by The Open University
Available in 48 free installments
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Mailing or discussion lists are email-based discussion groups. When you send an email to a mailing list address, it is sent automatically to all the other members of the list.
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. Mailing lists are useful for getting in touch with like-minded colleagues. They are also handy for keeping up to date with current thinking and research. A common problem with mailing lists is the sheer volume of material available You may feel pressured to read every single contribution. You can 'manage' this information by choosing carefully which to join. Most Jiscmail mailing lists feature an archive, so you can check the quality of the discussion and the number of messages before you decide to join. Some mailing lists also offer a 'digest' function, whereby you will receive a single message containing all the day's messages to the list, rather than all of the messages individually.
Mailing lists are not just about keeping up to date academically, of course. Google maintains a listing of ‘newsgroups? at http://groups.google.com/ where you can find discussions about every topic under the sun. Groups are created around a topic, profession or common interest, and can be very useful as a source of information, and to bring like-minded people together. Newsgroups are similar to discussion lists in that you can send and receive messages, but instead of them arriving in your email box, you can access the newsgroup's files to read the postings ? it is rather like looking at a notice board.
Spend a few minutes browsing through either the Jiscmail or Google listings to see if there are any email lists or newsgroups that you might like to join.
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