Mailing lists, newsgroups and other resources

Mailing lists

Mailing lists work as follows: the computer sotware where the list is activated, when it receives a messages from one of the list members, sends it to all the list members. Some lists have a moderator who controls the content of messages, while in others the discussion takes place with no such controls. Many mailing lists have an archive that is accessible by anyone, where it is possible to find all the messages that have been sent to the list. When subscribing to a list, it is necessary to follow the netiquette, which requires the members to ascribe to a few basic rules. Members must: 1) use a subject that is easy to understand; 2) at the end of the message, write their e-mail address as this does not appear clearly in some mailing lists; 3) send those replies that are not deemed of general interest to the sender of the message and not to the whole list; 4) thank those that send them information; 5) avoid writing the entire message in capital letters; 6) when replying, they should not include the whole received message. The most important thing to remember, however, is that subscriptions to or deletions from a list must be made by sending a message to the special address that is indicated in the field ãmessage toä; this indicates what softwarer is used for editing the list (listserv, mailbase, majordomo, etc.). For sending messages to the list, on the contrary, the message must be sent to the name of the list followed by the address which appears after the @ in the field ãmessage toä. Example: to subscribe to Nestore-l, send a message to: listserv@cesit1.unifi.it with oneâs name and surname. To send a message to the list, send it to: Nestore-l@cesit1.unifi.it. The mailing lists that I have chosen here do not exhaust the various subjects of study related to Economic History, but in my view they are nonetheless a highly representative sample. Information on other lists can be found, for history, in the 9th Revision Directory of Scholarly Electronic Conferences, by Diane K. Kovacs and The Directory Team, and, for economics, in Internet Resources for Economists by Bill Goffe. It is also possible to enter an on-line database where one can search for mailing lists. The address is: http://scwww.ucs.indiana.edu/mlarchive In what follows I indicate, for each mailing list or where possible, the title, the editor or the person to be contacted for any query, the institute that supports it, the address where one can find the archives with the list messages, the address to which one should send the subscription message, and finally, a brief explanation of what the list is.

AEROSP-L (History and material culture of aerospace): Editors: Dom Pisano; Barbara Weitbrecht; Message to: listserv@sivm.si.edu; "Aerosp-l" is for the historians of science that study the economic and social transformations brought about by aviation.

ASEH-L (Environmental History): Editors: Dennis C. Williams; David McGaughey; Supported by: The American Society for Environmental History; Message to: listproc@unicorn.acs.ttu.edu; "Aseh-l" deals with issues concerning the interaction of man with the environment in historical perspective.

COMHIST (History of Human Communication): Editor: Comserve Support Staff; Message to: comserve@vm.its.rpi.edu; Comhist deals with issues concerning the history of communication technologies and their social impact.

DARWIN-L: Editors: Robert J. O'Hara; Lynn H. Nelson; Message to: listeserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu; Darwin-l is concerned with the history and theory of the historical sciences. It is not limited to the work of Charles Darwin, but also covers areas such as archaeology, paleontology, or historical geography.

DATABASES (Design and Management of Historical Databases): Editors: Mary Eschelbach Gregson, Knox College; Don Schaefer, Washington State University; Supported by: The Cliometric Scoiety.; Message to: lists@cs.muohio.edu; Archive; Databases is a list for those that are interested in the problems related to the creation and the maintenance of electronic archives of a historical nature. The aim of the list is to foster discussion on new products, and the exchange of ideas and study material.

ECONHIST.MACRO (Macroeconomic History): Editors: J. Bradford DeLong, University of California-Berkeley; Louis Johnston, Gustavus Adolphus College; Supported by: the Cliometric Society.; Message to: lists@cs.muohio.edu; Archive; Econhist.macro is a list for those that are interested in the macro-economic history of any period. The list covers issues such as economic cycles, long-term growth and the interaction between capital and finance markets.

ECONHIST.STUDENT (A List for Students and Instructors of Economic History): Editors: Kyle Kauffman, Wellesley College; L.Lynne Kiesling, College of William and Mary; Supported by: The Cliometric Society.; Message to: lists@cs.muohio.edu; Archive; Econhist.student is a list for students or propective students of economic history at all levels. One of the special interests of the list is the collection of study material, information about courses, exams, and careers opportunities.

ECONHIST.TEACH (Issues in Teaching Economic History): Editors: David Mitch, University of Maryland-Baltimore County; Robert Whaples, Wake Forest University; Supported by: The Cliometric Society.; Message to: lists@cs.muohio.edu; Archive; Econhist.teach deals with the issue of the teaching of economic history at all academic levels. It allows discussion on teaching methods an the preparation of syllabi.

EH.DISC (Economic History Discussion): The list does not have an editor and is monitored by the Editorsal board della Cliometric Scoiety.; Supported by: The Cliometric Society.; Message to: lists@cs.muohio.edu; Archive; Eh.disc is a list for the debates of general issues concerning economic history, but which also hosts broader issues.

