December 2004 // Volume 42 // Number 6
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Editor's Page
Abstract
"JOE On-Line--All of It" announces just what the heading suggests and
reflects on how things have changed--and haven't. "December JOE" points
to articles whose topics wouldn't even have been on our radar screen when the
first JOE issue was published and to Commentary articles that ask the same question
and challenge us with their different answers.
Editor's Page
JOE On-Line--All of It
I am happy--and proud--to report that all 207 back issues of the Journal of Extension (JOE) are now on-line at http://www.joe.org/archive.html. This milestone is thanks to the efforts of JOE Web developer, Robyn Ness, and her colleagues at Ohio State.
From the first issue of what was then the Journal of Cooperative Extension, published in the spring of 1963, to the October 2004 JOE, there's a wealth of information and inspiration, and, I think, a fertile field for study.
Much has changed, of course. Today, for example, an article titled "The Professional and His Journal" would not be published in or submitted to JOE. But much has remained the same. And here I'm referring to the breadth of our interests as Extension professionals, the depth of our scholarship, and the level of our commitment to the land-grant mission and to Extension.
JOE, which has been an electronic journal for 10 years, is flourishing. This year, we will exceed our all-time high of 256 submissions, reached in 2003. With your help, JOE will continue to be a vehicle for sharing our interests, reporting our scholarship, and expressing our commitment.
December JOE
The 30 Feature, Research in Brief, Ideas at Work, and Tools of the Trade articles in this issue certainly reflect the breadth of our interests, the depth of our scholarship--and the way we continue to evolve. They include an article profiling female county agricultural agents, one reporting on a survey of ANREP members, one on partnering with mass media to broadcast educational programming before and after local weather reports, and the second in a series on IRB's. How many of these topics were even on our radar screen in 1963?
And the 2 Commentary articles just as certainly reflect the level of our commitment--and concern--for Extension and make fitting capstones to end our anniversary year. "Is Extension an Idea Whose Time Has Come--and Gone?" and "Is Extension Relevant for the 21st Century?" essentially ask the same question and challenge us with their different answers. JOE is ready for the challenge if you are--and I know you are.
Best wishes for the holiday season.
Laura Hoelscher, Editor
joe-ed@joe.org