Dear fellow book-lovers,
As I reflect on the year gone by and perform IBIC's year-end maintenance chores, and think about how I want to do things next year, several thoughts stand out.
First, it's been a good year for information about books on the Internet. There's been a tremendous growth in the number of resources available, so much so that it completely overwhelmed my ability to keep laundry lists of book-related resources and forced me to change IBIC from a list of lists to a Guide. I'm glad I did--I'm convinced that an articulate, opinionated Guide is the most intelligent and flexible approach to resource discovery on the Internet. Sunsite's user statistics (search on "ibic") seem to indicate that many people agree with me. Daily hits on this homepage now average over a thousand per day.
Second, IBIC's format has changed a lot over time. To a certain extent, this is a good thing--there have been a lot of improvements--but looking back, I wish I had been more consistent in some areas, such as the format of the 1995 editions of the IBIC Journal. I'll try to keep things more consistent and more simple this year.
Third, I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't read as many good books as I should have. In part this is due to time pressure--I tend to read escapist, easy stuff when I'm busy and stressed. And right now, I have only at most a couple of hours a week to devote to IBIC, on top of a very demanding and interesting "real job", my last year of law school, and (first and foremost) my family. I'm hoping that ultimately, as the world of books and the Internet continues to grow, I'll be able to do more. (I am glad to say that in 1995 IBIC has successfully made a transition from being an entirely volunteer labor of love to being a minimally self-supporting enterprise.) So please bear with me, and forgive slow response times and occasional lapses in attention to detail.
Last, I'm glad to say that I want to recognize the high spots of 1995 by awarding my annual IBBIE Editor's Choice Awards:
Best regards and wishes,
The Editor
P.S. Past Letters from the Editor (in a variety of formats, alas!) may be viewed in the the Letters directory, as well as the IBIC Journal and its 1995 and 1994 archives.
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