The Numismatic Bibliomania Society

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V15 2012 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 15, Number 16, April 15, 2012, Article 4

OROSZ HIGHLIGHTS E-SYLUM HISTORY

Joel Orosz' "Numismatic Bookie" column in Coin World's April 23, 2012 issue nicely summarizes the history of The E-Sylum. Thanks! Perhaps that's where some of our new subscribers this week came from. -Editor

"Anybody here have email?"

It would be surprising if, in 2012, any working-age person would fail to answer "yes" to this question.

Twenty years ago, however, when Numismatic Bibliomania Society member Wayne Homren began asking that of his fellow NBS members, hardly anyone responded. The Internet was second nature to Wayne, for he had been using it since 1980, when he had started working at Bell Labs.

Finally, in August of 1998, at the NBS annual meeting in Portland, Ore., a dozen hands went up, and Wayne sniffed opportunity. He envisioned an electronic newsletter that could keep NBS members in contact with each other between appearances of their quarterly print journal, The Asylum.

Accordingly, on the morning of Sept. 4, 1998, the NBS's inaugural email publication was sent to 49 wired members. It didn't have a name at first. Wayne wanted to call it The Babbler - that being what people in an asylum are wont to do - but NBS Board members liked his second choice, The E-Sylum, suggesting an electronic version of The Asylum.

By any name, The E-Sylum was a hit. Only a few hours after its first inbox appearance, the roster of subscribers grew to 59: an increase of more than 20 percent in a single day! The list quadrupled during the next six years, in the process outstripping the membership of the NBS. Today, more than 1,500 E-Sylumites scattered around the world eagerly await the lengthening shadows of Sunday evening, when the latest version, still edited by its founder, pings into the email inbox.

To read the complete article, see: Wayne's world: E-Sylum an instant hit (www.coinworld.com/articles/waynes-world/)

Wayne Homren, Editor

Google
 
NBS (coinbooks.org) Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V15 2012 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

Copyright © 1998 - 2020 The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS)
All Rights Reserved.

NBS Home Page
Contact the NBS webmaster
coin