User talk:Richard Jensen

Hi Richard! it's great to see your additions to History of Medicine (United States). I'm just sort of writing off the top of my head, and according to references as I find them, and really welcome your input. Nancy Nancy Sculerati MD 12:58, 8 March 2007 (CST)

Hey Nancy--it's great to be aboard. I taught a lot of historical demography so it's a favorite topic. RichardRichard Jensen 13:00, 8 March 2007 (CST)

Richard, I went back and looked at the article, and noticed that you removed almost everything I'd written, but put noything on the discussion page about why. It takes all the fun out of it to have one's work erased, Nancy Sculerati MD 13:17, 8 March 2007 (CST)

I apologize but I moved some stuff around and I meant only to cut a couple sentences. Richard Jensen 13:24, 8 March 2007 (CST)

Richard: regarding constitution of San Marino, I took my date from the CIA Factbook, which I took as authoritative, and confirmed with the Law Library of Congress. I just did another search and found a document that explains that the Sammaranese constitution is an ancient (a la 1600) form of what we call the US Code. Sounds like more than an urban myth to me ... but even so, I'm fine removing the bit you removed. It was added as an afterthought any way. --steve802 14:22, 9 March 2007 (CST)

No I checked it out. (And I've even been to San Marino!). A local duke took over in 1600 but there was no written constitution. The CIA book does not give its sources and so we don't trust it for controversy. You will note that no one ever quotes the so-called constitution or says what it contains. It's just an unwritten or traditional system and not as old as Britain. Cite: San Marino does not have an official Constitution as such.' Page 211 of Fragmentation and the International Relations of Micro-states: Self-determination and Statehood (1996) by Jorri C. Duursma in books.google.com Richard Jensen 14:38, 9 March 2007 (CST)

History of Pittsburgh

Richard, would you please look at History of Pittsburgh. Go through the history tab to see the actual article. The author is clearly getting frustrated and has made a nice start on an article. Do you think you have the expertise to give editorial guidance? I hate to see a talented contributor turned off. Nancy Sculerati 18:17, 1 April 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for the heads-up. It's pretty good work (the Indian part should be spun off into a separate article) and it should be kept. I'll work on it. Richard Jensen 18:29, 1 April 2007 (CDT)

Thanks-please contact Tom Cool on his user page? Nancy Sculerati 18:30, 1 April 2007 (CDT)

Richard, I'm not sure you're watching my page, but there is an enthusiastic response at User talk:Tom Cool. Tom Cool 20:31, 3 April 2007 (CDT)

what's history?

Richard, could you, perhaps after discusssion with available editors in your workgroup, clarify appropriate History Workgroup tags for me. I will relay them to other workgroups. For example, History of Medicine (United States) we agree is both Health Sciences and History- in terms of workgroup. Now, perhaps the History of Medicine would also be both- or perhaps just Health Sciences? Similarly, I have started articles on a number of individuals, such as William Stewart Halsted whose major importance is in medicine and medical education. Is the History Workgroup tag appropriate or inappropriate for such an article? Take a look also at Paracelsus please. What do you think? Nancy Sculerati 13:50, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

Nancy--I would say that Health Sciences group should take over most all the History of medicine topics, except demography (that can be joint). Richard Jensen 14:08, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

Good- I'll remove the history workgroup. Now when you say demography- can you be more specific? Is there any present article that should retain the history workgroup? Nancy Sculerati 14:10, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

Nancy-- no demography as yet but it's a special interest of mine & there will be articles. Richard Jensen 14:41, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

Ok! Just to be sure- Albert Einstein? Florence Nightingale? At what point does a household name in the sciences cross over into history? Even if you can't say-should the history workgroup be removed from these two examples? Nancy Sculerati 15:13, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

History of science is a third zone, closer to history than to health sciences I think. (I did a little grad work in the area, and am a specialist in history of the social sciences.) We could use a history of science editor at some point. My wife, by the way, does history of nursing so it's a common dinner table topic. 16:30, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

So-for the moment, I will remove the history workgroup from both. This is your chance to object!(but there will always be more chances) Nancy Sculerati 16:50, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

Debate on naming conventions

Just to let you know that you'd inadvertently left your message on Larry's user page; I've moved it to his Talk page. I hope that that's OK. --Peter J. King  Talk  17:49, 9 April 2007 (CDT)

thanks! Richard Jensen 18:21, 9 April 2007 (CDT)

Bibliographies

Where do you get these long, detailed bibliographies from? It's amazing to see all this content just sprout up on the wiki! --Larry Sanger 20:58, 10 April 2007 (CDT)

I've been a bibliographer and bookhound for 40+ years (and even spent 11 years at the Newberry Library in Chicago, a big research library). I work from home and have read the Harvard Guide to American History" over and over (it's a massive bibliography, as is the AHA Guide). I have some books at home but 90%+ of the titles are from the Internet. My best sources are: JSTOR and Project MUSE (scholarly articles with footnotes; book reviews), The Am Hist Review, J American History and J. Southern History (and a few other journals I subscribe to--they have excellent reviews), books online (from Questia, books.google, scholar.google and amazon.com--and I start first with the bibliography), abstracts from ABC-CLIO (I've been on their editorial board for years), course bibliographies online, and of course google searches and (even better) Amazon searches. University presses send me a lot of catalogs and I go to a few history conventions a year and spend a lot of time at the book exhibits looking at the new and forthcoming items. The trick it to quickly evaluate a book or article, which presumes reading a lot of book reviews to see where a field is headed. I reject 10 to 20 items for everyone included. (There's an online bibliography of Jefferson that runs over 10,000 titles.[1]) Bottom line: these are all original bibliographies I selected as useful to readers. Wiki doesn't appreciate them at all; those kids are anti-book as well as anti-expert, which is the major reason I'm moving to Cz. Richard Jensen 21:43, 10 April 2007 (CDT)