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HLS-L Guidelines
I. MISSION OF THE DISCUSSION LIST
HLS-L is intended to facilitate communication between members of the Hospital LibrariesSection (HLS) of the Medical Library Association and to provide a mechanism for the transmission of time-sensitive information to HLS members. Membership on HLS-L is limited to section members.
II. RULES FOR POSTING
A. Who May Post
Only members may post messages to the list.
B. Appropriate Submissions
Appropriate submissions are those that are of sufficient professional interest to warrant posting to the overall membership.
i. ILL requests are limited to requests for items not found through DOCLINE and must be preface with "ILL" in the subject line, and must adhere to the copyright law and its guidelines.
ii. Reference/research assistance should be prefaced with the word "Question" in the subject line.
iii. Substantive questions pertaining to areas of professional practice, library management, collection development issues, standards and other similar topics of concern may be posted.
a. General professional inquiries (e.g., requests to share guidelines, mission statements, favorite titles, etc.) will be accepted but responses must be made directly to the poster of the original request who can later post a single summary of multiple responses to the list. Please double check the 'To' line in replies.
b. Threads (replies to an original post, as well as replies to replies) will not be posted.
iv. Chats are not allowed on the discussion list.
v. Additional prefaces to messages:
a. "FILLED"
b. SUMMARY: (Original topic name)
c. JOB ANNOUNCEMENT:
d. ATTN: (e.g., Canadian Librarians)
C. Message Content
i. Each message must contain the following information:
a. A substantive question, comment, or information which meets the description of an "Appropriate Submission" as described above.
b. The submitter's full name, institutional or professional affiliation, and contact information at the end of the message.
ii. Messages may contain the following information:
a. Personal signatures exceeding the aforementioned information, when said information is part of an automatic tag added by system administrators and can not be stripped or deleted by the sender.
iii. Messages MAY NOT contain the following information:
a. Any additional signature information of a personal nature (e.g., quotations or comments), including any religious, political, or other comment that may be deemed insensitive or confrontational to individual recipients or to the group as a whole.
D. Inappropriate Submissions
The following types of submissions are considered inappropriate:
i. Commercial advertisements (including SPAM) or solicitations.
ii. Personal communications between individuals.
iii. Any attachments, whatsoever.
iv. Replies to individuals' requests for information, which are obviously not of significant interest to the membership at large (see Section II, Part B above).
v. Personal criticism of individuals.
vi. Personal or confidential information about others.
vii. Messages with content, were it posted, that might present legal problems.
viii. Messages of inconsequential or non-substantive content, such as merely posting "I agree" without contributing substantively to the discussion. (Such replies should be sent directly to the author of the original message.)
ix. Messages devoted solely to humor or light conversation.
E. Attachments and Long Messages
i. Persons wishing to share large documents may post information pertaining to availability of the document (e.g., journal list) and interested individuals should then contact the poster DIRECTLY to obtain that document.
ii. Attachments of any kind are not permitted due to the risk of transmitting computer viruses.
iii. Large documents related to Section activities (e.g., Legislative Action Alerts, Section Election Instructions, etc.) will be posted by the HLS Board on the HLS Website. Hypertext links will be sent in postings to the discussion list regarding the online availability of these items.
F. Decorum
Messages must be professional in tone. Non-professional communications will not be accepted and repeated offenses will result in an individual being deleted from the list.
III. LIABILITY
Neither the Hospital Libraries Section, the list manager, nor the administrators of the HLS-L host site can verify the content of postings for accuracy or be held accountable for message content. Parties submitting messages to HLS-l bear sole responsibility and liability for the content of their postings.
IV. SANCTIONS
Egregious disregard of HLS-L rules may ultimately result in revocation of the offender's subscription by the list manager.
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