Our special theme for the concluding issue of volume five is Women's Periodicals. Guest Editors are Jean Farrington and Cris Rom, both of whom serve as Column Editors for SR. Farrington and Rom have assembled a valuable collection of reviews and assessments of periodical literature in the field including two Feature Reviews, an essay on Women's Magazines, and the Women's History Research Center Collections, individual reviews of over 20 journals, and a further collection of feminist little magazines. Their introduction to the theme issue follows this Editor's Letter.
Jean Farrington, recently appointed to the position of Assistant Circulation Librarian, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, was previously on the staff at S.U.N.Y./ Albany. There she directed the department of Non-Print, Reserve, and Periodical Services. In addition to women's issues (she served on the University's Women's Studies Advisory Committee at Albany), her professional interests are serials and microforms. She contributes a regular column on microforms for The Serials Librarian. Jean reports that in her spare time she enjoys travel and gourmet cooking and is an avid fiction reader.
Cristine Rom, a native of Wisconsin, grew up in the Ozarks of Arkansas where she completed all her early schooling. Her graduation from the library science program at the University of Wisconsin/Madison led to an appointment there as Rare Book Librarian. In that position she has directed the library's extensive and famous little magazine collection. Friends there call her the "little magazine lady." She now