The index to Observers from September 1979 through December 1994 is now on the World Wide Web. Readers may consult it through Oberlin Online (http://www.oberlin.edu): on the home page click on "Oberlin Notes, News, and Events," then "Oberlin College Publications," then "Oberlin Observer Index." You'll find instructions for looking up names, topics, events, and organizations mentioned in the Observer. If you find an error--if your own name is misspelled, for example--please call x8463, send e-mail to pobserve@ocvaxa.cc.oberlin.edu or QuickMail to Carol Ganzel in Communications.
Two weeks ago campuswide information system intern Aaron Seliquini linked the 28,300-line index file on the VAX to the Oberlin Online server and opened it to the world. Andrew Stamp '98 has been entering index data from 1994-95 issues all year. Data from the 1995 issues will soon be consolidated with the cumulative index, adding at least a thousand more entries. VAX users may continue to consult the index through their accounts by typing "obsindex" (without quotation marks) at the $ prompt, and library visitors may consult a printout at the reference desk in Mudd.
The updated index will cover all 277 issues of the Observer. I have edited 260 of them. Mikie Sherman edited the first seven issues in 1979. After her death in November of that year, the college suspended publication until fall 1980. I became editor then and have held that post ever since except in 1985-86, when Rebecca Ganzel edited the first 10 issues. This 277th issue is my last. In June I retire from what I sometimes think is the most interesting staff job in the college. At other times I think it is the hardest; and sometimes it seems to be both, simultaneously. The Observer will continue under a new editor, who will put out the first issue of the 17th volume 31 August 1995.
-Carol Ganzel