email tips, management & resources

email & email discussion lists

Email discussion lists are a popular communications medium for historians; discussion lists allow a group of people who are list subscribers to send and receive email to the entire group automatically.

Discussion lists are asynchronous communication tools; they let you communicate with others at different times, when it is convenient. These tools override the constraints of time zones and allow for easy global communication. In a sense, they are the electronic equivalent of snail mail (letters sent via a postal service), but the delivery is so much faster. and free. In another sense, they are the similar to voice-mail messages.
Advantages - extremely convenient; varying degrees of privacy are possible; can be saved, replied to, shared.
Disadvantages - illusion of privacy; heightened expectations for response speed; information overload.

email discussion lists for gender and women's historians

H-Net (Humanities and Social Sciences Online) features more than 100 history email discussion lists including H-Gender-MidEast, H-Minerva (Women in War and Women in the Military), H-SAWH (Women and Gender in the U.S. South), H-Women, etc. Explore the Discussion Network listings.

Gender-Related Electronic Forums - "an annotated, frequently-updated, award-winning listing of publicly-accessible e-mail discussion forums (also known as "lists" or "listservs") related to women or to women-focused gender issues from Joan Korenman at UMBC.

Women's History Discussion Lists - annotated list from The International Institute of Social History WWW Virtual Library.

tips for avoiding email overload

Check email daily | Only check email three times a day (most people)
[See A Message About Managing Email: Enough Already]
Delete unwanted messages immediately since they take up disk space and create "e-clutter".
Keep the number of messages in your inbox to minimum.
Filter messages, either when they arrive (repeat correspondence like discussion lists) or to folders after reading to archive.
It is a good idea to extract and download important information to your personal computer.
When signing up for ListServ and mailing list discussion groups, save your subscription confirmation letter.
When going away for a week or more, unsubscribe or suspend mail from discussion lists; use a vacation message.
Use a separate email account for personal messages, not your business account. [Free web-based accounts available from "standard" providers like Gmail from Google, Yahoo! Mail, or MSN Hotmail. These types of accounts can be checked from any web browser anywhere in the world.]

email management - online resources

Sending business emaill like a Pro - tips from DoctorGeek.
What you need to know about email about.com commercial web site - has a variety of email guides including the 10 most important rules of email netiquette and Outlook tips, tricks & secrets.
Ten e-mail time management tips (First Step Communications): - "Email might be the communication tool of the 21st century, but if you're not careful, it can gobble up your valuable time. In fact, a recent study estimated that managers and executives spend about an hour every day processing e-mail." Some useful tips for academics too.
Tips on Managing Email - specific suggestions for faculty for managing messages from students.
Top Ten Tips for Overcoming Email Overload by Kaitlin Duck Sherwood, author of A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email, one of the Net's first email guides.
Microsoft's Managing Email in and out of the Classroom - 2004 guidelines and tips for Outlook.
HTML Writers Guild Filtering Mail FAQ - a little dated, but still provides a good overview for many email programs.

interesting related sites

Netiquette Home Page -- from Albion.com. See the Core Rules:

Rule 1: Remember the Human

Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life

Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace

Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth

Rule 5: Make yourself look good online

Rule 6: Share expert knowledge

Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control

Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy

Rule 9: Don't abuse your power

Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes
Yahoo > Computers and Internet > Communications and Networking - E-mail: Information and Documentation directory of online resources
E-mail help and tips from the Everything E-Mail web site