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README Received: from ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu by ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.03) id AA92889; Mon, 11 Apr 1994 23:15:14 +0200 Received: by ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.03) id AA40943; Mon, 11 Apr 1994 16:14:36 -0500 Date: Mon, 11 Apr 1994 16:14:36 -0500 From: history@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu (Lynn Nelson) Message-Id: <9404112114.AA40943@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu> X-Within-Url: file://ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu/home/http/history/histlist.html To: x28@ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de Subject: histlist.html Status: RO DIRECTORY OF DISCUSSION LISTS FOR HISTORIANS Last updated 17 March 1994 DISCUSSION LISTS FOR HISTORIANS is a list of Internet special interest forums (called "lists") that are related to the study of history. This list is a synthesis and revision of a number of existing lists, including Richard Jensen's "Use- ful History Lists," Art McGee's "Black and African-American" list; the list of history lists ("HISTLIST.BIB") prepared by Lynn Nelson in 1992 and subsequently updated, and the list of auxiliary sciences related to history ("HISTAUX.LST") prepared by Haines Brown in 1993. There has been a steady development of tools to explore the world of Internet, but I know of no easy way to maintain a current list of Internet lists except through the laborious compilation of information into documents such as this. In or- der that the usefulness of this list be maintained, please send me, Haines Brown (brownh@ccsu.ctstateu.edu), any corrections or additions of which you are aware. For help using the lists available on Internet, a good place to begin is with Marty Hoag's document, LISTSOF LISTS. It can be obtained by sending a GET LISTSOF LISTS command to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu. Also fundamental is Arno Wouters' NEW-LIST WOUTERS document, which you can obtain by sending a GET NEW-LIST WOUTERS command to the same LISTSERV. An excellent summary of the various search tools available on Internet is the EARN Association's "Guide to Network Resource Tools," which can be obtained by sending a GET NETTOOLS MEMO to LISTSERV@EARNCC. BITNET. For a guide to documents and ways to try out Internet tools, obtain John December's "Internet Tools Summary" by FTP from ftp.rpi.edu, file: pub/communications/internet-tools. The fullest list of Internet lists is the one maintained at Dart- mouth. It is approximately a megabyte in size. INTERNET.LISTS is the Internet version of the LISTSERV.LISTS bitnet list. One can do a crude search for a list topic by sending the command LIST GLOBAL/ to a LISTSERV, where "search term" is the topic you want to search. The list of lists you get back will be useful, but not exhaustive. You can subscribe to the majority of lists by sending a SUBSCRIBE command to a computer named LISTSERV at the node ad- dress of the list in which you are interested (the node address is the information following @). To give the comand, enter the following words as the first line of your message: SUBSCRIBE , substituting appropri- ate words in place of the brackets. For example, if I were to subscribe to the Forum Pan-Africa, I would enter my mail utility and send a message to: LISTSERV@vtvm2.cc.vt.edu, skip the Subj: line, and as the first line of my message write: SUB AFRICA-L Haines Brown. That is all that is needed, and in most cases en- tering Ctl-Z will send the command. LISTSERV will automatically understand it is a command and before long will send you back a confirmation that your name has been added to the roster of the list's subscribers. Now for some exceptions. Some addresses are BitNet sites, which, unlike Internet addresses, are identified by only a single word, followed implicitly or explicitly by .BITNET. Although most Internet addresses start with the old Bitnet ad- dress as its first term, one is never sure, and so, for the sake of clarity and brevity, I have adopted the following conventions. I put Bitnet addresses or the Bitnet portion of Internet addresses in upper case; and Internet address or the Internet portion of an address in lower case. If the Bitnet address is not contained in the Internet address, I put the Bitnet address in parenthesis: (bitnet: BITNETADDRESS). If the list to which you wish to sub- scribe is a BitNet list and you are at an Internet site, your com- mand to a LISTSERV must be relayed through a gateway that connects the two networks, such as cunyvm.cuny.edu or pucc.Princeton.edu. For example, if I wanted to subscribe to the New Social History list, I would send my SUBSCRIBE command to: LISTSERV%UCBVM.