You may work in a Library that has a IS dept. that allows individuals or departments to set up a mailing list group or listserv. Inquire if your Library or place of employment (typically a University or College has this capability) has such an ability and what the policies and/or procedures are involved.

If you have the capability of creating and maintaining a list on your own, or if your library is considering setting up a mailing list on their own, the following resources may be helpful to you.

Starting and Operating a Listserv
Kyle Banerjee, Cataloging Librarian
http://home.earthlink.net/~banerjek/papers/listserv.html

Distribution Lists vs. Mailing Lists (*NOTE: pertains to UC Santa Barbara:
Letters and Science Information Technology Group - but you may find information helpful in deciding between setting up a Mailing List or a Distribution List)
Distribution Lists vs. Mailing Lists 
http://www.lsit.ucsb.edu/mail/tools/mailman/lists.php

Some Universities/Schools/Libraries  use the following programs to help setup & manage mailing lists.
See these and other options for mailing list software

MAJORDOMO
Majordomo is a program which automates the management of Internet mailing lists.
Find more information and/or download the Majordomo software program
http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/

How to create a majordomo mailing list
Note: Information pertains to UC Berkeley, but can be useful information for those using the majordomo software program.
http://www-uclink.berkeley.edu/major/major.create.html

Related site: More on majordomo commands re: Managing a mailing list

LISTSERV® e-mail list management software 
http://www.lsoft.com/
Related see: Managing a ListServ
information applies to: University of Victoria - Computing User Services - Managing a ListServ 
but users of LISTSERV software may find it useful.

LISTPROC
http://sourceforge.net/projects/listproc/
Related see: Owning and Managing a Listserv
information applies to: IS dept of University of North Carolina at Greensboro, using LISTPROC

Mailman, the GNU Mailing List Manager
Mailman is free software for managing electronic mail discussion and e-newsletter lists.
http://www.list.org/
Related: 
See from the University of Washington which uses Mailman software
What is Mailman?
See/Read - **PDF FILE**
Working with Mailman Mailing Lists / Chapter 3 of a Mailman manual
provided by  Hostway : help2.hostway.com/
http://help2.hostway.com/ch03unixplatformmanual.pdf

Petidomo
http://www.ossp.org/pkg/tool/petidomo/

Read these articles on Techsoup.org - The Technology Place for Nonprofits
**You may need to use the search function*
An Introduction to Email Listservs and Internet Mailing Lists
Understanding online discussions (May 2000)
Using Email for Fundraising (July 2000)
Using Email Effectively (Sept 2001)
Email is where it's @.
Options for Online Discussions (May 2000)
Using the Internet to facilitate online discussion and policy-making advocacy 

**Related Note: see my resources for Library Fundraising & Marketing Libraries using the Internet & Email etc.

From OneNorthwest
Guidelines for Participating in an Email List 
This document provides tips for participating effectively on email lists.. 
http://www.onenw.org/bin/page.cfm?pageid=32

Listowners - Starting Out (note: information refers to Listserv at Northwestern University but info is 
helpful to listserv owners in general)

From Netaction.org - The Virtual Activist
Read:
How to Create A "Bcc" (Blind Carbon Copy) Email List
http://www.netaction.org/training/bcclist.html

Suggestions for Managing Mailing List Discussions
http://www.eto.org.uk/discuss/w-bank02.htm

Mailing List Manners 101 - Tidbits
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05386
See also:
Basic Mailing List Management Guidelines
for Preventing Abuse
http://www.mail-abuse.org/manage.html
Related: 
See my resource page for discussion list etiquette & personal subscription list management for individual subscribers.
See my resources page about email abuse:
scams, hoaxes, and chain letter, and virus warnings
Think before you forward!

From techsoup.org
What options do I have for setting up a Listserv?

Mailing Lists, Distribution Lists, and Aliases
http://www.lsit.ucsb.edu/mail/tools/mailman/lists.php

Book to consider:
Managing Mailing Lists
by Alan Schwartz, Paula Ferguson (Editor)
O'Reilly & Associates; ISBN: 156592259X 

How to create a majordomo mailing list
Note: Information pertains to UC Berkeley, but can be useful information for those using the majordomo software program.
http://www-uclink.berkeley.edu/major/major.create.html

Related site: More on majordomo commands re: Managing a mailing list

Mailman, the GNU Mailing List Manager
Mailman is free software for managing electronic mail discussion and e-newsletter lists.
http://www.list.org/

Listserv Lite - FREE
What is LISTSERV Lite? 
http://www.lsoft.com/
The Free Edition is a freeware version of LISTSERV Lite, 
limited to a maximum of 10 mailing lists with up to 500 subscribers each. 
This version costs absolutely nothing as long as the licensee does not derive a profit, 
directly or indirectly, from using the software. 
You can download the Free Edition from our WWW or FTP servers.
http://www.lsoft.com/products/default.asp?item=listserv_lite

YourMailinglist
YourMailinglistProvider offers you a free, professional yet easy-to-use 
mailinglist to set up a newsletter for your site!
Offering a newsletter or mailinglist to website visitors is a 
powerful marketing tool... but emailing to hundreds or thousands of customers is not easy
YourMailinglistProvider gives you tools to mass email your newsletter,
free of any charge: all you need to do is write and send! 
http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/

