Editor's Note

Western Folklore, Winter 2009 by Howard, Robert Glenn

Words on a page are small thanks for years of service guiding Western Folklore. Words are, however, the primary currency of researchers in folklore and beyond. With our new review editor, Lisa Gabbert, I offer my deepest thanks and gratitude to Sabina Magliocco as editor, Elizabeth Adams as assistant editor, Polly Stewart as review editor, as well as their editorial board, staffs, peer-reviewers, and contributors for putting in the sometimes unnoticed and often too-little rewarded hours of expert labor. These hours are the true currency that has made Western Folklore a central venue for the presentation and preservation of research on folklore and folk-life for over sixty-seven years.

Lisa and I extend a particularly hearty thanks to Polly for her past eight years of service. Together, Polly and Sabina have left Lisa and me not only with a thriving academic journal, but also a rich collection of accepted reviews and articles. In fact, all of the research articles that will be published in Volume 68 and some that will appear in Volume 69 were accepted during Sabina 's tenure, and she deserves full credit for leaving a legacy of excellent work on which I can build. Similarly, nearly all of the reviews that will be published in Volume 68 were assigned under Polly's tenure, and she was gracious enough to hand Lisa most of her reviews fully edited. Polly deserves full credit for her work, and she has done a tremendous job in keeping readers abreast of the field. We owe both Sabina and Polly deep gratitude for their service.

With every new editorship, journals change. These transforma�ons assure that our research publications continue to adjust to the changing worlds we inhabit. At this moment, academic publishing is shifting away from paper-based publishing and toward computer network-based publishing. Electronic access is rapidly expanding Western Folklore's readership as researchers increasingly read individual journal articles based on indexed keywords instead of reading specific journals based on their disciplinary backgrounds. Folklorists have long found utility in interdisciplinary approaches, and Western Folklore has long embraced research on any subject associated with expressive human behavior. At the same time, Western Folklore has become well known for publishing top-quality articles on folklore's methods, disciplinary history, and theoretical perspectives. Combining this grounding in folklore with an openness to any idea that can shed light on its subjects, Western Folklore's electronically indexed articles are drawing the attention of researchers from a rapidly expanding range of fields. This means that the history, values, and methods of folklore are reaching larger and more diverse audiences than ever before.

At the same time, the nature of our subject is changing. As the modes and occasions of human expressive behavior are transformed by new technologies, our traditions are borne forward in different ways. Uniquely equipped to account for everyday vectors of expression, folklorists offer their methods and perspectives to an increasing array of researchers engaged in the struggle to account for the nexus of innovation and tradition that has long constituted one of the central concerns of our discipline.

As folklore changes with its objects of study, the discipline's vigor and quality of its research will continue to emerge from the aggregate effort of the individuals who comprise its community. Academic journals rely on the generosity of those who support them by providing not only membership dues and subscriptions, but also by donating the even more valuable commodities of thought and time. Without the courage, openness, and ingenuity of folklorists, Western Folklore would have no new research to publish, no peer reviewers to assure its quality, and no thinkers to expand its ideas. As we look forward to the innovations of the future, the character of the community that is the true genesis of Western Folklore will continue to be its most valuable resource.

Robert Glenn Howard

The University of Wisconsin

Madison