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu Note the change from @ after LISTSERV to % when using a gate. For most lists, you can assume that the computer's name is LIST- SERV. If you send a SUBSCRIBE command to a LISTSERV that does not service lists, you will probably get back the message that the user name "listserv" is unknown. There are other software packages that service lists. If the computer to which you need to send a command is known to me to be other than LISTSERV, I put its name in uppercase in parenthesis after the list name. If the command to subscribe is other than SUBSCRIBE, such as the JOIN command you need to send to the MAILBASE server, I will indicate that by placing the command in parenthesis as well. The network in the UK that employs MAILBASE is called JANET, and if you are in the UK, the order of domains in the node address is reversed. If you are in the UK, send a command to mailbase@uk. ac.mailbase, and in the text give a JOIN command. When subscribing to a list served by MAJORDOMO, the SUBSCRIBE command is normally not followed by your name. Not all lists are automatically served by a computer such as LISTSERV, and you join these lists by sending a command to a special mailbox, such as LIST-REQUEST or a personal message to the list's manager ("owner"). I hope experienced List users will allow me to say a word or two to the newcomer. There are obvious ethical and legal con- straints on your participation in list discussion. Should you transgress them, the list owner has the right and duty to warn you and if necessary remove you from the list. Some lists are closed to the public and others have various restrictions or conditions of subscription, which you find out about when you seek to join. Generally, messages should be brief, address the topic defined in the subject line (the discussion "thread"), and fall within the general scope of the List's description. When you introduce a new thread of discussion, create a subject title for it that captures the thread's essence. Never engage in per- sonal attack or employ harsh language, for the anonymity of com- puter-mediated conversation apparently lends itself to intemperate language and hostile feelings. Also, it is a good idea to put your name and user ID at the end of each message you send. But what needs most to be emphasized is that the quality of the dis- cussion on a list depends on your initiative and contributions. Do not feel intimidated because you are "only" a student or be- cause you are an interloper from some other field of work or ex- pertise. Some lists redistribute mail or files from other lists, such as UseNet special interest groups, and I indicate this with the term "distribution." I do not attempt to include Usenet groups in this list, although some are of interest to historians. "Peered" lists represent lists that carry the same traffic, but because of its volume is distributed through several nodes. I believe that generally you can infer that a duplicated list title implies list peers. Try to subscsribe to a peered list through the node which is closest to you. A "moderated" list has submis- sions screened, edited or organized by the list's "owner." "Journal" refers to an electronic journal, which, like some "News" lists, tends to distribute information periodically to a list of subscribers rather than support a dialogue. I have put my own comments in square brackets. I have not presumed to make editorial comments, as useful as they might seem, for the volume of traffic on lists and its level of sophis- tication tend to fluctuate. Some lists are quiet for a week or two and then spring into life; other lists have such heavy traf- fic that it takes a considerable effort just to get through one's daily mail. I have tried to verify the existence of all lists and to look more closely at the ones that seem questionable. A question mark in square brackets follows any list having a prob- lematic status. Undoubtedly some marked in this way will prove to be functional and you will experience difficulties with a few that lack any warning of trouble. However, the great majority of these lists should be in good working order as of now. The general structure of the following list is to start with history, including political or cultural regions that are to some extent the product of history, starting with the Pacific and moving West. Following this are lists that are auxiliary to historical study and social sciences. Next comes lists that loose- ly fall under the topic of historiography. This section is fol- lowed by one on computers. I have adopted categories for the sake of simplicity, not because they are defensible in principle. Please accept my apologies if my classification or exclusion of lists cause offense. HB THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS RECOMMENDED BY ARACHNET FOR IN- CLUSION WITH ALL LISTS OF LISTS This document is an informal collection of "hints" which may help you find e-mail lists on specific topics. If you have an announ- cement you would like to distribute, PLEASE send it ONLY to the one or two lists whose subscribers would be most interested. At no time should mail be sent to many lists or "all lists". Such "junk mail" causes many duplications and network congestion and is a vio- lation of the spirit of most network usage agreements. If you are in doubt about this policy please check it out with your system ad- ministrators before sending mail to a list [in other words, please don't use the information contained in this file to do saturation mailings].