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Encyclopedia of American Studies
EAS Report 2004
Encyclopedia of American Studies Online
Submitted by: Miles Orvell, Editor in Chief, EAS Online
The Encyclopedia of American Studies, published in a four volume print edition in 2002, is now—as of Summer 2004—in its second edition as an online encyclopedia. Published by Grolier Online, it is available through subscription as part of a set of offerings (available in various combinations), anchored by the Encyclopedia Americana.
EAS Advisory Board
One feature of the agreement between the ASA and Grolier called for the creation of a four-person EAS Online Advisory Board. The present board, approved by Grolier and ASA in early spring 2003, comprises: Johnnella Butler (U. Washington; formerly an editor of the print EAS); Jay Mechling (U. California, Davis; also an editor of the print EAS); Randy Bass (Georgetown U; director of Crossroads and other electronic projects); and Ann Fabian (historian at Rutgers). The board met at the Hartford ASA meeting (2003), together with Donna Sanzone (Grolier Academic Reference editor in chief) and managing editor Cheryl Clark, to review the status of the EAS Online and especially to review plans for the 2004 edition and contribute to its development.
Annual meetings of the board will continue to take place during the ASA national conference, with consultation with board members as needed during the course of the year.
Cycle of publication
The second edition (Summer 2004) represents work done from the Hartford meeting—where an initial list of articles for the expanded edition was agreed upon—through June, when the final edited articles were submitted to Grolier for copy-editing and uploading. The pattern we are developing for the annual revision and expansion of the EAS online is as follows:
1. Initial list of articles drawn up in September/October.
2. Article list reviewed and revised by Editorial Board at ASA national conference.
3. Articles commissioned, November through January.
4. Articles received and edited, January through May.
5. Final submission to Grolier in June, with suggested illustrations, websites, bibliographies, etc.
6. Ongoing review of entire content of EAS for currency, on five year cycle.
Content
The annual updates will generally add 25 new articles, ranging from 750 words to 2,500 words. It will also include from 25 to 35 new biographies (600 words). The new articles will meet one or more of the following criteria:
* updates of articles already in print, occasioned by changing events—e.g. U.S. foreign policy;
* new articles commissioned to reflect events of the past year—e.g. for the 2004 edition, 9/11; World Trade Center; Terrorism;
* articles commissioned to reflect new areas of American Studies scholarship—e.g. Homelessness;
* articles commissioned to fill in areas not adequately covered in the print version—e.g. article on regional culture.
To give a few more examples in addition to those named above, for the 2004 editoin we have have new articles on: Arms Control ; Brand Names; Cuban Missile Crisis; Hunting; Masculinity; Masses [and New Masses]; Mid-Atlantic Region; Niagara Falls; Pragmatism; Public Intellectual; Tupperware. The new biographies commissioned include: Susan B. Anthony; Louis Armstrong; P.T. Barnum; John Brown;Davy Crockett; Thomas Eakins; Ralph Ellison; F. Scott Fitzgerald; William Randolph Hearst; Ernest Hemingway; Harry Houdini; Alain Locke; Margaret Mead; Margaret Mitchell; Charlie Parker; Jacob Riis; Norman Rockwell; Eleanor Roosevelt; Alfred Stieglitz; Henry Thoreau; Orson Welles. Some of the authors for the 2004 edition have written for the EAS before; others are new. Among the new authors this year are: John Sears, Russell Jacoby; Todd DePastino; Tom Campbell; Alida M. Black, Kathleen Foster, Laura Claridge, Richard Haws.
EAS as an online entity
Given the annual addition of articles to the EAS Online, it is obviously an evolving and malleable reference work; in addition, the encyclopedia is being completely reviewed, over the course of a five year period beginning in 2004, to ensure that the content of all articles plus the apparatus for each article are current. Bibliographies, cross-references, website links, illustrations, are all being reviewed, revised, expanded. The ASA editorial contribution is obviously the foundation for the EAS Online, but I must say that the Grolier editors and staff have done an exceptional job, taking this material and designing an online reference work that is an accessible, flexible and powerful research tool. Grolier has also added pedagogical units that are designed to exploit EAS materials for classroom and homework assignments. Incidentally, the EAS is set up with its home page linked to another Grolier product, the Columbia American History Online, a learning resource featuring e-seminars “taught” by Casey Blake, Alan Brinkley, Eric Foner, Kenneth T. Jackson, and others.
EAS distribution and circulation
The EAS Online is available through subscription only and is generally part of a larger package of Grolier reference works that libraries (university, college, high school, public) subscribe to. Pricing is on a per capita basis for institutions, and in this era of strained library budgets, availability is more limited than one would hope.
Another area that needs development is the linkage with the ASA Crossroads website. We had planned from the outset that the EAS Online would in some way be lnked to the organization site, but we have not systematized this as yet. The Editorial Board will consider this issue at the Atlanta meeting and try to brainstorm some ideas for increasing linkage to ASA members and expanding the base of users. In the meantime, ASA members lacking library subscriptions can check out the online version by going to the Grolier website (http://go.grolier.com/gol) and following the “Teacher Resources” link to gain temporary access.
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