A mail services center or mail service center (MSC) is a central hub for all

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

and package shipping and receiving for a large

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

(such as that of a

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

or government facility). The staff at the MSC will sort and take incoming mail to individual departments and pick up departments' outgoing mail as well.

Example of Address specifying an MSC box number

Typically each user or each department has a numbered MSC box; therefore the format of a mailing address is something like the following example: :Prof Jane Roe :Dept of Anthropology, MSC 11625 :University of Anywhere :6500 UNIVERSITY DR :ANYTOWN, STATE 12345-6789 :USA

Differences between MSC and local mailrooms

The main advantage that drives investment in an MSC is the idea that it will be cheaper to operate over time than multiple local

mailroom A mailroom (US) or post room (UK) is a room in which incoming and outgoing mail is processed and sorted. Mailrooms are commonly found in schools, offices, apartment buildings, and the generic post office. A person who works in a mailroom is known a ...

s (mostly by employing fewer workers), thus paying for itself and then saving the institution money over time. Another advantage of an MSC is that it may make

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

threat mitigation easier by forcing all incoming packages to come through one point of entry, where systems are in place to screen and

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

any suspicious packages. This is cheaper and more reliable than trying to mitigate at more than one point of entry. Another advantage of an MSC is that such a system is more intuitive to the many users it serves, most of whom (understandably) would not know how their particular institution's system of many mailrooms worked (where all the different mailrooms were, what their hours of operation were, etc.). Rooms Postal infrastructure {{room-stub