We host a number of email lists for member-to-member discussions, and for us to communicate with you.
RAILS Community Email Lists
RAILS Community is a collection of email lists that serves forum for member-to-member communications. You need to be logged into the RAILS website to subscribe to these lists or view the archive of list messages.
The email address associated with your Library Learning (L2) account is the address that will be subscribed to your RAILS Community forums, and you need to post messages from that address. When you change the email address on your L2 account, your forum subscriptions will automatically be updated the next time you log into the RAILS website.
- To see your current list subscriptions, visit My Email Lists.
- Search the email list message archives.
- Browse the message archives for all lists.
To join a RAILS Community email list through our global subscriptions page, click the list's Subscribe link below. On the subscriptions page, you will need to select "Yes" for your subscription and then click the Save button at the bottom of the page to complete your list membership.
Library Type
- Academic Libraries - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Public Libraries - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- School Libraries - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Special Libraries - Subscribe | Browse Archives
Job/Topic
- Audiovisual Information and Discussion (AVID) - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Business Services - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Census 2020 - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Circulation - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Collection Development - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Community Engagement - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Directors Only (list membership limited to library directors, LLSAP directors, and RAILS staff) - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Electronic Content - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Facilities and Building Management - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Interlibrary Loan - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Makerspace - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Marketing and Public Relations - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Middle Managers - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Outreach - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Passport Services - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Programming - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Readers Advisory - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Reference Services - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Technical Services - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Technology and Network Management - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Young Adult Services - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Youth Services - Subscribe | Browse Archives
Regional
- Aurora Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Bloomington/Normal Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Burr Ridge Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Chicago Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Freeport Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Galena Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Galesburg Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Joliet Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Kankakee Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- LaSalle Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Macomb Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Moline Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Northbrook Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Peoria Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Quincy Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Rockford Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Sterling Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
- Sycamore Area - Subscribe | Browse Archives
Networking Group Lists
We host email lists for several member networking groups. Each group manages its own list membership, and messages are not archived on the RAILS website.
For information about a group and its email list in the RAILS Networking Groups Directory, click on the group's name below.
- Assistant Directors
- Chicago Area Solo Librarians (CASL)
- Chicago Area Library Volunteer Administrators Network (CALVAN)
- For-Profit/Small Academic Library Networking Group
- Kankakee Area Library Association (KALA)
- Librarians Working Together (LWT) - Sycamore/DeKalb area
- Preschool Outreach Programmers
- SAILS - Will/Grundy/Kankakee/LaSalle counties area
- Small Libraries United - northwestern Illinois
- Teen or Youth Selectors (TOYS)
- Two Rivers Networking Group (TRN) - Quad Cities area
- West of 47 - LaSalle area
To request an email list for your group, contact communications@railslibraries.info.
Website Announcements
You may also use our global subscriptions page to subscribe to receive new RAILS website posts via email:
- RAILS Alerts - Subscribe
- RAILS News - Subscribe
- Library Jobs - Subscribe
- Free/For Sale/Wanted - Subscribe
- Library News - Subscribe
- Continuing Education News - Subscribe
- Fast Facts Surveys - Subscribe
You will need to click the Save button at the bottom of the subscriptions page to complete your subscription.
Other Email Lists
- We use several additional one-way distributions to send important announcements from RAILS. For example, we send notifications about delivery delays to the libraries on each affected route. The recipients for those announcements are automatically selected from the job roles on library employees' Library Learning (L2) accounts.
- To receive our weekly RAILS E-News (or our occasional newsletters for Academic, School, or Special libraries), see our Newsletters page.
- For information about email lists for libraries in a RAILS-supported shared catalog, see your catalog's support site.
Our email lists are run on Mailman, an open source application similar to the commercial Listserv software.