APPROPRIATE USE OF E-MAIL BY LIBRARY EMPLOYEES
Electronic mail (e-mail) has become an important form of communication for the Libraries and the University. These guidelines establish expectations for library employees as they relate to the use of University e-mail services in the library setting.
For the purposes of these guidelines, “library employees” includes all permanent and part-time staff, contract staff, if-and-when staff and graduate assistants. It does not include other student employees. The University of Maryland Policy on the Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources more broadly defines the rights and responsibilities of our community and should also be read and understood by library employees. Refer to the Guidelines at http://www.nethics.umd.edu/aup/.
Library employees are provided University e-mail accounts for the purposes of conducting the Libraries' and the University's business. The Libraries also use group mailing lists, such as listservs and reflectors, for communication among various entities,ranging from committees to teams to units, departments or divisions, to the entire library staff.
All staff members of the University of Maryland are automatically issued a Directory ID and an e-mail account on the email@umd.edu system. Staff are not required to use the email address on the email@umd.edu system. Staff may use any e-mail address they wish, although the email@umd.edu system does provide some security, virus protection and junk mail filtering. Whatever email address is used, it is important that staff list that address in ARES. (Go to http://www.ares.umd.edu. Choose the Payroll and Human Resources (PHR) menu on this page and then choose the Display/Update Personal Data option.) The email address listed in ARES will be added to the all-staff email reflector library-staff@umd.edu.
An employee's e-mail signature should contain the following standard information which is pertinent to the conduct of university business:
- Name
- Job title and department or division
- Mailing address
- Telephone number, fax number
- E-mail address
Library employees are expected to stay current with reading and replying to inquiries, if responses are required or appropriate. Library employees are also expected to be familiar with the content of announcements that pertain to them.
Library employees who send e-mail to a mailing list are expected to do so responsibily, having determined that the e-mail is appropriate and pertinent or necessary to accomplish work-related purposes. An employee sending a message to more than one recipient should determine in advance that the prospective message is pertinent to the entire group. A person answering a message posted on a mailing list should respond to the group only if the entire group needs to know the individual's response.
Library employees are encouraged to post announcements and events to the Libraries' Intranet (Libi) in place of sending messages to the all-staff email reflector whenever possible. Please consult the Libi guidelines for News (http://libi.lib.umd.edu/news-posting-guidelines) and Calendar (http://libi.lib.umd.edu/calendar-posting-guidelines) items before posting.
Library employees should construct e-mails efficiently, with all material in the text of the message wherever possible. Attachments should be used only when format is important. Large attachments (e.g., image files) should be sent via mailing lists; these files should be posted to Libi.
ADMINISTRATIVE MEMO # 30
Effective Apri 26, 2000Revised June 30, 2010
Revised June 18, 2001
Revised April 18, 2007
Supersedes #30, “UMAIL REFLECTOR – COMMERCIAL USE,” December 5, 1997
Suggested revisions to any Administrative Memo should be addressed to the Assistant Dean for Administrative Services.
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