The major new source H-Net will create is a combined retrospective index to the major history journals. Editors spend a great deal of effort to compile highly sophisticated indexes of their journals - indexes that go far beyond authors and titles. It will obtain the diskettes used in recent years, and scan the printed indexes of other years. The result will be a large on-line source that will be accessed by a key word search. Richard Jensen came well-prepared for this task, having had directed the Newberry Library Summer Institutes, which trained about 600 historians in the 1970s and early 1980s in the new social history, quantification, and mainframe computers.
Good ideas come in pairs, as historians of science have long noted.
The History Network is barely two months old, and will need the participation of professionals, grad students and undergraduates alike to grow and prosper. The Network promises to serve the history community of the 21st century in ways commensurate with the changes in technology, communication and history itself. The History Network idea promises to link historians together worldwide, speeding messages, creating connections, sharing work and ideas, making personal contacts, and exploring new ways to use the incredibly powerful computer and communications technology of our time. Any ideas or projects you may have in mind could be channeled through a Division director, or directly to Thomas or Charlie.