order to serve as an informal electronic forum for most
aspects of serials processing in libraries.  Topics may include such things
as: cataloging, acquisitions, collection management, binding, preservation,
microfilm, union list activities, announcements, news, & job postings that
may be of interest to the serials community.  In order to avoid duplicate
news and information, the SERIALST discussion group should not deal with
serials pricing issues as this topic is already covered in: Newsletter
on Serials Pricing Issues (request subscriptions from Marcia Tuttle by
messaging her at:  TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET).

SERIALST is not moderated.  Mail that is sent to SERIALST is automatically
distributed by the listserver to all subscribers.  No one reviews, edits, or
verifies the accuracy of the messages.  Authors of the messages are solely
responsible for their content.

Selected Command Options:

SUBSCRIBE SERIALST - To sign on to the discussion forum.

SIGNOFF SERIALST - To signoff of (or unsubscribe from) the discussion forum.

SET SERIALST NOMAIL -  Useful if you're going on vacation and don't want
       to signoff the list altogether; the NOMAIL option tells the
       listserver not to send mail to your address.

SET SERIALST MAIL - To begin receiving mail again (undoes the NOMAIL option).

SET SERIALST REPRO - Ensures that the originator of a message to SERIALST
       receives a copy of her/his own message.  Folks who signed onto
       SERIALST after April 15, 1991, were automatically set to "repro."
       Folks who signed onto SERIALST prior to April 15 may need to
       specify this option to the listserver if they wish to receive
       copies of messages sent to the list.

REVIEW SERIALST - Sends you a list of all subscribers to SERIALST (name
        and e-mail address).

All messages to SERIALST are automatically archived by month.  You may
        retrieve the monthly archives by issuing the command:
        GET SERIALST LOGyymm  (ex., get serialst log9105).  The UVM
        listserver will automatically send you the month's conversations.

The above commands can be sent either by (1) sending an interactive
message to: LISTSERV@UVMVM, or (2) by sending the command as a one line
message to: LISTSERV@UVMVM (don't send it to SERIALST@UVMVM !!)

NOTE:  (paraphrased from a 6/1 NOTIS-L message from Ron Johnston, McGill
University, Montreal):
  All mailing systems can "mail" commands to the listserv ...  LISTSERV
  will ignore the "subject" of your mailing.  Many mailing systems can also
  send interactive messages (eg., TELL on VM/CMS, XMIT on MVS, SEND on VAX)
  These messages are equally valid ways of sending the commands.

You may be cancelled from SERIALST without notification if certain
network complications arise.  If you fail to receive SERIALST messages
for an inordinate amount of time, use the REVIEW command to find out
if your name is present on the distribution list.

FINALLY:  It is possible to search the entire SERIALST message database
by submitting batch search jobs to the listserv@uvmvm via e-mail messages.
You may search by BOOLEAN queries and/or search limitations by date.
Because of the involved set of search commands and space limitations of
this document, interested users are referred to two other documents for
the specifics of LISTSERV search commands:

        Listserv Database Functions (available from LISTSERV@UVMVM by
           issuing the command:  GET LISTDB MEMO)

        Bailey, Jr., Charles W., "How to Search the PACS-L Message
           Database."  This document gives a concise overview of
           LISTSERV database functions as they relate to the
           PACS-L@UHUPVM1.BITNET forum, and is useful as a guide
           for searching any LISTSERV discussion forum (including
           SERIALST) that runs the database access program, LDBASE.
           Charles has been kind enough to grant permission
           to redistribute this document for noncommercial,
           educational use.  If interested, send a request
           directly to me (bmaclenn@uvmvm.BITNET or
           bmaclenn@uvmvm.uvm.edu - Internet).  If there
           is an abundance of interest, I will post it to
           the list.

Birdie MacLennan
SERIALST Listowner / Serials Cataloger
Bailey/Howe Library                          BMACLENN@UVMVM.BITNET
University of Vermont                        BMACLENN@UVMVM.UVM.EDU (Internet)