EH.NEWS (Economic History News): Editor: Samuel H. Williamson, Miami University; Supported by: The Cliometric Society.; Message to: lists@cs.muohio.edu; Archive; Eh.news is a list that works as a noticeboard. It contains call for papers, conferences and seminars programmes, and discussant requests.

EH.RES (Economic History Research): Editor: Joshua Rosenbloom; Supported by: The Cliometric Society.; Message to: lists@cs.muohio.edu; Archive; Eh.res is a list for information requests on issues of economic history, and for general discussions on research topics. The editor limits the length of the messages and chooses topics on which he promotes discussion.

EHENEWS (European Historical Economic News): Editor: Karl Gunnar Person; Supported by: The European Historical Economics Association.; Message to: majordomo@list.adm.ku.dk; Ehenews aims at fostering communication among all students of economic history. It does not specify a delimited area of interest, and is at the same time a site for the exchange of information on congresses, seminars and other initiatives, while also serving as a forum of debate for issues in the subject.

EMHIST-L (Early Modern History Forum): Editors: Thomas Zielke; George Welling; John Riehl; Message to: listserv@rutvm1.rutgers.edu; Emhist-l belongs to the History Network and deals with nineteenth and twentieth century history.

EURO-BUSINESS-HISTORY (European Business History): Editor: L. Bud Frierman; Supported by: The International Business History Association.; Message to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk; Euro-business-history is for the students of firm history.

GLOBAL.CHANGE (Economic History Dimensions of Global Change): Editors: C. Knick Harley, University of Western Ontario, Canada; Kevin J. O'Rourke, University College, Dublin; Alan M. Taylor, Northwestern University; Supported by: The Cliometric Society; Message to: lists@cs.muohio.edu; Archive; Global Change is interdisciplinary and is directed to those that are interested in issues related to structural changes such as the demographic, institutional, and social transformations. A favoured topic are long-periods comparative studies.

H-BUSINESS (Teaching and Research in Business History): Editors: Jeremy Atack, Vanderbilt University.; Austin Kerr, The Ohio State University; Supported by: The Cliometric Society, the Business History Conference and H-net..; Message to: lists@cs.muohio.edu; Archive; H-business deals with issues related to firm history. The list is for the discussion and the exchange of syllabi, bibliographies, new resources, new software, library and archive catalogues, and all other information on the subject. There are also announcements of conferences, job offers, and the publication of new books.

H-ITALY: Editor: Franco Andreucci, Universitˆ di Pisa.; Message to: listserv@uicvm.uic.edu; H-Italy is concerned with Italian history and culture. It offers information on academic activities in Italy and abroad.

H-LABOR (Labor history): Editor: SETHW@maine.edu; Message to: listserv@uicvm.uic.edu; H-labor belongs to the History Network and deals with the history of labour from various viewpoints.

H-URBAN (Urban History): Editor: Alan Mayne; Message to: listserv@uicvm.uic.edu; H-urban belongs to the History Network and deals with urban history issues.

HES (History of Economic Thought): Editor:; Message to: listserv@babson.edu; Supported by: History of Economics Society.; Hes deals with the history of economic thought in general, covering a wide range of topics.

HISTORY: Editor: Thomas Zielke; Message to: listserv@psuvm.psu.edu -; History is a very broad list which covers a wide range of topics in economic history.

HISTORY-ECON: Editor: History-econ-request@mailbase.ac.uk; Message to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk; Archive; History-econ covers issues related to economic history in general.

HISTORY-METHODS: Editor: Donald Spaeth; Trish Cashen; Message to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk; Archive; History-methods deals with the methodology issues related to the use of computer techniques in historical rersearch.

HISTORY-TEACHING: Editor: history-teaching-request@mailbase.ac.uk; Message to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk; Supported by: Computers and Teaching Initiative Centre for History with Archaelogy and Art History.; Archive; History-teaching deals with issues concerned with teaching through the use of computer technologies.

MARHST-L: Editor: Walter Lewis; Message to: listserv@qucdn.queensu.ca; Supported by: Marine Museum of the Great Lakes a Kingston (Australia); Marhst-l deals is concerned with marine history and is a forum for the exchange of ideas and information on the subject.

MEDIEV-L: Editor: Jeff Gardner; Lynn Nelson; Message to:listserv@ukanvm.cc.ukans.edu; Archive; Medieval-l deals with topics in medieval history. Although the main language used is English, messages in other languages are also accepted.

NESTORE-L (Network di Storia Economica): Editor: Michelangelo Vasta, University of Oxford; Supported by: Societˆ Italiana Storici dell'Economia (SISE); Message to: mailserv@cesit1.unifi.it; Nestore-l deals with issues of economic history, and is mainly in Italian.

POL-ECON (Political Economy): Editor:; Supported by:; Message to: listserv@shsu.edu; Pol-econ deals with various issues of politics and economics. The daily traffic of messages is intense, so that it is possible to receive them all in one bunch. To do so, subscribe to: Pol-econ-digest.

