As of 6 June, there is now a LISTSERV site in operation which is archiving
each article that passes through NativeNet, and feeding part of the mailing
list. I am considering moving the entire list to the LISTSERV, in fact.
This facility has been provided as a courtesy by the LISTSERV postmasters
at Texas A&M University.
LISTSERV, for those who don't know, is a facility available on IBM mainframe
computers at universities around the world. I believe the latest version
was written in Paris a few years ago. It manages mailing lists and pro-
vides automatic archiving and retrieval capabilities. I am very new to the
world of LISTSERV, and am still learning about its operation and adminis-
tration. It appears to be very powerful and well thought-out and imple-
mented. I am especially anxious to learn more about its support for
retrieval based on the contents of archived articles, since it offers the
promise of making it possible to do searches for articles on given topics,
and to retrieve just those articles of interest. To learn more about the
features provided by listserv, you can request a list of available documents
by sending a job to "listserv@tamvm1.bitnet" containing the text "info ?".
So far, the only articles in the archive (called "NATIVE-L" at host "TAMVM1")
are those which have been relayed via NativeNet since I began dispatching
articles through the NATIVE-L list on 6 June, though there are a few articles
that date back to the inception of the list in February, which are mostly
tests and articles submitted by people who themselves added their names to
the list and didn't realize that the list was not enabled at that point.
At some point, I may store copies of articles from earlier in the life of
NativeNet (which goes back to late 1989) into the archive. If and when I
do so, I will, of course, announce the fact.
In order to get a complete listing of the articles presently in the NATIVE-L
archive, you can submit a job by means of an email message sent to "listserv
@tamvm1.bitnet" (if sending from an Internet site). I believe Bitnet users
would use the name "LISTSERV@TAMVM1," and might even be able to submit the
job via an interactive command. Full details of the interactive facilities
and other details of writing queries are available in a document which you
can request from "listserv@tamvm1.bitnet" (or "LISTSERV@TAMVM1") by sending
a message containing the text:
info database
The job to send to get a complete listing of the contents of NATIVE-L is:
// JOB Echo=NO
Database Search DD=Rules
//Rules DD *
Select * in NATIVE-L
Index
/*
The kind of output produced by this job will be:
| Item # Date Time Recs Subject
| ------ ---- ---- ---- -------
| 000089 91/06/13 12:37 83 Turtle Island and Ecology
| 000090 91/06/13 17:32 28 Re: Turtle Island and Ecology
| 000091 91/06/13 21:31 46 Re: Agriculture, and yes, Columbus.
| 000092 91/06/13 16:57 70 Kanehsatake Spiritual Gathering
| 000093 91/06/14 13:34 33 Seeking info on neonazi activities
| 000094 91/06/13 22:24 57 Ecuadoran Eco-Activists Beaten
| 000095 91/06/14 00:16 150 Re: Turtle Island and Ecology
| 000096 91/04/05 02:52 139 Aboriginal Human Rights in Canada (Yalden Report)
| 000097 91/06/16 16:51 63 Lubicon: Letters Urgently Needed!!!!!
| 000098 91/06/16 16:47 135 Lubicon: Article in "The Advocate"
| 000099 91/06/17 06:30 86 Indians and the Media
| 000100 91/06/16 09:53 71 Pow Wow List - #3 and End
| 000101 91/04/18 15:28 51 Cape York launch facility
| 000102 91/04/18 06:36 58 Re: Cape York launch facility
| 000103 91/06/16 16:59 173 Lubicon: letters to/from Indian Affairs Minister
| 000104 91/06/16 16:53 311 Lubicon: PERCEPTION Magazine Article
| 000105 91/06/16 16:55 204 Lubicon Appeal on Charges
| 000106 91/06/17 10:56 62 _In_The_Spirit_of_Crazy Horse_ Commentary
| 000107 91/06/16 16:57 150 "SWEET PROMISES" (book on aboriginal people...
| 000108 91/06/17 15:38 25 Re: _In_The_Spirit_of_Crazy Horse_ Commentary
| 000109 91/06/17 19:46 34 Re: _In_The_Spirit_of_Crazy_Horse_ Commentary
| 000110 91/06/18 13:40 22 Re: _In_The_Spirit_of_Crazy_Horse_ Commentary
| 000111 91/06/18 12:37 14 Re: _In_The_Spirit_of_Crazy_Horse_ Commentary
(The "recs" column indicates the number of lines in each article.)
To retrieve a given article, send a command to the LISTSERV saying:
get NATIVE-L <number>
where "<number>" is the number of the article you want. You may send any
number of such requests in a single message, along with other commands to
the LISTSERV. Depending on system load (I think), there may be a limit on
how many commands which will be accepted from a given address during a given
time period, so you might want to be moderate in your requests.
And remember, this service is being provided to us as a courtesy, by the
postmasters at Texas A&M University, so please do not abuse it.
More complex select commands are possible. Further information on how to
construct these commands is contained in the database document. Again, to
request this document, send a message containing the command "info database"
to "listserv@tamvm1.bitnet".
You can also get a listing of the files which comprise the archive by sending
the command "index native-l" to this same address. (The difference between
the two requests is that the first job will produce a list of articles, their
sizes (in lines), and their subject lines, while the second only shows the
weekly archives which contain these articles.)
The kind of output produced by "index native-l" will be:
| rec last - change
| filename filetype GET PUT -fm lrecl nrecs date time Remarks
| NATIVE-L LOG9102 ALL OWN V 73 11 91/02/26 15:27:18 ...
| NATIVE-L LOG9103 ALL OWN V 79 45 91/03/02 14:15:41 ...
| NATIVE-L LOG9104 ALL OWN V 73 8 91/04/25 11:49:08 ...
| NATIVE-L LOG9105 ALL OWN V 75 51 91/05/21 12:31:23 ...
| NATIVE-L LOG9106 ALL OWN V 80 5031 91/06/07 20:39:38 ...
| NATIVE-L LOG9106A ALL OWN V 78 11 91/06/07 23:21:03 ...
| NATIVE-L LOG9106B ALL OWN V 80 1157 91/06/11 13:55:16 ...
To retrieve a single item from this list, you can send a message with the
command "get native-l <item>" where "<item>" is one of the file names:
get native-l log9106b
Your retrieval will produce the contents of one "notebook" of articles
(generally a week's worth).
At present, only recent articles are available. Eventually, articles from
the entire life of NativeNet may become available. An announcement will
be sent out at that time to inform you of that development.
This facility is presently experimental - please send questions or reports
of problems to me.
Thanks especially to the Texas A&M postmasters, Richard Lee Holbert
(x075rt@tamvm1.bitnet) and Tom Spellman (x226ts@tamvm1.bitnet).
Gary
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst