H-SKAND Policy on Queries

H-SKAND is a community of teachers, researchers, and scholars with diverse interests and expectations for our e-mail network. One of the editors' chief goals is to insure that every piece of e-mail dispatched to our members is helpful to the maximum number of recipients. Conversely, we make every effort to avoid sending mail that will be of limited use or might even bother or alienate subscribers.

For this reason, we would like to state our policy on queries:

A.

All queries should concern research or teaching problems in Scandinavian history only. Not only the history of Scandinavia is covered by this network, but also the national histories of the Scandinavian countries as mentioned above. Queries to the network may therefore fall within a very broad field and may not have an immediate relevance to all members. But please remember, that the members create the network by their postings, and that by contributing you can help making the network more relevant for your specific field.

B.

All queries should be sent only after all other easily available sources of information have been exhausted. Thus each query should list those sources already tried that have failed to produce the information sought. This will prevent well-meaning subscribers from responding with suggestions you have already considered.

C.

All queries should be as informative as possible about the general problem involved. Background information should be provided so that H-SKAND members who do not know anything about the topic can still benefit from reading your query. If, for example, you simply need the address or phone number for an institution or person, try telling your audience what the institution does or who the person is and what he or she has written or done. If you are seeking bibliographic information, explain the historical context of the problem for which you need additional reading.

D.

The longer the query the better; short queries are likely to be returned to their authors for more background information so that the entire network can benefit. Medieval scholars should be able to read a query about the World War II era and learn something; so should social historians be able to learn from queries by military historians.

E.

Although the primary conference language of the network is English H-SKAND also solicits queries in the main Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). The editors will not be able to assist with translations.

Please observe when writing in the Scandinavian languages that most e-mail programs do not understand the special characters used in these languages. Please use the equivalent characters (aa, ae, oe, ue etc.)

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