February 15, 2002

Dear Fellow Members,

I am writing to bring you news of the Society's annual meeting. It will take place on Friday, March 22, at 2:00 p.m. in the McGregor Room of Alderman Library. Following a brief business session, we will hear a talk by David Seaman on "Electronic Adventures in Bibliography." David is Director of the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia and, as a member of the Society's Council, has been extremely helpful in advising the Council on electronic matters. As you know, the Society is active as an electronic publisher, with the entire back run of Studies in Bibliography available online, as well as G. Blakemore Evans's edition of Shakespearean Prompt-Books of the Seventeenth Century and Emily Lorraine de Montluzin's Attributions of Authorship in the Gentleman's Magazine 1731-1868 and Attributions of Authorship in the European Magazine 1782-1826. The talk will be of interest to all who wish to be better informed about the role of electronic publication in scholarship.

In the business part of the meeting, preceding David's talk, we shall vote on the re-election of Kathryn Morgan to the Council, for a term ending in 2009. Kathryn, as you know, is Associate Director for Special Collections and Curator of Rare Books at Alderman Library, and she has been a loyal member of the Council, always ready to support the Society's activities. She has been generous of her time, for example, in helping to administer the student book-collecting contest. We are fortunate that she is willing to stand for re-election.

Speaking of the book-collecting contest, the most recent one is now being concluded, and the prizes will be presented to the winners at the Society's meeting. This biennial contest was formerly held in the late autumn; but, following a suggestion from Ruthe Battestin, who is once again chairing the contest committee (which also includes Kathryn Morgan and Fred Ribble), we are now holding it early in the calendar year so that the presentation of the awards can be part of the annual meeting. A further advantage is that selections from the winners' collections can be displayed in the main lobby of Alderman Library during the Virginia Festival of the Book.

As always, the Society will hold a reception immediately following the annual meeting in the Rare Book School rooms in Alderman Library. Please note that the meeting itself will be at 2:00 this year, not the usual 4:00. Another session is taking place in the McGregor Room at 4:00, sponsored by the Special Collections department: a centenary talk on John Steinbeck by David Wyatt, a member of the English department at the University of Maryland. Members of the Society will be able, if they wish, to attend the Society's reception and then go to the Steinbeck talk.

That program is one of the many events of the Virginia Festival of the Book, and we are pleased to be continuing the tradition of holding our meeting during the Festival. The Society's meeting is listed in the Festival's official roster of activities, which we hope will cause interested nonmembers to attend. And we hope that our out-of-town members will find more reasons to come to Charlottesville at that time, since there will be many programs in addition to the Society's meeting to attract them. Information about the Festival is available from its Website www.vabook.org or its office (telephone 434-924-6890).

As for the past year's events, the most notable one is the production of another volume of Studies in Bibliography, which will probably be in your hands by the time of the annual meeting. David Vander Meulen, the editor (and the Society's Vice President), manages every year to come up with a volume that shows why this journal holds such a high reputation in the world of bibliographical scholarship. This time the volume opens with an unpublished work by a great bibliographer who has been dead for sixty-two years (R. B. McKerrow)! We extend to Dave Vander Meulen and to his assistant Elizabeth Lynch the thanks and congratulations of all of us for the outstanding achievement that this volume represents.

Each year's new volume of Studies is distributed by the University Press of Virginia, but all the Society's other publications in print (including earlier volumes of Studies) are available from Oak Knoll Books. Let me remind you that members of the Society who identify themselves will be given a 10% discount. If you don't receive Oak Knoll catalogues and would like to, just write to 310 Delaware Street, New Castle, Delaware 19720; or phone 302-328-7232 or 1-800-996-2556; or fax 302-328-7274; or email oakknoll@oakknoll.com. Oak Knoll's catalogue can also be browsed at www.oakknoll.com.

The Councilors and staff member that I have not so far mentioned-Terry Belanger, Karin Wittenborg, and Anne Ribble-also deserve our thanks for their enthusiastic support of the Society. Let me comment in particular on Anne, our Secretary-Treasurer, who has shown again this year that she is capable of handling the many tasks (some of them unexpected) that she is called upon to deal with-indeed, she handles them with grace and efficiency. Finally, we are most grateful to the Alumni Board of Trustees for their continuing support of the Society from the President's Contingent Fund.

With thanks and best wishes to all of you.