This module lists articles drawn from one or more categories. It is the usual way to put a "latest news", "from the blog" or "in this section" panel into a sidebar or a front page position without building a separate menu item for it.
The list can be filtered by category, author, tag and featured status, ordered by date, title, author or popularity, and limited to a set number of items. Each entry can optionally show the introduction text, the article's date, its author and a read more link, so the same module serves both a compact link list and a fuller summary block.