BMMR 97.01.01. '97 Inaugural Statement and Masthead
In the virtual world of electronic publishing to speak of last year's move from Seattle to Kalamazoo has a quaint ring. At this moment, the people responsible for publishing BMMR are located in Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Still, there are some continuities and innovations that have much to do with Seattle and Kalamazoo. The most obvious change, perhaps, is our name. Since we are no longer affiliated with Bryn Mawr College, the journal will be known as 'The Medieval Review' (TMR). The change will be effective in May of this year, and subscribers will be notified by the publication of the new masthead.
As the venue of the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo has hosted scholars from a great variety of disciplines each spring under the auspices of the Medieval Institute of Western Michigan University. We hope to contribute to the same sort of scholarly communication, by publishing reviews covering as many fields of Medieval Studies as possible. We consider breadth of coverage an important element in maintaining a sense of the "lay of the land," of the variety of methodologies and disciplines comprehended by the phrase "Medieval Studies." Our notion of professional community extends well beyond North America, and we are very pleased to note the increasing number of reviewers and subscribers from abroad.
After working on the review since last spring, we can sincerely thank our predecessor in Seattle, Paul Remley, for a pool of excellent reviewers, and the good relations with publishers who provide us with books. We can now appreciate that not all prospective reviewers are persuaded of the benefits of publishing in phosphor. ("Littera scripta fluctuat?") But as the number of reviews and reviewers continues to grow, this challenge will certainly diminish.
Following a brief slowdown tied to the transition, we have gotten our bearings and are now seeing good progress. In the last four months of 1996 BMMR published 48 reviews, 32 in November and December, an unprecedented pace for us, and one we hope to continue, if not increase, throughout the new year. We aim to publish reviews within two weeks of receiving them.
We are also making rapid progress with the creation of a web site to archive past reviews, to replace the current gopher site. We are being assisted in this endeavor by the Humanities Text Initiative at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for whose expertise and enthusiasm we are very grateful. We hope that the transition will be complete by May, 1997. Reviews will appear in an attractive format, capable of representing non- Roman characters and diacritical marks. Old English, Byzantine Greek, as well as modern languages will be accurately displayed, without the limitations imposed by the ASCII character set. Still, for those without the technology needed for viewing graphic elements, there will continue to be text-only versions of all reviews. There will also be a much wider range of search functions.
We have many people to thank for their assistance to us in the first year of our enterprise. First and foremost, thanks go to Eric Owen, our editorial assistant, for his outstanding work in setting up and maintaining our day-to-day operational procedures. The support from people at WMU has been overwhelmingly positive; notable for their contributions are Paul E. Szarmach, director of the Medieval Institute, who has given us a home and supported us every step of the way; Douglas Ferraro and Elise Jorgens, former and current deans of the College of Arts and Sciences; and Ronald Davis, chair of the History Department. Gene Vance and Tom Seiler have been extremely helpful, and Jim O'Donnell has been, and continues to be, an essential member of our team. We plan to maintain close ties to the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, and thank Rick Hamilton for all of his advice and encouragement.
We wish to thank our review editors for their diligence and enthusiasm, and our reviewers, without whose work there would be no journal. And, of course, we thank you, the subscribers; we are daily heartened by your interest in matters medieval, and your enthusiasm for the potential of the Internet to bring Medieval Studies to the widest possible audience.
With every good wish for the new year we are, cordially,
Rand Johnson and Deborah DeliyannisEditors Bryn Mawr Medieval Review
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BRYN MAWR MEDIEVAL REVIEW (BMMR)
The Medieval InstituteWestern Michigan UniversityKalamazoo, MI 49008bmmr@wmich.edugopher://gopher.lib.virginia.edu/11/alpha/bmmr
EDITORS
Rand H. Johnson, Western Michigan University (Foreign Languages)rand.johnson@wmich.edu
Deborah M. Deliyannis, Western Michigan University (History)deliyannis@wmich.edu
ADVISORY BOARD
James J. O'Donnell, University of Pennsylvania Eugene Vance, University of Washington Paul E. Szarmach, Western Michigan University Thomas Seiler, Western Michigan University
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Eric Owen
REVIEW EDITORS
George Beech, Western Michigan University (History)Michael Calabrese, State University of California-L.A. (English)E. Rozanne Elder, Western Michigan University (History)Patrick Geary, University of California - Los Angeles (History)Stephen Jaeger, University of Washington (Germanics)Herbert Kessler, Johns Hopkins University (Art History)Joyce Kubiski, Western Michigan University (Art History)Michael McVaugh, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (History)Maria Rosa Menocal, Yale University (Spanish and Portuguese)Stephen G. Nichols, Johns Hopkins University (French)Linda Safran, Catholic University of America (Art History)Larry J. Simon, Western Michigan University (History)Robert Stacey, University of Washington (History)Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist University (Literature)
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