Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections
Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections |
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| Introduction | Sustainability Factors | Content Categories | Format Descriptions | Contact | |
| Full name | GroupWise Email Format |
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| Description |
GroupWise Email Format (MLM) is an email file format used by the software Novell GroupWise (GroupWise), a collaborative productivity suite. GroupWise creates MLM files when a user wishes to store email messages to disk. MLM files are created by: "Selecting File | Save within a GroupWise mail message. By default they are saved as the mail item’s <subject> tag. MLM are simply a WordPerfect 5.1/5.2 file that contains the text of the message as well as information of who the message was from, to, CC:, BC and the date it was sent". MLM files are opened by: "Either open[ing] a New Mail view in GroupWise and select File, then Retrieve, or open the file in WordPerfect 5.1 or later or any application that will read WordPerfect 5.1/5.2 files". MLM files are found in Novell GroupWise versions 4.1a, 5.0, 5.1, and 5.5, which were released between 1994 and 1999. MLM has very limited documentation. Comments welcome. |
| Production phase | Middle-state. Used to manually save emails to disk. |
| Relationship to other formats | |
| Extension of | WPD, WordPerfect Document Family |
| LC experience or existing holdings | The Library of Congress includes MLM files in its collections, especially in the Manuscripts and Music Divisions as well as other personal papers repositories. |
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| LC preference | See the Library of Congress Recommended Formats Statement for format preferences for email. |
| Disclosure | Little documentation. |
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| Documentation |
“What is a .MLM file and how can I open it to see what is contained in it?” |
| Adoption | Used exclusively by/in the Novell GroupWise software. |
| Licensing and patents | The current licensing and patents of MLM is unclear. Comments welcome. |
| Transparency | Not transparent. Comments welcome. |
| Self-documentation | The file identifies itself as a WordPerfect file with a MLM extension. |
| External dependencies | Requires WordPerfect 5.1 or software that can read WordPerfect 5.1/5.2 files. |
| Technical protection considerations | None. |
| Tag | Value | Note |
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| Filename extension | mlm |
See: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28771267. |
| Magic numbers | FF575043{5}0A0001{2}0000 |
Matches WordPerfect 5.1 file signature. See the PRONOM entry for WordPerfect 5.1 file signatures (PUID x-fmt/394). |
| Pronom PUID | See note. | PRONOM has no corresponding entry as of January 2024. |
| Wikidata Title ID | Q28771267 |
See: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28771267. |
| General | |
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| History |
Novell GroupWise was developed by WordPerfect. The product’s ownership history “includes WordPerfect, Novell and Attachmate. Micro Focus's 2014 acquisition of Attachmate resulted in the product's Micro Focus GroupWise name.” The latest generation of the platform is GroupWise 18.5, released in 2023. MLM files were added to Novell GroupWise in Version 4.1 (released in 1994) and appear to have been removed after version 5.5 (released in 1998). Comments welcome. |
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