Mike Williams looking for old Tower Topics

BJ staffer Mike Williams is looking for old Tower Topics and Sidebar issues.

He's trying to collect every issue of both. Then he'll digitize them and make them available to people who want them.

So, if you have old Tower Topics or Sidebar issues that Mike doesn't have, contact him.

Mike's email:

John --

I got the corporate OK to pass along scanned copies of the old Tower Topics
a couple of days ago. They are hi-res, 600dpi, in case anybody wanted photos
clipped out of the pages. Of course that makes scans totaling about 7
gigabytes. As a practical measure, we would downsize the graphics quite a
bit for distribution.

It began as a housecleaning project ("digitize and get it out", she said).
Of course it grew from there, and now there are more boxes of stuff than
there were before.

It took a while, nights and weekends. I am missing about 18 issues of the
Tower Topics, and I'm working on Sidebar. But Tower Topics for now...
If you or fellow bloggers have access to any of the missing TTs, I will be
happy to scan them and return within a week or so. So much history here.

Thanks,
Mike Williams
(also at mikewms1@earthlink.net)

list of Tower Topics issues I've scanned, ones I'm missing

Mike Williams 7-9-2010
=====================
Tower Topics
=====================
1968 (complete)
Vol 1-1,2,3,4,5,6
1969
Vol 2-1,2,5 (missing issues 3,4,possibly 6)
1970
Vol 3-1,2,3,4,5,6 (missing possibly 7)
1971
Vol 4-2,3,4,5,8,9,11 (missing 1,6,7,10)
1972
Vol 5-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 (missing 9)
1973
Vol 6-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9 (missing 8)
1974
Vol 7-1,2,3,6 (missing 4,5)
1975
Vol 8-4,5,6 (missing 1,2,3)
1976
Vol 9-3,4,5,6 (missing 1,2)
1977
Vol 10-1,2,3,5 (missing 4)
1978 (complete)
Vol 11-1,2,3,4,5
1979 (complete)
Vol 12-1 (volume change 2nd issue)
Vol 13-2,3,4,5,6
1980 (complete)
Vol 14-1 (2 volume changes)
Vol 15-2,3,4,5
Vol 16-6
1981 (complete)
Vol 17-1,2,3,4,4,5 (2 issue #4s)
1982 (complete)
Vol 18-1,2,3,4,5,6
1983 (no volume or issue numbers - incomplete)
early 83, May-June 83, Oct-Nov 83

================================================
Sidebars - not all scanned yet
================================================
1984
Vol 17-1 MAY (called TowerTopics, but really was the first Sidebar)
Vol 17-2 JUNE (called TowerTopics, but really was the 2nd Sidebar)

--sidebars in another list to come--

After I prodded Mike for more information, he replied:

John -

Just for insurance, I have copies of the scanned files on two different drives, and plan to burn 2 DVDs with the data. At first I thought of distributing the scans on CD or DVD at a reduced file size, but I got feedback from the ABJ senior managers... They would like to merge my jpg files of each page into a pdf covering each issue. Then they would like to put the pdfs on a Proquest or Newsbank server in word-searchable format.

The scans amount to 90-some issues, at an average 20 pages per issue. I really just got done turning every right hand page right side up (flatbed scanner with the hinge on the long side). I’ll need a little time to format stuff. I’ll get some copies made “as soon as”, hopefully with most of the missing issues included. Thanks for the tip about emailing Betty.

The raw material came from my copies, some from Dennis Fouse, some from Tom Moore, and many from a big box down in Central Supply uncovered by Jerome Jones. Thanks to Jerome we have a complete first volume from 1968.

--mike

The Betty that Mike refers to is Elizabeth Patton, who was editor of Sidebar until 1993 when she left to become Executive Director of Project:LEARN, an adult literacy program in Medina. She is retired and living in Blairsville, Georgia.