The National Endowment for the Humanities (Education Division) has
awarded H-Net: Humanities On-Line $100,000 to support operations in
1996. This is the fourth major grant NEH has awarded H-Net in the
last 18 months. It guarantees smooth technical operation of 50 daily
Internet newsletters that serve 30,000 subscribers from 62 countries
around the world.
All the lists are edited by teams of scholars, and all messages have
to be approved by an editor before they are sent out. H-Net is
controlled by its 130 editors. The come from 99 different
institutions in the USA and eight other countries. They elect
officers and an executive committee. Computer operations are based
at Michigan State and other universities.
According to Mark Kornbluh, the Michigan State professor who will
direct the grant on behalf of H-Net, "This new award recognizes that
H-Net has become the the main electronic forum for scholars in
history and the humanities. H-Net is leading the way in creating new
ways for teachers and researchers to use the vast potential of the
Internet. H-Net has enlarged the 'Republic of Letters' by enabling
graduate students, professors in smaller colleges, and researchers
throughout the world to overcome time and distance and join in daily
discussions of the critical issues in teaching, scholarship and
research."
Kornbluh especially noted the value of the NEH grant in establishing
a book review program. Every month it will publish 100 full-length
reviews by scholars of important new books. The reviews will be three
times longer than reviews in paper journals, and will appear within
weeks after publication of the book, instead of the average delay of
18 months that is typical for paper journals.
The grant will permit H-Net lists to remain free of charge for
another year, and will support a "World Wide Web" site containing the
best of its lists. The WWW site will be open to everyone on the
Internet, while the lists will be restricted to scholars who submit
applications. For further information, e-mail:
H-Net@uicvm.uic.edu
or phone H-Net Executive Director Richard Jensen at (615) 552-9923/
fax (615) 552-9394.