Sorry it has taken me so long to summarize the responses I received to
my question about managing email distributions lists. I've repeated the
complete message, and the responses, below. Thanks very much to
everyone who responded!
Most people indicated that they were doing something similar to what we
are, though I did learn we CAN see the email lists that a particular
user is subscribed to. (see below)
As is pointed out in one of the messages, using Outlook rules for email
newsletter distribution is a problem because there's a limit to the
number of rules that can be setup on one email address. That's why we
have a separate email address for each subscription. I wonder if
there's any improvement in Outlook 2003 on this front.
It would be wonderful if this function was integrated with our serials
control programs. Note that one message indicated that SIMA may be
working on this functionality.
I also independently talked to a librarian on the East Coast on this
subject. That firm has the subscribe option for their email
distribution lists available in their portal. The user clicks off the
email journals they want, and they are automatically subscribed.
I had two reasons for posting this message. The first was simply
because I'm interested in the information for my own use. The second
reason was that I was preparing for a presentation on Delivering
Current Information to Your Organization last weekend at the SCALL
Institute. If you'd like to see the presentation, chart covering the
features of several alert services (Westclips, Eclipse, Factiva Folders
& West Intraclips), and a bibliography, you'll find all that on my web
site at http://www.lawlibtech.com.
Cindy L. Chick
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu]On
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 12:53 PM
To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Email Distribution of Newsletters
I'm interested in how people are managing their email distribution
lists. We create an email address for each newsletter we receive, then
creata distribution list for the email address. The newsletter is
then automatically distributed as soon as it hits our exchange server.
This works well, but I can't help but think there's a better way;
something more automated, like a listserv, where we could send out an
email to the attorneys asking if they would like to receive the
newsletter, and including a link for them to automatically subscribe.
As it is now, each attorney has to be subscribed and unsubscribed
manually by the administrator of the mailing list. When you receive a
hundred requests to be added to a list, that can get old fast.
Other problems include the fact that you can't easily see everything
that a particular attorney subscribes to without checking each list.
I saw a demo of Ozmosys yesterday (http://www.ozmosys.com), which has
some very interesting features and would address some of these issues,
but mailing lists still needs to be manual administered.
I'm considering asking our technology department to develop a tool for
this purpose, but, of course, would rather find a more off-the-shelf
solution if there's any out there.
Any ideas?
Cindy L. Chick
Manager of Information Resources - Knowledge Systems
Latham & Watkins LLP
RESPONSES:
We handle our distribution as you do. If you use Outlook and continue
to manage the distribution as you do now, you can quickly determine to
what lists an attorney subscribes by checking his/her Outlook profile.
To do so, select "To" in a message and locate the individual's name in
the global or employee list (depends on what your firm calls the list).
Then click on "Properties" below the list box. In the pop-up box,
select the "Member Of" tab to view all Outlook lists to which the
person is subscribed. Note that the list will also include internal
distribution lists (e.g., practice group affiliation), as well as the
newsletter distribution lists.
-----------------------
We pretty much do it the same way you do. We do keep duplicate DBText
routing records of what people get through the Outlook distribution
lists. We looked at Ozmosys, but our trial was not well planned and
there wasn't enough flexibility in the order of the publications. We
would like the people to go to the portal/desktop to get their info,
but I am really doubtful that most people will buy into that mode of
delivery.
-----------------------
Our IT department doesn't want to create e-mail addresses that aren't
affiliated with a person, so our newsletters come to a library staff
member. We have Outlook groups set up for the various distribution
groups. He set up rules to autoforward many of them, but he's maxed out
his rules space on the server, so he has to forward some of them
manually. Also, he checks them in (I recognize that there are arguments
on both sides of this little process). So, we have to manually add or
delete people from the group. Having to delete someone from the group
doesn't happen often, because when someone leaves the firm, the name
goes out of the system and is therefore deleted automatically.
Automatic subscription would be cool! I haven't heard of any
off-the-shelf solutions, but then, I haven't looked either.
If you use Outlook, you can see what an attorney receives. Open his/her
Address Book record and click on the Member Of tab.
-----------------------
We use Outlook rules to automatically forward newsletters with certain
criteria to a distribution list. However, there a a very small amount
of memory allocated to each e-mail address for Outlook rules. We cannot
forward e-mails to large distribution lists. I use the rules for daily
newsletters and personal distribution lists for weekly newsletters and
dailies with large distribution lists. That means I have to physically
forward the newsletter.
------------------------
that's about the same way we do it. Except we use several mailboxes and
then use a rule to forward them. we try to record the distribution list
in our serials database, Camelot, so that we can report on who
receives what. Unfortunately, that requires an additional step. We're
working with SIMA to enable Camelot to interact with Outlook so that we
can save steps.
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