Starting with this issue, PAA Affairs will be available in a modified form on both the World Wide Web and a gopher server. The Population Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University will be the host site. New issues will be available approximately a month after the submission deadlines. Therefore the Fall 1995 issue will be available approximately September 1.
The PAA is starting, under the direction of Linda Waite and David Lam, to provide more electronic services. There are plans to have electronic notices sent to PAA members with e-mail addresses to notify them of the electronic availability of many of the membership documents including PAA Affairs. Until that time, members will need to search for the document themselves. Long-term plans are to allow users to opt for electronic copies only. This portion of the plan remains farther in the future pending other developments in the Business office.
Penn State will support a World Wide Web and gopher version of the newsletter. It will appear in modified text only form, in which particular sections will appear as separate files. Graphics and photographs will not appear in the electronic versions. Pieces of the newsletter, although not the entire document, can be printed from your Web browser or downloaded and printed from a word processing package.
One unique feature, for those of you who have advanced Web browsers such as Netscape, of the electronic version of PAA Affairs is that you will be able to access Web sites and send e-mail directly out of the document itself. Thus, for instance, if you would like to view the Web site described below, you will be able to click on the address and move directly into the Population Index Home Page. In addition, for any announcement in which an e-mail address is provided (including those for the PAA Office and journal editors), you can click on the address and compose a message to the person identified in the notice. It may save some time and effort or like some innovations end up working only half the time. Nevertheless, it is an interesting addition to the services provided by PAA Affairs.
The addresses for PAA Affairs are:Mike Zimmerman and Stephen Matthews of Penn State, PRI Computing Core have made this possible by donating their time and talents. Thank you for the labor perfomed and that yet to come.
The editors of Population Index are pleased to announce that they are working toward publishing the journal electronically. As an introduction, Volumes 59 and 60 (1993 and 1994) are currently available on the World Wide Web. The current plan is to solicit comments on the Web page through the summer, with an eye toward publishing the Index on-line with monthly up-dates by the beginning of next year. Electronic subscription rates are being worked out to become effective in 1996. They will be similar to the current cost of the hard-copy journal for individual subscribers. Institutional subscription will be available. Of course, the hard-copy journal will continue to be available as long as the demand for it continues.
In addition to Volumes 59 and 60, the Web pages describe the history of Population Index. It also provides information on how to have work cited with an abstract in Population Index, how to subscribe to the hard-copy journal, and how to submit articles for consideration as Current Items. A What's new' page will be included for periodic updates on new services that are being added.
To reach the trial version of Population Index pages, point Web browser (Netscape, Mosaic, or Lynx) to:
http://popindex.princeton.edu/Comments are welcome from the Web page or address your comments to: popindex@princeton.edu or Editor, Population Index 21 Prospect Avenue Princeton, NJ 08544-2091