Editor’s Note
Richard W. Clement
In this issue, drawn from the 48th annual RBMS Preconference, “From Here to Ephemerality: Fugitive Sources in Libraries, Archives, and Museums,” held in June 2007 in Baltimore, we learn that ephemera may have come into existence with hardly a thought to the future, but we would be remiss as curators and librarians to continue to think of ephemera as having no place in our collections. This issue was guest edited by Henry Raine who served as Program Chair for the Preconference. Henry selected the best papers from the Preconference and worked with authors to create publishable articles. He very ably summarizes the Preconference and the articles drawn from it and presented here in this issue of RBM in his introduction in the following pages, but I want to single out one particularly important article. I was especially pleased to see that Michael Twyman agreed to submit his significant plenary address in spite of the fact that we were forced to limit his number of illustrations to a paltry 68. In fact, this is the most heavily illustrated issue of RBM ever.
This issue will be my last as Editor. I assumed the editorship in 2003 and have had excellent support over the last five years from the members of the Editorial Board and the staff at ACRL, for which I am very thankful and appreciative. However, I want to single out one board member in particular who has gone far beyond what is normally expected. Penny Welbourne, of Yale University, has functioned in all but name as Assistant Editor. She has gladly taken each article and carefully and meticulously line-edited it, before passing it on to me for further editing. She has an excellent eye and an inquiring mind, both of which have done much to make RBM the solid journal it is. Thank you Penny. And finally I want to acknowledge you the reader and offer my gratitude for your support. Thank you and farewell.