The Enid Blyton Society

Just a question from a newbie....How do you order the journal?

Hi Anna, welcome to the forums.

Just see this page. And why not check out the main site too?

Hey ming thanks for your help! the journal arrived through my door
today! thanks!

I am still putting this index together. I think it’s best to break it down per series where possible, and then pick out some other keywords (e.g. Illustrators) to categorise the articles. It would also be nice to have an index by author so I might make 2, although I could also combine it into 1 big index.

Once I have it in a database it should be easy enough to update it each time there is a new journal.
It isn’t going to be comprehensive in that I won’t be scanning each article for keywords. It is based on Tony’s contents and where necessary I have looked up certain articles for more information.
Of course, it could always be improved later.

Tony, I hope it will be possible to add it to the site somehow. I will have to see what format to produce it in.
Any suggestions welcome.

I have had some time to work on the Index. This is how it might look in the end:

I will have to send the text to Tony in a word document I suppose. After it is uploaded (if indeed it is good enough for this) then it will be copied and pasted in somehow without making too much extra work for you Tony (I hope). As I said before it is not comprehensive but could be of some use in finding certain things.

looks like a good idea to me, but then I'm just a novice when it comes to computer stuff!

Thanks. I will probably get back to it at the weekend. There isn’t a lot more to do except some “last minute checking” which can take hours, as that is when one finds little flaws. As I said earlier, it is based on the contents and I have done some extra cross referencing where I could, without reading through every journal.
Ah well, we’ll see how it looks in the end. It won't have journal 41 but will be easy to update each time.

It looks like a good framework, Lenoir, though as you say it would need to be added to as further Journals are published. I agree that an index by author would be useful. I'm not sure what is meant by one or two of the headings. How does "Adventure" differ from "Adventure Series"? Also, where book titles are given I'd prefer to see them in full, e.g. The Circus of Adventure, unless a title is listed alone for some reason in which case it might be better listed without the "The," e. g. Land of Far-Beyond, The or (The) Land of Far-Beyond under "L". I'm not picking here - I think you've made a good start - but I'm just putting forward some (hopefully constructive) comments and questions that spring to mind. The most sensible place to have the index would be under "Fireside Journal" as you suggest, though because of the way that section is set up at the moment I think only the webmaster (Keith) can amend information once it has been added, which would mean that any updates or alterations would have to be emailed to him. But maybe that could be changed?

I welcome the comments, Anita. I was a bit uncertain about including “The” but it won’t be much work to remove them or add them.
It was a bit difficult to work out how to categorise them and I tried to keep in line with the Cave where possible. I think 'Adventure' is supposed to be 'Adventure Series' so I will change that.
I knew that certain articles were on certain books so I gave the names where I could, “Island of Adventure” etc, but when there is no sub category the articles are just filed as “Adventure Series”. The numbers are the journal and page no.
There are a lot of entries under Famous Five and I haven’t tried to sub categorise them.

I can add more records to it easily enough as I have it in a database.
I have an index by author as well.

Lenoir wrote:There are a lot of entries under Famous Five and I haven’t tried to sub categorise them.

Once the index is in place, it could be tweaked/refined where necessary as people use it and make further suggestions.

    I will add “The” to the titles (where I have been able to sub categorise the articles like this), so “Island of Adventure” becomes “The Island of Adventure”. Maybe I should sort them in the order of the series rather than alphabetically as well.

    One little anomaly I noticed in my Barney books (and I have confirmed this with the Cave, so I know I’m right!) is that “Ring o bells Mystery” originally had no “The” in the title. It’s true that in my later copy of “The Rubadub Mystery” it lists all the book titles prefixed with “The” because it was added later, but the original book itself does not have it. It’s pedantic really, but I might as well get it right seeing I’ve noticed it.

    I hope to have something next week: there are things in the index that I haven’t checked yet.

    And thanks to MJE for explaining how to format paragraphs! I have adopted this style and I think my English teacher would be suitably impressed with her pupil/scholar!

Lenoir wrote:I will add “The” to the titles (where I have been able to sub categorise the articles like this), so “Island of Adventure” becomes “The Island of Adventure”. Maybe I should sort them in the order of the series rather than alphabetically as well.

Yes, I think that's a good idea.

You're right about (The) Ring O' Bells Mystery not having had "The" in the title originally. That's something I learnt from my wanderings in the Cave.

   The journal index is ready. I have 3 of them. First one is a general index, the second is by author, and the third is also by author but lists the articles as well. I suppose a fourth could be a general index, which lists the articles as well – I can do that quite easily now I have it on computer but it will be fairly big.
  It is available at this link for download for a week:LinkToIndex I can also email it if needed.

   I copied all 3 into one word document for ease of use. I also have them as separate html documents, but wasn’t sure if that is anymore useful than a word doc.
Some of the articles were difficult to categorise, for example Fred Clampitt’s article was put under Enid Blyton Letters and under Saucy Jane.
  I know there will still be some anomalies but it is usable.

You've been very thorough, Lenoir, and I think it will certainly be useful. I'd probably have listed contributors etc. by surname rather than first name, but it doesn't really make much difference.

Just a couple of minor things:

Arthur Baker should be Arthur Barker.

Marjorie Davies is an illustrator and, although you've listed her name in the general index, you haven't put her under "Illustrators."

I'll leave Tony or Keith to comment on whether a word document or HTML document is better as I'm afraid I don't know much about the technical side of things.

Lenoir wrote: The journal index is ready. I have 3 of them. First one is a general index, the second is by author, and the third is also by author but lists the articles as well. I suppose a fourth could be a general index, which lists the articles as well – I can do that quite easily now I have it on computer but it will be fairly big.
It is available at this link for download for a week:LinkToIndex I can also email it if needed.

I copied all 3 into one word document for ease of use. I also have them as separate html documents, but wasn’t sure if that is anymore useful than a word doc.
Some of the articles were difficult to categorise, for example Fred Clampitt’s article was put under Enid Blyton Letters and under Saucy Jane.
I know there will still be some anomalies but it is usable.

Congratulations, Lenoir. I am extremely impressed with your sterling effort. It must have taken you forever to compile this index. I am printing the 24 page word document as I write, having amended the two minor things mentioned by Anita. It will undoubtedly prove to be a great source of reference. Superb!