A note on the history of the ECOLOG listserv

If you’re already a member of the ECOLOG listserv this won’t be news to you, and if you’re not a member this might just get you to sign up! David Inouye sent the following message and graph on February 26th:

Graph courtesy David Inouye, ecolog listserv manager.

The number of ECOLOG-L subscribers reached 19,000 this week, up a thousand since October. While meeting with graduate school applicants in the past few weeks I’ve heard several stories about how those students found job and school opportunities through the list, so I’m glad it’s serving that purpose.

Thanks again to the University of Maryland for hosting the list. It is now the largest LISTSERV list hosted by the University, equivalent to > half the student population (which means that I have to limit the number of postings per hour). There are >1,200 subscribers from outside the United States, representing 61 countries, so the audience is quite international.

Many subscribers are members of the Ecological Society of America, but those of you who aren’t can get information about membership (including student memberships) at the ESA Web site, ESA.org. Additional related lists are the the ESA-STUDENTS listserv list, and the ESANEWS list that provides a bi-monthly summary of policy news relevant to ESA members and other ecologists (see Policy News Updates to subscribe), and occasional other messages from the ESA headquarters.