Question #1: I am wondering if there is available a comprehensive subject index to the magazine. For instance, if you were trying to research specifically all the articles ever written on building a greenhouse, is there any easy way to find this info without having to go through every back issue one at a time.

Question #2: And if there is not one available, would anyone be interested in one? (If I build it, will they come?) If so, would you be willing to "subscribe?" I was thinking I would make it available on an annual basis, either in hard copy form or on disk. This would be an extremely time-consuming project, but something I think I'd like to sink my teeth into. How much would you be willing to pay for an annual index?

Question #3: I have been a magazine subscriber for only about five years. Would someone be able to provide me with information on issues prior to that?

Any other thoughts on the matter?

-- Dawn Ricklefs (papermaker76@bigfoot.com), February 13, 2002

Answers

Someone has already created an index. Go to the Library category and search on Index.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 13, 2002.

It looks like the published index goes back to 1985. I'd be willing to work on continuing the index farther into the past. I have many of the issues from 1985 through 1975.

-- Darren (df1@infi.net), February 13, 2002.

The back of each Jan/Feb issue contains an index of articles for the prior year. Should just be able to index off of this.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 13, 2002.

Ann just finished collating the latest index this morning. It covers the years 1985 to 2001. The index is $10.

-- Anne-marie (annemarie@tds.net), February 13, 2002.

I created an index of all the articles in Countryside from 9/10-91 to May of 2000, and the 1977 Annual magazine. I put it on Microsoft Works Database and posted on the forum (under Library in the Archives). I put the database on a 3.5 disk and can send it out to folks who would like a copy for $6.00. That covers the cost of disks, postage, etc. There was some interest when I first posted about it but after sending it to a couple people who couldn't open it I kinda gave it up. I'm not a computer whiz so gave up trying to figure out how to make it work with all program.

The index can be searched on Article title, Publication date and I assigned catagories to each article. It works great, you can put in a word like "bread" and get every article with "bread" in the title. I included every article in the magazines, not just the major ones. I haven't taken time to update the index, however if folks are interested will bring it up to date before sending out.

If someone would like to try the disk e-mail me and I'll send you my address. Thanks for asking, it was a lot of work.

-- Betsy Koehnlein (betsyk@pathwaynet.com), February 13, 2002.

How do I get info about the forum from the end of March to the present?

-- Hank (hsnrs@att.net), April 11, 2002.