Comserve: Moving the communication discipline online

Comserve is an electronic information service for individuals in the field of human communication studies. One of the oldest and largest online disciplinary resources, Comserve has been in continuous operation on Bitnet/Internet and connected networks since 1986. Comserve provides online conferences, an electronic white pages for the discipline, a large library of resources for research and pedagogy, an electronic peer‐reviewed scholarly journal, an index to the core periodical literature of the discipline, client interface programs, and a host of other features. Comserve is now operated as a service of the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship. This article overviews Comserve and discusses some of the problems faced by online disciplinary services, especially those related to adoption and funding. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.