Thanks to the Internet, you can now talk to other LIMS users on the web by subscribing to the Internet LIMS Mailing List which was launched in May 1995. Spearheaded by Stu Miller when he was at the Geoscience Laboratories of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines in Ontario, Canada, for several years the list was later hosted by Stu's employer subsequent Taratec Corportion. It is now hosted on Google Groups. The list is designed to encourage LIMS discussions and information sharing and, while currently unmoderated, is free to all users.

The latest version of the group was "officially" launched on December 2, 2007 as a continuation of the LIMS Mailing List. The scope of the discussion group has been expanded in thiscurrent forum to include topics relevant to the integration of other lab informatics systems such as electronic lab notebooks (ELN), chromatography data systems (CDS), data archiving systems and other applications commonly found as part of the modern integrated laboratory.

Individuals interested in talking to other LIMS users can subscribe to the mailing list by sending an email message to the listserver. "Subscribers unfamiliar with Internet mailing list "etiquette" should note that "administrative" requests, such as requests to subscribe, unsubscribe, request list info or archived files, should only be sent to the "listproc" address," explains Miller. "Sending these messages to the "lims" address is comparable to the telephone company calling you personally each time someone gets a new phone number to let you know what their new number is!"

For more information about the LIMS Mailing List and to subscribe, visit http://groups.google.com/group/lims-lab-inf.