Gregory Nagy, Jones professor of classical Greek literature, check his e-mail hourly. He's also been known to e-mail his wife when they are both at home. She can receive it and read it without leaving her desk--they have separate his-and-her e-mail lines.

And when Clowes Professor of Science Henry Ehrenreich is away from home, he also communicates via keyboard.

"I have a modem and a Powerbook at home," Ehrenreich says matter-of-factly. "It's something I carry with me on longer trips so I can keep in touch."

"I got a Mac because they were for idiots," he says. "They kind of lick your hands and are friendly."

While not every professor considers his laptop a lapdog, Internet usage is definitely on the rise among faculty members. More professors of Nagy and Ehrenreich's generation--the elders of the faculty--are using their computers to set up class discussions, give assignments and send letters all over the world.

According to Paul Bergen, the Instructional Computer Group (ICG) manager, the demand for faculty e-mail accounts, course Web pages and ICG services grows every year.

It's absolutely booming," Bergen says. "We have twice as many Web pages this year as we had this time last year. People are becoming more interested and enthusiastic."

Increased computer use may be due to peer pressure--intra-office electronic communication is becoming a way of life for Harvard's faculty.

"I have colleagues who don't believe in e-mail, and that's become almost a nuisance," say Sidney Verba '53, Pforzheimer University professor. "It's like they don't believe in telephones and you can't reach them."

Nagy says the Classics Department uses e-mail for planning everyday office life.

"Even the faculty who are still shy about actually using e-mail directly--just one or two people at this point--even they have arrangements so that someone who is e-mail literate will pick up messages on a daily basis for them," he says. "It just helps our momentum of decision-making."

Learning about Computers

In making the switch from telephone and fax to e-mail and other Internet services, faculty members say they have reached out to anyone willing to help.

"Reading instruction books is just completely useless," Ehrenreich says. "Usually what you're looking for is never written down."

So Ehrenreich collars people in the hall and asks for help. "Colleagues, secretaries, whoever happened to be handy," he says.