Dartmouth maintains a merged list of the LISTSERV and manually maintained
lists on Bitnet and the Interest Group lists on the Internet.  It is a single
file with one line for each mailing list. The list has been updated monthly for
the last year and has a stable format.  Each line consists of seven fields,
delimited by tabs.  The list contains information about approximately 2,200
lists.  The fields are:
   Category (Computing, Science, Humanities, etc)
   List name
   "Mail to" address for submitting to the list for distribution
   "Command to" address for subscribing, unsubing and other administratrivia
   One line description of the list subject
   Email address for the owner of the list
   Long description of the list, up to 450 characters.
 
This list-of-lists differs from some similiar lists and the list returned
by sending the LIST GLOBAL command to a backbone LISTSERV in that:
   a) Duplicate entries are deleted
   b) Lists obviously intended only for local use are omitted
   c) Information about the lists is field delimited, allowing simple parsing
   d) Both Internet and Bitnet lists are included
   e) A text description of the purpose of the list is provided
 
The flat data file containing the list-of-lists information can be obtained
by mail by sending the command SEND LISTTEXT PACKAGE to [log in to unmask]
This will return five files which can be concatenated to form the full list.
An editor can then be used to crudely search this text file.
 
A short form of the text form of the list can be obtained with the command
SEND LISTSHRT PACKAGE to [log in to unmask]  This will return a five
lists (by category) containing only three fields: Mail to Address,
Subscription to Address, and a one line description of the list.
 
A Macintosh Hypercard application is available to format, display and search
the list-of-lists.   To get the Binhexed Hypercard application as well as the
data files it uses, use the command SEND MACSIG PACKAGE to [log in to unmask]
 
A VM/CMS Xedit/Rexx application is available to format, display and search
the list-of-lists.  To get the VM/CMS application as well as the data files
it uses, use the command SEND CMSSIG PACKAGE to [log in to unmask]
 
These are BIG files; the text data file alone is around a half mbyte.  If you
are on the Internet, you may want to recover the files via FTP rather than
mail.  The files are available by anonymous FTP to DARTCMS1.DARTMOUTH.EDU
<129.170.16.19> in directory SIGLISTS.
 
To obtain the text file by anonymous FTP, enter the following commands:
  FTP DARTCMS1.DARTMOUTH.EDU
  ANONYMOUS
  CD SIGLISTS
  GET READ.ME
  GET LISTSERV.LISTS
  QUIT
 
The list-of-lists is updated monthly.  You can use the LISTSERV AFD command to
automatically get fresh copies by mail whenever the files are updated, or use
the LISTSERV FUI command to get an automatic notification of the update by mail
so you can get a new copy by FTP.  To use either command you will probably want
to assign yourself a password on the DARTCMS1 listserv.  Send the following
commands to LISTSERV@DARTCMS1:
 
     PW ADD <new_password>
     AFD ADD <package_name> PACKAGE SIGLISTS
or
     PW ADD <new_password>
     FUI ADD <package_name> PACKAGE SIGLISTS
 
In addition to the files maintained at Dartmouth, a VAX RDB/VMS software
package is available on the Internet only from vax.muskingum.edu and
requires BASIC. The directory dartmouth contains the files:
     *.EXE
     *.RDB
     *.SNP
     DARTMOUTH.DOC
You may contact Lewis Dreblow ([log in to unmask]) for more
information of the VAX interface to the Dartmouth list-of-lists.
 
 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  David Avery
 *   BITNET:   DAVID@DARTCMS1                *  System Manager for VM/CMS
 * INTERNET:   [log in to unmask]     *  Dartmouth College
 *    SMAIL:   Kiewit Computation Center     *  vox clamantis in deserto
 *             Hanover, New Hampshire 03755  *
 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *