The HABSBURG Network

(East Central European History since 1500)

This welcome message is designed to provide you with basic information about this network. It has six parts:

I. HABSBURG's Scope and Purpose; Benefits of Membership
II. The Editors and Editorial Board
III. Communicating Through the List: Copyright, Etiquette, Format
IV. Subscription Options and Communicating with Listserv
V. The HABSBURG Site on the World Wide Web
VI. Our Parent Organization: H-Net

I. HABSBURG's Scope and Purpose; Benefits of Membership

HABSBURG is devoted to the history and culture of the former Habsburg lands and their peoples from 1500 to the present. Founded in October 1991, it was the first Internet discussion group dedicated to an historical theme. It is affiliated with the Center for Austrian Studies, the Society for Austrian and Habsburg History, the Czechoslovak History Conference, and the American Association for the Study of Hungarian History. These are its purposes:

1. Establish an instantaneous, trans-oceanic link between historians in the field. The current membership numbers over 1000, drawn from two dozen countries on four continents.

2. Commission, post, and archive book reviews and other contributions to scholarship by our members

3. Promote the discussion and debate of provocative historical issues, including those raised by recent historical publications or current events

4. Allow individuals to make announcements of a professional nature

5. Share ideas about teaching the history of our region

6. Address questions that standard reference sources fail to resolve

HABSBURG is not designed to compete with related public affairs or groups or with print journals, but only to complement them by providing a scholarly, historical forum for rapid interaction. Nor is it designed to assist students in preparing undergraduate-level writing assignments, such as term papers or book reports. Research questions directed to the list are governed by our query guidelines, which can be consulted online at http://www.h-net.org/~habsweb/queryguide.html

II. Editors and Editorial Board

The HABSBURG list is co-edited by Joe Patrouch (University of Alberta), Heather Morrison (State University of New York at New Palz), Marion Romberg (University of Vienna), and Jonathan Kwan (University of Nottingham). The editors serve two-year renewable terms, after certification by H-Net Council, and rotate responsibility for messages posted to the list. In addition, Heather Morrison is membership editor, Jim Brown (Elon University) is web editor, and John C. Swanson (Utica College) and Joe Patrouch are review editors.

The current editor will be identified in all messages coming from the list. The editors will solicit postings, assist people in managing subscriptions and setting up options, and handle routine inquiries. Anyone with suggestions about what HABSBURG can and might do is invited to send in ideas. The editors will solicit and post newsletter-type information (calls for conferences, for example, or listings of sessions at conventions). Like all H-Net lists, HABSBURG is moderated to edit out material that, in the editors' opinion, is not germane to the list, involves technical matters (such as subscription management requests), is inflammatory, or violates evolving, yet common, standards of Internet etiquette. Please read section III below for details about ownership, style, formatting, and content of your messages. H-Net's procedure for resolving disputes over list editorial practices is Article II, Section 2.20 of our bylaws, located at:

http://www.h-net.org/about/by-laws.html

HABSBURG's daily activities are managed by the editors. Its long-term policies are developed by the Editorial Board. If you are interested in serving on the board, please contact the current editor. Board members referee incoming materials; establish basic subscription restrictions and policy; advise the editors on disputes among editors and subscribers; monitor the list and make active contributions to discussion; and serve as the subscribers' voice in H-Net affairs. You are encouraged to contact any or all of the editorial board members with ideas and concerns about HABSBURG. The Editorial Board is listed, with email links, at http://www.h-net.org/~habsweb/editors/.

III. Communicating Through the List: Copyright, Etiquette, Format

A. Copyright notice. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. H-Net considers all messages posted to its lists to be a form of publication. All contributions to HABSBURG fall under Art. II, Sec. 2.04 of the H-Net Bylaws concerning copyright and intellectual property:

"Although authors of messages to H-Net lists retain the copyright in those messages, sending a message to an H-Net list for posting will constitute permission to H-Net and its subscribers for electronic distribution and downloading for nonprofit educational purposes with proper attribution to the author, the originating list, and the date of original posting. Original messages to H-Net lists are not in the public domain, and may not be used for other than educational, nonprofit purposes without the permission of the copyright holder and notification to H-Net." In general, the author retains copyright rights to publication of any submission to the list, and grants to HABSBURG and H-Net permission to store, disseminate with full attribution, and make available to subscribers such submissions without further permission. Postings (such as H-Net reviews) that are commissioned by H-Net are copyrighted by H-Net and may be reprinted for nonprofit, educational purposes with proper attribution to the author, location, and H-Net. A full copy of the H-Net Constitution and Bylaws and other important information may be found on the World Wide Web at: http://www.h-net.org/about/.

B. Contributions: "Netiquette." The tone and content of HABSBURG depend directly on subscribers. The editors want to encourage lively, informal, productive discussion and exchange of information. To that end, we ask that contributions be considerate of the needs of a busy audience of scholars, many of whom must pay for their access to the internet. A number of excellent guides to online behavior and style are available on the World Wide Web; we invite you consult them.

-- ALL MAIL TO THE LIST MUST BE SIGNED. The editors will delay posting until authorship and email address are confirmed.

-- CONTENT: Editors retain the right to review material for its pertinence, tone, style, and relevance to the list's mission. Ad hominems, unattributed quotations or innuendo, private messages forwarded for posting without permission, or messages that violate the norms of civility and professional courtesy will be rejected. Persistent violators can be removed from the subscription list.

-- STYLE: the default editorial style for the list is that of a letter to the editor. Your remarks can be crafted to suit the tone of an existing discussion thread, but in any case they should address the editor and not make direct personal references to others, except where you are replying directly to a simple query (e.g., "you can find this information in Webster's Third International Dictionary"). Avoid excessive quotation of messages to which you refer or reply.

-- FORMAT: Please send messages in plain text: no styles, html, special fonts, graphics files, attachments, or nonstandard characters. Signature files are subject to editing for content and length. Advertisements in signatures will be removed. Remove or turn off .vcf, digital signatures, or other automatic attachments. H_Net does not allow the distribution of attachments to lists; consider posting the material at a web site, or consult with the editor concerning proper venues for publication.

-- LANGUAGE: All languages of the former Habsburg Monarchy may be used on HABSBURG, subject to the availability of an editor who is proficient in the respective language. We ask you to refrain from using umlauts, accents, and hacheks, even when writing in languages that normally require them, because many email programs will distort them and make your text unintelligible to subscribers.

IV. Subscription Options and Communicating with Listserv

When you subscribe, LISTSERV will send you a confirmation message containing important information about managing your subscription. Please save this message as a text file for future reference. ALL changes to your subscription must be addressed to listserv@h-net.msu.edu, the software that manages the distribution and archiving of list electronic mail.

For online help with your subscription, visit: http://www.h-net.org/lists/help/ email: help@mail.h-net.msu.edu

1. To subscribe to the list, click on "Subscribe" on the HABSBURG home page and follow the instructions from there.

2. You can make changes to your account online, for example, unsubscribe, change your subscription email address or institutional affiliation, temporarily unsubscribe, or choose "Digest" (receive a daily consolidated digest of posts rather than individual emails for each post). To make changes to your account, click on "Manage Subscription" from the HABSBURG homepage. On the "H-Net Subscription Management" page choose the list you want to make changes to and click on the "Go" button. From there you log on to your account and follow the online instructions.

2. To send your own message to all subscribers, send an email note directly to HABSBURG@h-net.msu.edu. Please see III above on style and formatting of messages to the list.

3. To REPLY to a message so that all subscribers can read it, be sure that the outgoing reply is directed to HABSBURG@h-net.msu.edu, and not to the original author or to the editor. Replies intended only for individual authors should be sent directly to the author.

V. The HABSBURG Site on the World Wide Web

In addition to providing interactive communications via electronic mail, HABSBURG also maintains a site on the World Wide Web. The site is located on the H-Net server at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. It may be located at http://www.h-net.org/~habsweb/ . The HABSBURG web site contains the following information and services:

- The archives of the HABSBURG list, known as its "logs." They are in searchable and sortable format.
- The network's official documents: its welcome file, lists of board members and editors, contact information, and other documents.
- Resources commissioned or compiled by our editors: HABSBURG reviews, syllabi, and digitized historical documents.
- Hypertext links to resources in our subject: organizations, libraries, archives, databases, and publications in our field.

VI. Our Parent Organization: H-Net

H-Net is an international consortium of scholars in the humanities and social sciences that creates and coordinates electronic networks, using a variety of media, and with a common objective of advancing humanities and social science teaching and research. H-Net was created to provide a positive, supportive, equalitarian environment for the friendly exchange of ideas and scholarly resources.

The goals of H-NET networks are to enable scholars to easily communicate current research and teaching interests; to discuss new approaches, methods and tools of analysis; to share information on electronic databases; and to test new ideas and share comments on the literature in their fields.

H-Net's Constitution and Bylaws, along with a list of its officers and committees, is available at: http://www.h-net.org/about/

Among H-Net's many services are:

- Book and software reviews: timely, exhaustive, authoritative, professional, fast. Mailed through our lists and stored in searchable, printable, retrievable format on our site at the World Wide Web. http://www.h-net.org/reviews

- Job guide postings: at regular intervals, H-Net offers employment information in a broad array of fields in the humanities and social sciences. http://www.h-net.org/jobs/

- H-Net calendar: announcements of conferences, papers, and professional activities, archived and searchable at our web site. You can visit our site and sample these and other services, at: http://www.h-net.org/announce

CONTACTING H-NET FOR MORE INFORMATION

On the World Wide Web: http://www.h-net.org
Electronic mail: H-NET@H-NET.msu.edu

Postal mail:

H-Net
141h Old Horticulture
506 East Circle Drive
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 432-5134
FAX: (517) 884-6994

President: Steven Mintz
University of Houston
E-Mail: smintz@uh.edu Executive Director: Peter B. Knupfer
Michigan State University
E-Mail: peter@mail.h-net.msu.edu