I, too, am in favor of continuing the Spenser bibliography in the review.
When I was a Ph.D. student doing research on Spenser, I found
the bibliography lists there very helpful, particularly for quickly
identifying who was currently working in the field, their approaches,
etc. It also gave me a coherent sense of the directions in which
Spenser studies were moving and generated excitement about the field.
For me, a list of articles from the MLA database doesn't produce the same
sense of a lively group of scholars in dialogue with one another about
particular topics. A smaller list of articles focused primarily on Spenser
and with abstracts helps generate this, I think.
Jennifer Vaught
Department of English
PO Box 44691
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, LA 70504-4691
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
At 11:51 AM 2/6/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>I'm not sure that I can answer Terry's questions directly, but, as a
>sometime bibliographer, I have some general observations, starting with
>the bibliographer's two inviolable principles: all bibliographies are
>incomplete and all bibliographies are in error. It's been my sense that
>John's Spenser Updates came off very well when measured against these
>principles.
>
>I can't recall his exact figures, but he once told me that normally his
>list came close to doubling the number of items that he had found in the
>MLA list. Based on my experience, that seems about right. My own
>students have tended to depend heavily (almost entirely) on MLA and ABELL,
>in which case, they would have missed anywhere from 15-25% of what they
>would have found in the updates. Admittedly, at the inconvenience of
>having to look through several separate lists, and at the expense of
>having to negotiate some fairly insignificant material. As SpN/R editor,
>I grew to depend on the list to make me aware of important items that my
>assistants and I had overlooked in our canvas of articles to abstract.
>
>Since I don't teach PhD students, I can't say that the list itself has
>been of great value to my students, relative to the abstracts themselves;
>and in my own research it's hard to say what effect the list per se has
>had, as distinct from what I may have absorbed more indirectly in my job
>as editor. But, for what it's worth, I'd frankly like to see the list
>continued. And I'll be interested in reading others' responses --
>especially those that might come in response to Dick Hardin and Jon
>Quitslund.
>
>*********************************
>Jerome S. Dees / English Department / 122 Denison Hall
>Kansas State University / Manhattan KS 66506-0701
>ph 785-532-2156; fax 785-532-2192; e-mail [log in to unmask]
>********************************
> >
> > Dear Spenserians,
> >
> > In my capacity as editor of the Spenser Review, I'm obliged
> > to give some thought to the possibility of discontinuing the annual
> > bibliography update. As you'll see in the latest issue (now being
> > printed), we've lost our longtime bibliographer and, times being what
> > they are in our profession, not many people are both willing and able
> > to take over the job. (For instance, I've decided against having
> > pre-tenured faculty doing it.) For the present, Craig Berry has
> > agreed to help create a bibliography update this spring and summer
> > (thanks, Craig). But he and I are wondering about the uses to which
> > it's put. So here are some questions. If you have time and something
> > to say, please hit "Reply" and let me know:
> >
> > * Do you use the annual bibliographical update in the Spenser
> > Newsletter/Spenser Review?
> > * How much do you use it?
> > * Can you specify how you use it, e.g. as primary research tool, as a
> > way of catching up once a year, etc.?
> > * What, if anything, do you find in the bibliography that you might
> > not find elsewhere, for instance in electronic search engines that
> > didn't exist when the bibliography was first planned?
> > * Do you have any stories about your using the bibliography to good
> > or ill effect?
> >
> > Thanks in advance for the feedback, which Craig and I will ponder,
> > Terry
> >
> > Theresa Krier Dept. of English
> > Editor, The Spenser Review University of Notre Dame
> > 616/782-8906 Notre Dame, IN 46556
> > [log in to unmask] 219/631-7226
> >
> > --
> > ________________________________________
> > Craig A. Berry
> > mailto:[log in to unmask]
> >
> > "... getting out of a sonnet is much more
> > difficult than getting in."
> > Brad Leithauser
> >
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