IFACTION
IFACTION is a news-only, no-discussion e-list of the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF).
The postings for the IFACTION e-list are chosen by OIF staff, under the direction of Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Acting Director.
IFACTION helps to fulfill OIF's goal "to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries." To that end, several intellectual freedom news items are posted daily.
There are over 500 subscribers to IFACTION. Not all postings will be of interest to everyone, so it is expected that posts will appear that some subscribers may not be interested in or disagree with. IFACTION, however, attempts to inform its diverse subscribers by posting a wide variety of articles and information on intellectual freedom issues of interest to its subscribers, primarily librarians.
In general, IFACTION is one of ALA-OIF's means of alerting subscribers not only to news items of interest, but also to legislation affecting intellectual freedom issues, such as filtering, privacy, online social networks, media concentration, and network neutrality. It is up to each subscriber to read or not read a posting, and to act or not act on a legislation alert.
There are a number of other e-lists to which ALA members may subscribe and freely post information, including OIF’s IFFORUM (see below).
Instructions for Subscribing, Unsubscribing, Receiving Mail by Digest
Subscription Instructions
To SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE to IFACTION, just follow these simple steps:
1. Go to lists.ala.org <http://lists.ala.org/>;
2. Enter "ifaction" in the Search lists box; or click view all lists, and search for ifaction@ala.org;
3. Click ifaction@ala.org;
4. Click Subscribe or Unsubscribe;
5. Enter your email address and click Submit. A welcome message with your password will be sent to you. If these steps don't work, or you need other assistance, contact the Office for Intellectual Freedom at oif@ala.org. See also IFACTION Archive.
IFFORUM
ALAOIF was an unmoderated discussion list of the Office for Intellectual Freedom. In March 2005, the Office for Intellectual Freedom launched IFFORUM, an unmoderated forum for discussing intellectual freedom issues that replaced ALAOIF. ALAOIF was deactivated (since renaming the list causes technical problems). All then-current ALAOIF subscribers were moved to IFFORUM. The purpose of the new e-list remains the same as ALAOIF's: to provide an unmoderated forum for discussing intellectual freedom issues. The Office for Intellectual Freedom trusts the new name more accurately reflects this purpose.
New IFFORUM subscribers receive a similar two-paragraph welcoming message to that now received by ALAOIF subscribers:
IFFORUM is an unmoderated discussion list sponsored by the Office for Intellectual Freedom. It was established so that subscribers could freely--and without a moderator deciding which posts are acceptable--discuss intellectual freedom issues and post news items, particularly, but not solely, relating to intellectual freedom. Anyone may subscribe, and only subscribers may post to this list. From time to time, posts appear that some subscribers may think disrupt, rather than contribute to, the ongoing discussions of current intellectual freedom topics and may, in fact, have little relationship to any intellectual freedom topic.
Since IFFORUM will remain unmoderated, the most effective ways to deal with unwanted posts are: (1) write a rule into your mail program to send these posts to trash; (2) delete after or without reading them; but (3) by all means, do not respond to them! If others do respond, delete their posts, too, and try to steer the conversation to an intellectual freedom topic. Dealing with unwanted posts is a small price to pay to keep IFFORUM free and unmoderated.
In addition, a message appears at the top of every message sent by any subscriber to the IFFORUM e-list.
IFFORUM is an unmoderated forum for the discussion of intellectual freedom issues. For assistance with intellectual freedom issues, please visit http://www.ala.org/oif/faqs or contact the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom at oif@ala.org.
Subscription Instructions
To SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE to IFFORUM, just follow these simple steps:
1. Go to lists.ala.org <http://lists.ala.org/>;
2. Enter "ifforum" in the Search lists box; or click view all lists, and search for ifforum@ala.org;
3. Click ifforum@ala.org;
4. Click Subscribe or Unsubscribe;
5. Enter your email address and click Submit. A welcome message with your password will be sent to you. If these steps don't work, or you need other assistance, contact the Office for Intellectual Freedom at oif@ala.org.
To manage your subscription, please point your Web browser to http://lists.ala.org/wws. If you are not already a member of any Sympa list, you can click on "send me a password," and provide your e-mail address (please use the exact address form which you subscribed to this list), and one will be sent to you. Once logged in, you can turn your subscriptions on and off. Those of you who were subscribed in digest mode will need to reestablish your digest setting, since that could not carry over with the list move. Digest mode is available through the Subscriber Options link under "Reception mode." If problems, please contact Matthew Ivaliotes, Internet Administrator, Information Technology and Telecommunications Services, American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611; mivaliotes@ala.org