, and our capacities to find, store, organize, use, teach, and publish information. Electronic MailEmail provides fast, almost instantaneous, communication with libraries, archives, and colleagues all across the globe, and with administrators at one's own university or elsewhere. We can contact colleagues, librarians, administrators on all kinds of issues. The use of the computer and, by extension, the Internet is as important to History as it is to Biology or Physics. What lay behind this argument was the continuous drift of technology and the funds away from the humanities and toward other departments. Mailing Lists:Besides one-on-one email communication, there are public email networks or lists. Recently, 8,786 such lists were counted. Thousands of members of these groups with common interests communicate among themselves electronically. By joining some of these groups, we can correspond simultaneously with hundreds of fellow professors. These lists not only allow us to share our interests but also to gain a a wealth of information. We can get questions answered.These Email networks can also help us in the early stages of a research project by supplying specific or theoretical information; suggesting bibliographies for material we are seeking in libraries or at Internet sites. And of course once our ideas are full-blown and our research done, we can use these email lists to gather informed criticism from our colleagues. WORLD WIDE WEB The World Wide Web is the other crucially important computer aid for faculty. The Web enables us to search and find most kinds of information within a few seconds. Color graphics, moving pictures, and sounds as well as texts are available through the Web. The information available is nearly unlimited in breadth. Indeed, it is "breadth-taking" how many topics are covered on the Web. One sticking point, however, is the lack of depth in the available material. If the present trends continue, more and more ...
