Next time you jump online to research just about anything, fire up your lowly email program instead of your World Wide Web browser.

It's not as flashy, but anybody with an email account has unprecedented access to breaking news, original story ideas and vast archives of collective knowledge.

The secret is learning how to exploit the Internet's massive network of mailing lists.

For the uninitiated, there are roughly 40,000 mailing lists on specialized topics from environmental law to presidential politics. Each list has a set of subscribers, usually between 10 and 2,000 people, with varying levels of expertise and interest in the list topic. The character and tone of each list varies widely, but typically, one subscriber sends a message and it goes to the entire list for everyone to read.

The following guide explains where to find the best lists and how to use them effectively in your day-to-day work.

Getting Started

After learning how to find appropriate lists (by reading the instructions on your left) you need to master a few simple concepts to use them effectively.

No matter how you located a list, you should have the list name (usually a series of letters than may or may not hint at the list content), a brief description and one of two email addresses.

Remember that every mailing list has TWO addresses, whether it's a majordomo, listproc or listserv. Don't let this confuse you. Sending mail to one address delivers your message to the entire list of subscribers. Sending mail to the other delivers mail to a computer that lets you manipulate the list functions according to your needs.

Anytime you send mail to an address that looks like this:

listserv@ host name or
majordomo@ host name or
listproc@ host name

you are contacting a computer that handles simple administrative tasks like subscribing new members, auto-forwarding help files and updating subscriber lists.

When you send mail to an address that looks something like this:

net-lawyers@ host name or
adv-html@ host name or
ada-l@ host name

you are sending a message to the entire list of subscribers. The most common mailing list mistake occurs when newcomers attempt to subscribe and unsubscribe using the list address rather than the administrative address. Don't do it.

Now that you know the difference you can start sending commands to manipulate a list. Unfortunately, each of the three most popular mailing list formats have slightly different commands and rules. But no matter what type of mailing list you want to subscribe to, you can always send this simple command:

help

to any administrative email address. (Those addressed to listserv, majordomo, listproc etc.) Sending the "help" command will trigger an administrative computer to auto-forward a message that explains the appropriate commands for whatever system you happen to be using.

Putting the lists to work

Before you subscribe to any list, send away for the information file that describes the main focus, list protocol and other helpful information. To do so on a listserv list, send the following command:

info list name

to the appropriate administrative address. In a few minutes, you should get an informational message about the mailing list. that helps gauge whether or not you want to subscribe.

If you choose to subscribe, send the command:

subscribe list name

to the same administrative address. In most cases, you'll receive an automated response welcoming you to the list. Save this file; it tells you how to leave the list (which you'll want to do some day) and it's a helpful way to remember which lists you belong to at any given time.

This message often includes information on some of the more advanced commands that can be used to manipulate a list. Take advantage of these commands to get the maximum benefit from your subscriptions.

Many listservs are archived and can be easily searched for past discussions.

When I needed to find out the average salary for writing HTML, I searched the archives of a mailing list devoted to advanced html coding for any past discussion on "pay" and quickly found that people were making $5 to $100 an hour creating Web pages.

With the right commands, you can also get many lists in digest or index form, which means you get all the traffic from a given list each day (or week) in one large message. This saves time and makes monitoring numerous lists at one time more manageable.

Many lists also respond to the "review" command, which forwards a list of all subscribers and their email addresses. This can be a helpful way to locate sources and lets you know how many people subscribe to a given list.

To get more information on these and other commands, read the Listserv Reference Card available at listserv@vm1.nodak.edu by sending the info refcard command.

Final Caveat

Mailing lists are by no means perfect and oftentimes list traffic is more inane and annoying than helpful and productive.

You also need to be extremely wary of any information you pull off of mailing lists; just because someone subscribes to a list about business ethics doesn't mean they're an expert in the subject.

Yet the reverse can be true also, and when you connect with the right list the payoffs are immeasurable. Mailing lists may not be the ultimate reporting tool, but they can give any writer a powerful new weapon in their online arsenals.