PKT (Post Keynesian Thought): Editor:; Supported by: Communications for a Sustainable Future; Message to: listserv@csf.colorado.edu; Archive; PKT deals with economic, social, historical, and policial issues within the post-Keynesian tradition. The aim of the list is to spread the knowledge and promote the discussion of works by thinkers such as Keynes, Kalecki, Robinson, and Sraffa.

QUANHIST.RECURRENT (Comparative Analysis of Recurrent Phenomena): Editors: Francesco Galassi, University of Leicester, UK; Bertrand Roehner, University of Paris; Supported by: The Cliometric Society.; Message to: lists@cs.muohio.edu; Archive; Quanhist.recurrent is a list for those that are interested in a comparative approach to the main issues of economic history. It is addressed to economic historians, but also to social or political history students. It aims to ease the finding of sources and to promote the discussion of topics for comparative study. One of the goals of the list is also to stimulate the exchange of translations among members of different languages.

Newsgroups

Newsgroups, or discussion groups, are a de-centralized discussion system, which have been a unifying factor of Internet, from the social if not from the technical point of view. They work as a discussion forum in a way very similar to that of the mailing lists, with which they also share the same netiquette. However, unlike the mailing lists, with newsgroups the messages do not go directly on the subscribersâaccount, but are kept on the servers through which the connection is made. A new stimulus to the diffusion of newsgroups has come recently with the elaboration of a system for reading the newsgroups within the last version (1.1) of the most widespread browser in Internet: Netscape. Newsgroups have a hierarchical structure and the topics covered are more than 6,000, most of which are quite removed from scientific topics. There are no special newgroups for economic history and on the whole only a few newsgroups can be mentioned in this review, listed in what follows:

HUMANITIES

Within this new branch which has as its topic literature and arts in general, there is only one newsgroup that may contain information and debates of some interest:

Humanities.misc

SCI

Branch which deals with topics related to the applied sciences. Inside it there is a sub-branch which covers economic issues, Sci.econ, which has two newsgroups:

Sci.econ

This contains discussions on general topics of economic policy, and has a remarkable flow of messages.

Sci.econ.research

This covers exchanges of information and research queries in economics. This newsgroup is moderated by Forrest Smith and has it own archive.

SOC

This branch deals with social issues and various national cultures. Within it, there are two sub-branches:

Soc.history

This deals with historical topics and contains various newgroups, of which the following are worth mentioning:

Soc.history

Soc.history.science

Soc.history.what.if

Soc.culture

This is a sub-branch that contains hundreds of newgroups addressed to the different national and regional cultures. Many debates are noy only in English but also in the native language of the various countries. There also is a dscussion group that covers Italian topics:

Soc.culture.italian

A newsgroup where it is possible to find information on how newgroups work: how to use them, how to write messages, how to form a newgroup, the rules, etc., is: News.Groups.questions A list of FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on how newsgroups work is also available.

Other electronic resources

RISC (Italian Journals in Contemporary History): The Fondazione Ragioneri offers a list of 18 Italian journals in contemporary history. The database has an ISBD structure, and is made with an ISIS programme. The data are organized into three categories: bibliographical information, papers, and the monographs reviewed by each journal. For information contact: Fondazione Ernesto Ragionieri, via Gramsci 282, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Tel. (055) 4490354. Fax (055) 4490354.

Machine Readable list of contents of the Economic History Review 1927-1993: This index complements the three cumulative indexes published in bookform by the Economic History Society. The index is distributed on 3.5 inch floppy disk on which there are four files containing, respectively: information, the relational database that can be imported into Papyrus, a chronological index and one with an index by time which can also be imported as a text file. The disk can be ordered by mail, by sending £5 to the Economic History Society. The address is: Dr. Roger Middleton, Software Review Editor, Economic History Review Department of Historical Studies, University of Bristol, 13 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB. E-mail: Middleton@Bristol.ac.uk

CARL (Colorado alliance of Research Libraries) service: This new document includes the main international science journals for the last 3-5 years, amongst which there are also publications in Italian. The service can be reached by telnet. It is possible to do search by author, by title, or by publication date, and to receive by e-mail the outcome of the search. A copy of the articles can be received by fax for a fee of about $10.

HETA (History of Economic Thought Archive): HETA is the first international database for the history of economic thought, edited by Prof. Bini, Prof. Parisi, and Dr. Magliulo. It comprises the indexes of 100 international journals in economics, history, and philosophy, as well as all bibliographical references concerning the history of economic thought. The programme (which runs on MS-DOS) consists of two parts: the software for the elaboration of the data, and a set of disks for updating the archive. The initial subscription includes a disk containing the software and bibliographical data for the years 1992-93. For a further fee it is possible to have two more disks with the data for 1994, to be received one every six months. It is also possible to purchase a special disk with the data for the period 1982-1991. For information contact: Omega Generation, Via urri n. 39, 40137 Bologna, Tel. 051/306644-390310, Fax 051/390310.

Go back to the Home-page