By: Ryan Johnson

Following up to a recent tech tip How to find out what email lists and listservs I’m on or manage, let’s talk more about Distribution lists.

Distribution lists (sometimes called distribution groups) are the solution for Outlook Web App users to communicate and collaborate with colleagues by creating a mailing list within the Office 365 outlook application.

Note: Distribution lists are NOT managed by Strat-Tech and to join a distribution list you would want to contact the owner.

The easiest way to know if a list is an Office 365 Distribution list is if the email is using the naming of @psu.edu instead of @lists.psu.edu.  @lists.psu.edu would signify a Penn State listserv or user managed group(UMG).

If you know the name of a library email list you want to join or know more about, simply add the name in the To: field in Outlook.  If it’s a distribution list, the name will appear or if you don’t know the entire name you can search as well.

In the example below, see how ul-ulibs appears but the name has @lists.psu.edu, this is NOT a distribution list, this is a listserv managed by Strat-Tech.  However, distribution lists do appear in the search, and the names are followed by @psu.edu.  These lists can be researched to see what manages them and who are the members by selecting the list:

After finding a distribution lists you want to join or find more information out about, you can let the name autocomplete and then expand the list:

To open the properties of the distribution list click on the name, a new window will appear with two tabs.  About and Members.

In this example I will click on the ul-ulibs-travel-request distribution list.

Note: if you click on the plus sign and not the name, the members of the list will appear only). 

travel listserv screenshot for tech tip (2)

If you select the Members tab, a list of owners along with the members will appear.  To join a list, simply request on of the owners to add you.