Credits

No project of this size, taking 25 years to finally bring together can be accomplished alone. So, for that reason I would like to take a few moments to thank some of the people that have helped bring this project to reality.

While this project initially began in 1974 with the gathering of bibliographic information for the Africana Periodical Literature Index, the first real technical problems were created when the computer age came upon us and I decided that I needed to input all the citations that I had collected for eleven years into a computer database.

In 1985 I shared my ideas about building a database with a friend named Vicky Tynan and over the next year or so Vicky wrote the first bibliographic software program for my computer. At the time there were few if any programs that could handle a project as large as mine. Vicky’s son Dillon, a computer wiz in his own right, followed up as my computer guru and was indespensible in helping me solve all of my computer problems on my first computer over the next few years. Both of these individuals gave freely of their time and never charged me a dime. While it was a learning experience for them, it was a priceless relationship for one who knew nothing of computer technology in 1985. For their help I will be forever grateful.

Until 1993, the Tynan bibliographic database was used, but my computer and new technology forced me to adopt to a new software program and it was with the help of a colleague named Vaughan Wingfield that I was able to convert what was now two databases from a PC environment to a Macintosh environment. The exporting and rebuilding took Vaughan almost six weeks. From that time we have used Microsoft’s Foxpro as our database software.

Initially, the bibliographic databases was being used in order to produce either a book or a CD rom product. With the creation of the Internet, the possibility of disseminating the information around the world 24 hours a day became the goal. For that to become reality though many new problems had to be solved many of which had not raised their ugly heads.

With the help of computer consultant John Swillum and web page designer Kim Morton, I have been able to bring the databases up on the Internet. John has been the programmer that has made the database run and the search engine work correctly.

The Africa map was created in the GIS lab of the State Data Center, at the Institute for Economic Advancement, University of Arkansas-Little Rock by Tal Dodson, Jack Jackson and myself.

The web site is housed on an NT server within the Institute for Economic Advancement.

I would like to also thank my wife Judy, a fellow librarian for her dedicated work on this project. Yearly she has accompanied me to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and worked along side me collecting information. It is a long and tedious period and her help has made that process easier and quicker.

I would also like to thank the staff and librarians at Northwestern University who have been so helpful over the years. Also the staff and librarians at the following research centers and libraries: The Library of Congress, University of Texas-Austin, University of Kansas, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of California-Berkeley, Stanford University, California State University-Chico, Boston College, and the University of Memphis for allowing me to use their collections.

Davis Bullwinkle
 
 

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