Re: NEW LIST: H-MIDEAST-MEDIEVAL (fwd)

[Marybeth Lavrakas <lavrakas@email.unc.edu>]

Poster: Marybeth Lavrakas <lavrakas@email.unc.edu>

In response to the response to my original post, what I was really trying
to warn people about how nasty the professionals can be.  I suspect I've
'seen' Alianora on H-Albion, so she knows what I mean! ;-)  The great
classic 'professional' squabble of my graduate student years involved the
leading Tudor historian of the past 50 years, Sir Geoffrey Elton, and his
former Graduate student David Starkey.  I can't remember all the published
viciousness that flapped back and forth in the pages of history journals,
but I do remember Starkey (in print) telling Sir Geoffrey to get out from
under the rock he'd been hiding under for all these years.  Such fun.
Alianora is right--on ony of these kinds of list-servs one does have to
phrase even legit. questions carefully, or you'll get the snotty "just Go
To The Library, Idiot" along with the the helpful answers.

And people wonder why I left academia.

Kathryn Rous
On Thu, 30 Apr 1998, Stephanie M. Thorson wrote:

> 
> Poster: "Stephanie M. Thorson" <smt2@st-andrews.ac.uk>
> 
> On Thu, 30 Apr 1998, Marybeth Lavrakas wrote:
> 
> > I thought this message would be of interest to some in the Kingdom.  Don't
> > be shy about joining the list if you're interested, but a word of warning.
> > Judging from my experience on the H-Albion list, some scholars do not take
> > kindly to 'basic' queries (ie ones they can assume don't come from
> > scholars in their field, so they cn feel secure about sneering at them).
> > Others are quite helpful & supportive, though.
> 
> Just a word in defence of professional scholars everywhere:  Generally
> lists like H-Albion or any of the multitudinous other such lists are
> organised by and for professionals, not as chat rooms.  We tend to assume
> that people reading these lists are capable of spending a couple hours in
> the library to do their own basic research, just as we do ourselves.  It
> is not the people who aren't specialists (we can't all be specialists in
> everything) but the ones who seem to expect the listmembers should be
> handing them information on a silver platter who are generally considered
> troublemakers.  This is not because we are mean, it is because we want to
> keep our jobs.  Scholars earn their livings by doing research and
> publishing themselves, and by teaching paying students, not by doing
> spadework for every interested amateur.  Therefore enquiries phrased "My
> library lacks resource materials for X field of study; can anyone point me
> to some good introductory volumes that I can request through ILL?" will go
> down much better than "Can anyone tell me all about X?" 
> 
> Alianora
> *****************************************************************************
> Stephanie M. Thorson			|  SCA: Lady Alianora Munro
> Dept. of Scottish History		|  Clan White Wing
> University of St Andrews		|  Tarkhan, Khanate Red Lion
> 
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