EZListz - creating customers from contacts
Excerpt quoted from website
www.ezlistz.com/default.asp
The best and most successful list is one that you build yourself from genuine opt-in sign-ups.
With EZListZ you will quickly establish a sign-up box on your site. Ask your visitors to sign your guest book, sign-up for your newsletter, or sign-up for future product updates. These people have asked for your information. These are qualified leads! Best of all this tool is FREE! 
www.ezlistz.com/default.asp

FREE Lists
FreeLists, a service providing free, commercial-grade 
Internet mailing lists to all interested. 
Our lists are all internet and technology-related. 
Thus, we provide a free focal point for technology-inclined
individuals and groups on the Internet. 
We do it all without the support of advertisements, 
ensuring the highest-quality mailing list experience for you and your users.
http://www.freelists.org/

Advanced Emailer
http://www.emailarms.com/products/advanced_emailer.html
Advanced Emailer on line help - How to create a mailing list

Lyris ListManager
http://www.lyris.com/products/listmanager/?s=ftr
Excerpt quoted from website
a high-performance software application for opt-in email marketing campaigns, email announcement lists, and online discussion groups.

MailList Express, MailList Express Pro & Mailing List Deluxe
http://www.internet-soft.com/

MailList Controller
http://www.arclab.com/products/amlc/
Excerpt quoted from website
 The internet connection can be a dialup connection (modem, ISDN or DSL) or a permanent internet connection (LAN). All you need is access to a mailserver (SMTP/POP3 or MS Exchange). MailList Controller can be integrated into your LAN and does not require to install an additional mailserver or open up an additional port on your firewall. 

Unless otherwise indicated, opinions expressed in messages on [insert name of list here]are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent  any official [insert name of group] policy, or anything else at all, for that matter.

This is an unmoderated list, and will remain so. Proceed at your own risk. Some shifting of contents may have occurred during shipping. Always check packaging date for freshness. Void where prohibited by law.

Do not drive or operate heavy machinery while reading or posting to the list, as serious injury and/or death might occur. To avoid potentially dangerous side effects, check with your physician or pharmacist before combining this listserv with other medications. Remove outer wrapping before consuming list messages. This is not a toy: do not place list messages over head or allow children under 6 to use the list without adult supervision. Contestants need not be present to win. No purchase necessary. See in-store display for details.

Above excerpt was quoted from: http://www.aoir.org/faq.html

Check other "groups" or discussion forums (or you can create one for FREE)
groups.yahoo.com 
www.delphiforums.com (note : I set up Library Talk on Delphi)
www.topica.com

Create a Live Journal
Ouoted from site:
LiveJournal.com is a free service that allows you to create and 
customize your very own "live journal": a journal that you keep online! 
You can update with short entries many times a day, 
or with long entries a few times a week... 
however you'd like to use it. It's free, it's fun, and it's easy to use
See the: Library Lovers Live Journal

Quoted from Sites:

DiscussionApp 4.1
Set up a discussion forum for your web site, 
so users can contribute and share information! 
Sets up in minutes, yet it's also totally customizable.
So you can make it look just like the rest of your site by inserting your own html.

Quick Chat
Have you ever wanted a way to better communicate with your visitors?
Wanted to run a chat server but couldn't? 
Wished you could have an interactive chat on your site but didn't know how? 
With Planet Z Networks QuickChat client, you can!
Using our advanced QuickChat Code Generator, 
you can add a java chat applet on your page with minimal work! 
Just copy and paste the code on your page, and your chat is all setup
http://www.quickchat.org/

Create an Online Group
Set up an online newsletter group with Yahoo! Groups to discuss your favorite topic.
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/answerstips/story/0,24330,3308653,00.html

Making an Email Group
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/projects/story/0,24330,2309181,00.html

COLT has a yahoo discussion group you can join
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/COLTmembers/join
A mailing list/discussion list for the members of the
Council on Library/Media Technicians (COLT)
has been established on yahoo.groups.com.
The list provides an opportunity for members of the 
Council on Library Media Technicians (COLT) to discuss issues important 
them and to keep up to date on activities and actions of the 
Council on Library Media Technicians (COLT).
The list is not moderated as to content, however it is recommended 
the discussion be primarily about library and/or library support staff issues. 
Politics, religion and prolonged discussion of purely personal topics are 
best discussed with individuals personally instead of on the list. 

Another example of a Library Group using yahoo -
LibWireless
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LibWireless/
The purpose of this group is to discuss libraries and all types of wireless technologies. 
This includes but is not limited to wireless LANs in libraries, 
accessing library resources via wireless devices, and related issues such as WLANs,
wireless bookmobiles, etc. 
PLEASE LIMIT DISCUSSION TO LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTER TOPICS. 

You can also host your own Bulletin Boards or Forums for FREE
using opensource software that is FREE! to download from:
www.phpbb.com
Your website hosting service would have to support
MySQL, MS-SQL, PostgreSQL or Access/ODBC database servers
Check with your Hosting service to be sure.

To see a website that employs phpBB forums
Visit - Between the Stacks a community for Library folks.

Use the power of such a free communication tool
to discuss things between groups and libraries, etc.
You can divide "forums" up into different topics or projects
for groups to collaborate on, and discuss.

See more options -
Google Directory Listing of Bulletin Message Board Applications for your website
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Message_Boards/
 

To Contact, Mary
via e-mail, write to: mary at librarysupportstaff.com