Baker Street Journal

Review: The editorial in the September 1996 Baker Street Journal, begins:"We received a message a short time ago asking if this JOURNAL was available in electronic form, via the Internet. We replied with a polite but chilly 'no'", and concludes: "In the 50th anniversary of this JOURNAL, which has, admittedly, had its share of typographic and literary ups and downs, let us celebrate the Sherlockian text, not in digital form (a kind of ultimate postmodern version), but in the achievement of its fullest potential as a skillfully executed expression of creative insight, and indeed, of art."

Well, times change, and today, the Baker Street Journal advertises through its own web page, and has followed other periodicals by publishing 53 years (the journal was not published between March 1949 and 1951) of its quarterly journal on CD ROM, thus making all its articles available to other than a small group of Sherlockian collectors.

The set uses the Adobe Acrobat Reader (available for both Windows and Mac platforms), which is included on the CDs, to create a faithful reproduction of all text and illustrations, including advertisements contained in each issue, each of which is contained in its own separate .PDF file. The Reader also contains its own search engine supposedly allowing the user to find every occurrence of any word or phrase in the entire string of 221 issues. (If you're checking my math, you might question the fact that 53 years of quarterly issues is only 212 issues. The answer is that for some years, a fifth Christmas issue was also published).
It is published in an attractive jewel case which holds the four CDs.

The only problems that I have found in the use of the CD set has been that there are problems dealing with the text from certain issues. On the Internet there is a detailed description of tips, including methods of dealing with these problems, on the use of the CD set. Also, although the Acrobat software provides a method of creating bookmarks (similar to an electronic table of contents), this feature was not included in the CD set.

In spite of these annoyances, the CD set is highly recommended.

BSJ Website.

Reviewed by: Les Moskowitz, 2003