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SSC Lyris Academic Email Lists Information Site

This is the page where SSC faculty can come to learn about creating and using academic mailing lists using the Lyris software system. If you have questions, you may contact Jon Aske, the academic list coordinator, at any time. If you don't have any questions and are ready to create a list, you may go now to the Lyris List Request Page.

Quick Links

• I am ready to create a list! Take me to the online form!
• Email Jon Aske, the academic listmaster
• Lyris 4.2 Documentation

What are electronic mailing lists (e-lists or "listservs")?

An electronic mailing list is a list of email addresses to which mail gets distributed (more information here at Wikipedia). Some people call them listservs, after the name of the first electronic mailing list server software application (1984) for Bitnet computer networks. Some prefer to call them e-lists, short for electronic mailing lists.

A database in a dedicated server is the intermediary between the sender and the recipients. The list-server keeps a database of lists and their members, along with other information about those lists, such as who is on the lists, who is allowed to send mail to each list, when and how people get the mail, etc.

The e-list server software at the college is Lyris 4.2. It was adopted years ago when some faculty belonging to the now dormant Online Educators Group lobbied for it after some faculty tried free Web-based versions at Yahoo and eGroups (now Google Groups).

Because of my involvement with the OEG, I was asked to manage academic lists on campus. IT skill handles other lists, such as ssc-community. Thus, if you have questions about ssc-community or the salem-msca list, please contact the IT help desk.

So, Lyris is a software program based on a server that has a database of lists. The particular database that we use is the Academic Database and all the lists have listserv as part of the email address: listname@listserv.salemstate.edu. When mail is received by Lyris sent to listname@listserv.salemstate.edu it distributes the mail to all the members of that list.

What lists can be used for

For faculty: In Foreign Languages we have several listsm for instance: languagefaculty (for all full-time faculty), languageinstructors (for full-time and part-time faculty), languageadjuncts (part-time faculty), spanishfaculty, spanishinstructors, etc., etc

For classes: Especially in advanced classes this is a good way to share information and have some discussions. How does this compare with the bulletin board capabilities of WebCT?

For student constituencies: in Foreign Languages we have spanishmajors, spanishminors, mat-spanish, etc.

For clubs: We have lists for our different language clubs, for community Spanish news and discussion: frenchclub, spanishclub, castellano, etc.

Types of lists

There are two basic types: announcement lists, where only some people can post messages to the list, and discussion lists, in which every member of the list can post messages to the list.

Discussion lists can be moderated, that is all messages sent to the list are intercepted and must be approved by a list administrator, or unmoderated: any message sent to the list will be automatically and immediatelly distributed to the list members.

There are different methods for adding and removing members from the list. Members may add themselves by going to a specific web page, or they may be added by a list administrator. In the former case you may password protect the self-enrollment process so that interlopers do not get into the list (only people to whom you give the password will be able to sign up).

Some important notes regarding Lyris lists

In order to be able to post messages to a list, the address your message comes from (your return address), must be identical to the address you are signed up to the list with. If there are any discrepancies, the message will be rejected if the list is set up so that non-members cannot send messages (to prevent spammers from sending messages). Note that if you use SSC Groupwise mail your return address will be the short version of your email address (e.g. for Jane Smith it would probably be jsmith@salemstate.edu), not the longer alias, such as, in this case, jane.smith@salemstate.edu. Both addresses are equivalent for the SSC email system, but not for the outside world, including this distribution list server. So make sure that you sign up for a Lyris list with your short address, not the long one. Students using the SSC mail system should make sure to sing up with the version of their address that includes the polaris element (e.g. j_smith@polaris.salemstate.edu), since this is what their return address looks like.

Ocasionally, Yahoo mail, Hotmail, and AOL mail treat messages from our Lyris list server as junk mail (spam) and either do not deliver list mail to their users or, more commonly, put this mail in the user's spam mail (junk mail) folder. You may want to warn your list members of this. List members with any of those accounts need to go into their spam filters settings and allow our listserv mail to get through.

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