ASSOCIATES (vol. 1, no. 2, November 1994) - associates.ucr.edu
Editorial
Well, the second issue of _ASSOCIATES_ has "hit the press", as it
were, and we can breathe a sigh of relief for another wee bit
before the frenzy of publishing strikes again. Getting this
issue published has been as exciting and nerve-wracking as the
first, but in its own unique way.
The first issue...well, we didn't know what to expect. Would we
have enough articles? Would they be interesting? Would we have
a rash of subscription cancellations once people read us? Would
the e-mail method of publication work? The second issue evoked a
number of different questions. NOT!
As I write this the night before publishing (so much for the
first paragraph), I'm still not sure whether all the articles
slated for publication this issue will actually be published this
issue. One of them is lost in the e-mail twilite zone between
Kansas and Botswana while we are anxiously awaiting the final
author review of another. (Dealing with different time zones
across the USA is one thing. But dealing with time zones where
it isn't even the same day takes some major getting used to!!)
I could do much of the work for the first issue from home,
uploading and downloading from e-mail easily with complete
editing ability. Ah, but the University of Kansas in all its
wisdom decided to go to a new e-mail system for remote access
users. Suddenly I can't download or upload ANYTHING. And edit?
What's that? The assistance desk is only open from 9-12, 1-5
weekdays...certainly not at 4:30 in the morning when I want it...
and I find the handouts they provide incomprehensible. PLUS I
have a new job in the library...and no longer have the e-mail
access I used to have from work either. I am having to learn to
connect via Ethernet from terminals with menus and keyboards I'm
not at all used to. As I write, my personal password is locked
up on a terminal somewhere and I can't do a thing about it.
Whoever said "ignorance is bliss" ought to be taken out and shot.
Ah, but enough whining. There's lots of good news, too. We have
some really neat articles this issue and some already lined up
for March. We are also now available via gopher from the
University of Bath's Bulletin Board for Libraries (BUBL) thanks
to the efforts of Kenneth McMahon, but more about that in the
*Archive Retrieval Information* section. We have almost 1900
subscribers worldwide. We have an ISSN number and our very own
OCLC record. We're on a roll.
Now all I have to do is convince you, our readers, that each and
every one of you has at least one story to tell...a story you
should get published in _ASSOCIATES_. Seriously. This journal
is not just for you and about you, it's BY you. I would love to
get an article from someone in the public library sector, for
example, and have failed miserably in my efforts so far. It's
easy to think that nothing we have to say is important or of
interest to anyone else. Isn't that what so many of us have been
told in our jobs for years? Well, it just isn't so. K.S.