Doug, In order to "get" an item from the list's archives you need to send a database job. At least that's what the listowner's manual says. GET is used to get the log files (notebooks) and other files which are stored in the list's archives. Here are the job control streams for finding the index # for a given message and then to "get" a copy of that message. // JOB Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * Select 'SPAM' in LSTOWN-L Index /* // EOJ The above job would return index numbers for messages containing the string SPAM in the LSTOWN-L archives. BTW, you'd send this job to LISTSERV@domain where domain is the host system for the list in question. // JOB Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * Select * in LSTOWN-L Print 1,2,3 /* // EOJ The above job would return messages #1, #2, #3 from the LSTOWN-L archives. You'd substitute the appropriate message numbers in your job stream. You can put multiple message numbers on a Print and you can put multiple Print's in the same job. There might be a faster way to do this but the above works. Valorie King listowner: TAGFAM [log in to unmask] http://www.access.digex.net/~king/tagfam.html