6.0384 A Note from the Editor (1/57)
Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 8 Dec 1992 18:33:28 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0384. Tuesday, 8 Dec 1992.
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 17:31:56 EST
From: Elaine M Brennan <ELAINE@BROWNVM>
Subject: A Note from the Editor
some of you may have noticed a recent change in the "From" line of
Humanist, along with a certain irregularity of Humanist appearances.
My apologies on both counts.
I mistakenly thought that if I made the change from dual editorship to
single editorship noticeable, I would then immediately write and send out
a note to Humanists informing them of the changes. Needless to say,
that hasn't happened until now.
In some ways, our switching to a single editor makes sense; Allen Renear's
roles within Computing and Information Services here at Brown have become
increasingly demanding and time-consuming and the time he has had
available for Humanist has become extremely limited.
Our routines for handling mail and subscriptions have become well-entrenched
since we originally took Humanist over from Willard, even if our separate
responsibilities have sometimes overwhelmed our ability to get postings
out as quickly as we might like.
We hope that the change will be a subtle one, for the most part, for
Humanist subscribers, even as we contemplate further changes.
The recent postings on humanities computing as well as our own periodic
re-thinking of the dynamics of electronic communication and the changing
nature of the electronic community have in some ways encouraged us in
the thought that it might be time for one of us to become somewhat more of
an editorial presence within Humanist. I seem to have been elected as that
editor of the moment (even if the thought of my words being compared with
Willard's erudite prose and presentation sprezzatura makes me tremble in my
boots). I expect to start, and to stay, a relatively *small* editorial
presence.
Part of that is due to the other demands on my time; I have over the last
two months been immersed in the publication process (yes, paper publication)
for several volumes of early women writers; we're still working on the ways to
best make electronic editions of those and other texts available over the
networks. Meanwhile, I occasionally lift my head to discover that 4 or 5
days have passed and I haven't done anything with Humanist. This year's
publication process is drawing to a close; I hope that my editorial lapses
will be forgiven, and that Humanist and I will both regain some measure of
regularity of appearance and reflection that we have recently lost.
Allen, meanwhile, will not totally disappear. I will miss his editorial
presence, although he has promised to keep his hand in by editing digests
should I ever again have the time to take a vacation. I also expect to
be able occasionally to demand that his thoughts on particular topics of
interest be made available to Humanists.
Meanwhile, if any Humanists who are planning on being at the Modern Language
Association convention at the end of December would be interested in having
an appropriately styled Humanist gathering, I'd be pleased to organize and
coordinate.
Elaine