Volume 26, Number 5
Jul 2003

Editor's page

A few weeks ago, EBSCO started sending us cancellations of institutional subscriptions for this newsletter, describing it as "suspended effective Vol. 26, #6." To clarify the situation, I sent the following letter to those institutional subscribers:

"There seems to be some confusion regarding the continued publication of the Abbey Newsletter. EBSCO Information Services is under the impression that the Abbey Newsletter will no longer be published after Volume 26, #6. This is not true.
"Although I am resigning from the editorship soon, this is only because of my advanced age (76) and declining health. The board of Abbey Publications fully expects to find a replacement editor, and already has found a guest editor for Vol. 26 #6. We do expect there to be a transitional period, but all subscriptions and renewals will be fulfilled, and cancellations will be honored providing they do not appear to have been prompted by commercial rumors.
"Abbey Publications is a small nonprofit corporation, dedicated to serving the information needs of preservation professionals in libraries and archives in 30 countries. Many other publications like ours have had to suspend publication for months while they sought a new source of funding or a new editor for their specialized field. But eventually funds are found, or someone steps forward to replace the previous editor. This has happened with International Preservation News (IFLA), Binders' Guild Newsletter (Susan Lunas, Editor and Publisher), the CABNEWSLETTER (Istituto Centrale per la Patologia del Libro), and many other newsletters.
"Many of our subscribers order through subscription agencies, but only those who subscribe through EBSCO have asked us to cancel their subscriptions. This leads us to think that somehow the rumor of the Abbey Newsletter's death originated with EBSCO, although it does not seem to have spread outside that company. We hope this letter will stop the rumor, and that further news will restore your faith in us."

These Donors Keep Us Going

The Editor and Trustees of Abbey Publications, Inc. are grateful for the support received from the people and organizations listed below, as well as from those who gave smaller amounts. Without their help, we are not sure how we could make it from year to year. All donations go toward publishing the Abbey Newsletter and the Mold Reporter, and serving the information needs of readers.

Below we have listed the 2002-2003 donors. We have received a total of $5777.50 within this time period.

The ABBEY NEWSLETTER: PRESERVATION OF LIBRARY & ARCHIVAL MATERIALS (ISSN: 0276-8291) is published six times a year with a separate index by Abbey Publications, Inc., 7105 Geneva Dr., Austin, TX 78723, and has about 1000 subscribers.

Personal subscriptions are $45 for Volume 26 and $47 fpr Volume 27; institutional subscriptions are $85 for Volume 26 and $88.50 for Volume 27. Overseas subscriptions are an additional $12/year. Checks and money orders should be made out in U.S. dollars, payable to Abbey Publications. Visa and MasterCard are also accepted.

It is the policy of Abbey Publications to use permanent paper for all publications. Claims for issues never received will be honored within a year of publication.

The Editor's permission must be obtained before making more than 20 copies at a time of lengthy or signed articles. This lets us make any necessary corrections or updates, or contact other copyright holders for permission to reprint. Back issues from 1981 onward are on our Web page at http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/abbey/an/websites.html.

Abbey Publications is a nonprofit corporation set up to encourage preservation of written or recorded information, including the use of lasting materials in the creation of records. the corporation has five trustees (E. McCrady, G. Frost, R. Pilette, J. Wellvang, and Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa) and five officers (E. McCrady, Pres.; G. Frost, 1st V.P.; J. Wellvang, 2nd V.P.; and C. Jensen, Treas.).

Authors Please Take Note

Authors of articles and other contributions accepted for publication in the Abbey Newsletter will be assumed (unless they notify the editor otherwise) to be granting permission to publish their work in both print and electronic format, and to archive it and make it retrievable electronically. Authors retain copyright, however, and may republish their work in any way they wish.

Similarly with previous publishers of material who have given permission for their copyrighted material to be reprinted in the Abbey Newsletter. the permission will be assumed to cover the electronic as well as the printed form.

This policy has been adopted for two reasons: 1) It helps the cause of library and archive preservation, and 2) existing copyright law considers electronic reprints to be merely extra copies of the original publication, in another format.