Mailing lists, listservs and newsgroups

Mailing (or ‘discussion’) lists are e-mail based discussion groups. When you send an e-mail to a mailing list address, it is sent automatically to all the other members of the list. They have the potential to be very useful for sharing information, making contact with like-minded colleagues and keeping up-to-date with current thinking and research.

The majority of academic-related mailing lists in the UK are maintained by JISCmail. You will find details of joining these mailing lists on the JISCmail website. Others are run by special interest groups or associations (e.g. CATaC – a special interest group interested in Cultural Attitudes to Technology and Communications.

Newsgroups are similar to discussion lists in that you can send and receive messages, but instead of them arriving in your e-mail box, you access the newsgroup's files to read the postings – it is rather like looking at a notice board. If you are interested in newsgroups, browse through Google's listing.