Spam Filter Whitelisting
Be sure the email addresses mail@connected community.org and donotreply@connectedcommunity.org, and the domain connectedcommunity.org are white-listed in all your spam filters. These are the address and the domain from which NACDLConnect messages will originate. Adding a contact for donotreply@connectedcommunity.org to your address book will also help to ensure deliverability.
Logging in for the first time
From the Home page at NACDLConnect, click the login button in the upper right corner, and enter your primary NACDL email address and your password. The first time you log in, you'll be shown a copy of the NACDLConnect Terms of Use. In order to gain initial entry to the community, you will need to scroll to the bottom of the page and accept the terms.
Once you're logged in, your name will be displayed under the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner of the page, and your photograph will be displayed if you have uploaded one. If you'd like to upload a photograph that other members will be able to see on your NACDLConnect profile, click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner, and click the Profile button. When your profile is displayed, you can click the Actions button to upload a picture, or click the pencil next to "Contact Details" to update all of your contact information.
Need your password?
If you haven't yet set up a password, or don't know your password, click the "Reset Password" link on any login screen of www.nacdl.org, enter your email address, and press the green Submit button. You will immediately receive an email message to that address containing a link that allows you to change your password.
You can remain logged in to nacdl.org and NACDLConnect for up to 60 days if you click the "Remember me" checkbox when you log in, and don't click the "Logout" button when you leave. Your browser must be configured to allow cookies in order for this persistent login to work.
How to subscribe to a community
Click Participate on the main menu, and Join a Community on the drop-down menu. You will see a list of communities you're eligible to join. Click the blue Join button next to each community you want to subscribe to, and you'll be asked how you want to receive messages from each community. First, indicate the email address at which you want to subscribe to the group, then choose:
Digest, which is one message per day containing all the posts from the previous 24 hours;
Real Time, which means you'll get each message as soon as it is posted
Plain Text, which means on email for each message, with no HTML formatting
No email. This is especially helpful when you are on vacation.
How to post a message
To post a message from within the NACDLConnect web site, click Participate from the main menu, and Post a Message from the drop-down. You can cross-post your message to up to two communities of which you are a member.
You can also read messages from each of the discussion groups of which you are a member my selecting My Communities under the Communities menu.
If you prefer to post messages by email, please see the next section, below.
How to use NACDLConnect via email
Some members prefer to post and respond to posts on NACDLConnect by sending and receiving email messages. Here's how:
- To create a new post to one of the discussion groups, just send an email to:
- For convenience, create a contact for each discussion group you belong to in your contacts folder. This will also improve deliverability.
- If you wish to receive private replies from discussion group members, be sure your email address is in your signature to facilitate this.
- To reply to an email message from NACDLConnect, simply click reply, or click the "Email Reply to Discussion" link in the message. This will send your reply to the entire discussion group. The "To" address will change to a long, apparently meaningless string of characters.
There are two ways to reply only to the original sender of a message:
- Click the "Reply to Sender" link at the bottom of an incoming message. You will be taken to the NACDLConnect website, where you can compose and send your message to the original sender (you must be logged in to do this). Once you have replied to the original sender through the NACDL website, s/he will be able to reply to you directly from his/her email client.
- Alternately, if you wish to reply only to the sender from your email client, you can use the forward button in your email client, and send the message to the sender's email address. If the sender has not included their email address in their signature line, you can look up their email address in the membership directory, either in NACDLConnect or on NACDL.org.
Attachments in NACDLConnect
The most important thing to know is that the files you upload aren't just attachments to a message, they are additions to a library. There are a few more steps in the process, but the purpose is to create documents that are easily referenced from within a stored message or directly from the library, and remain useful for the long term.
File attachments can be attached to a message created from within the community website, or they can be attached directly to an email message and posted to the discussion group.
To attach a file to a message created from within the NACDLConnect community:
- Log into the website (http://connect.nacdl.org) with your email address and password (most regular users should only have to log in manually about every two months)
- Click "Participate...Make a Post" and select which group(s) you want to send it to, then write your message
- Click the "Attach" button at the bottom of the message, navigate to the first file you wish to upload and double-click it. Repeat for additional files.
- If you want to upload more files than you have spaces for, click "+Add Another File." Once you've identified all the files you want to attach, click "Upload Files." When the files are uploaded, click "Next."
- You'll be asked to characterize the contents of the attachments, first in a brief subject line, then to give a more detailed explanation. The more thorough you are, the more useful the files will be to other members down the road. Click "Finish". If your accompanying message is complete, press "Send".
To attach a file to a message via email:
- From within your email client, create a new message, addressed to one or more discussion groups, OR reply to an existing message received from NACDLConnect.
- Click the icon to attach a file to the outgoing message, and navigate to the file you want to attach, just as you would attach a file to any email. message. When your message is complete, press Send.
- You will receive a message from NACDLConnect asking you to describe the file you have uploaded so future users can identify the contents of the file. Doing so will be helpful to other members, but users can ignore this step.
To view or download a file attachment:
- In the message you receive via NACDLConnect, click the link or icon for the file attachment. You will be directed to that file's page NACDLConnect file library.
- Login if you're not already logged in and download the file.
Using NACDLConnect on your Mobile Device
This is a "responsive" website specially configured to enhance your experience when using NACDLConnect from your smart phone or tablet.
You can log into NACDLConnect on your mobile device using your email address and password. If you don't know your password, just click "Reset Password" in any login screen and enter your email address. You'll immediately receive an email message containing a link that allows you to change your password. When you log in, be sure to click "Remember me". That should keep you logged in for up to 60 days, assuming you have cookies enabled and don't log out manually.
Thereafter, if you click a link or an attachment in a message from NACDLConnect, it should take you directly to that message on the NACDLConnect mobile website. You can then click on any attachments to open them.