Dramatic changes are underway in the electronic communications infrastructure worldwide, especially the Internet and Bitnet systems that link academic computers together. H-Net is an initiative of the history department at the University of Illinois, Chicago, to assist historians to go online, using their personal computers and the Internet and Bitnet networks.

H-Net is sponsoring a series of electronic discussion groups or "lists." Subscribers automatically receive messages in their computer mailboxes. These messages can be replied to, saved, discarded, downloaded to a PC, copied, printed out, or relayed to someone else. The lists are like free newsletters that are published daily. Currently our lists have 2,000+ subscribers (1,400+ separate people) in 31 countries. They receive an average of 3 messages a day. Membership is open to any scholar or graduate student, and is free. (We especially welcome librarians and archivists.) Each list is moderated by a historian and has a board of editors. The moderators control the flow of messages and reject those unsuitable for a scholarly discussion group.

The primary purpose of each list is to enable scholars to easily communicate current research and teaching interests; to discuss new approaches, methods and tools of analysis; to share information on access to library catalogs and other electronic databases; and to test new ideas and share comments on current historiography. Each list is especially interested in methods of teaching history to graduate and undergraduate students in diverse settings. The lists feature dialogues in the discipline. They publish book reviews, job announcements, syllabi, course outlines, class handouts, bibliographies, listings of new sources, guides to online library catalogs and archives, and reports on new software, datasets and cd-roms. Subscribers write in with questions, comments, and reports, and sometimes with mini-essays of a page or two. Most of the lists have no chronological or geographical limits. The H-Net lists currently in operation are:

1. H-Albion British and Irish history
2. H-AmStdy American Studies
3. H-CivWar US Civil War
4. H-Diplo Diplomatic history, foreign affairs, international relations
5. H-Durkhm social thought
6. H-Ethnic Ethnic & immigration history
7. H-Labor labor history
8. H-LatAm Latin American History
9. H-Law Legal and Constitutional history
10. H-RHETOR history of rhetoric & communications
11. H-Rural Rural and agricultural history
12. H-South US South
13. H-TEACH Teaching college history
14. H-Urban Urban history
15. H-Women Women's history
16. HOLOCAUS Holocaust studies; anti-semitism; related themes of modern history
17. Starting soon: H-Pol US political history (Sept 1)

To subscribe: send this message to LISTSERV@UICVM sub xxxxxx Firstname Surname, Yourschool where xxxxxx = list name; for example, sub H-Diplo Leslie Jones, Northern Vermont U [abbreviate University to U; you have 45 spaces for name etc.] if you use internet send the message to LISTSERV@uicvm.uic.edu.