Step 05 · Reference
Contact the Compendium
The desk reads every message it receives. Corrections, questions of notation and suggestions for clearer wording are all welcome, and all are read by a person rather than sorted by a rule.
What to send
If a sentence in the compendium resisted you, say which paper and which paragraph. If a symbol appeared without a definition you could find, name the symbol and the page where you met it. If a rounding seemed to misrepresent a figure, quote the sentence and the figure together. The clearer your note, the more useful it is to the desk and to the readers who follow.
How to reach the desk
Write to the address below, or use the short form on this page. The form does not transmit anything through any service; filling it in and submitting simply opens the thank-you page, and the desk then corresponds with you by mail. This is a deliberate choice, and it keeps the compendium self-contained, with nothing reaching beyond its own pages.
- Desk
- Chronological Data Models — Compendium Desk
- Address
- 417 Packard Street, Suite 12, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, United States
- [email protected]
- Hours
- Mon–Fri 09:00–17:00 Eastern Time
Send a note
Submitting the form opens the acknowledgement page and sends nothing onward. The desk replies from the address above, during the hours listed, and asks for nothing beyond what your note contains.
A note on response times
The desk is small and answers in the sequence in which messages arrive. A correction is usually acknowledged within a few days, though a message that arrives during a busy period may wait longer. If your message concerns a symbol you could not find, the desk will send the definition directly and consider whether it belongs in the reference step as well.
What a useful note looks like
A note that helps the desk most is one that can be acted upon without a question back. Name the paper, quote the sentence or the symbol, and say plainly what resisted you. If the difficulty lay in a step you had not yet read, say so; the desk can then point you to the paper that prepares the ground. If the difficulty lay in the writing rather than the mathematics, that is equally welcome, because a sentence that stops one reader usually stops several.
A note need not be long. Two sentences are often enough: the first names the place, and the second says what is wrong or unclear about it. The desk asks only that the note concern the compendium's own material. Anything outside that subject receives a short reply and no more, which keeps the desk's attention where it is most useful.