A heritage of literature

Looking through our website this week we discovered that there are 36 073 files in the body of material on our servers in the US. Not all are articles; some are images of one kind or another (pictures, logos, etc). But there are more than twenty-thousand “html" (internet “pages") files, not to mention the pdfs, docs, and others which complete the “writings" collection.

At the same time we discovered last month that we were receiving an average of four thousand visitors a day at the site. It is affirming for us who work day by day in the “back rooms" here at CYC-Net that the"customers" are coming “not that our visitors are really customers; we don't charge anyone a penny for using this site. Anyone is welcome. We realise that those who have access to well-stocked academic and metropolitan libraries do not need to rely on CYC-Net. But there are tens of thousands of Child and Youth Care people who live and work in far-flung places, not only in less-developed areas around the world, but also in remote and rural regions in any country.

If we had three wishes ...

Our first would probably be for more help in collecting material from other sources to enrich our collection. We re often amazed at the high interest value and validity of articles coming down to us from thirty and forty years ago. (See, for example, the articles from Lenhoff and Walkley in this issue of CYC-Online.) For the many who were not around to catch these writings when they first appeared, this is exciting stuff to discover! And readings reflecting an older experience, terminology or style, apart from being interesting and refreshing in themselves, often affirm for us things which we hear said differently today. But this is not only about historical writing. Much is said or written today which is heard only once by today's audience or readership, and which would be appreciated by all of us in the field. Help us prise out more writing fom its protected or covered (or lost!) condition, ask for permission for it to be used, and send it along to us (with info on source, etc.,) and the whole field will be the richer. That is wish number 1.

Our second wish would be for financial support to keep CYC-Net and CYC-Online going as a free service. There are four people who work at this day by day, and many others who contribute their time to writing. We have a very modest budget, but there are material costs which have to be met to keep us operating. Just imagine if each of our 4000 visitors today each sent us a single donation of $5 today! It would keep us “on the air" for most of the year! We have always avoided charging for CYC-Net, but those who can afford it help to keep the service going for those who cannot. Visit https://www.cyc-net.org/administration/membership.html today and do us the honour.

Three. We haven't any more wishes, really. Just those two.

The heritage continues ...

We are thrilled to welcome back into these pages our old friend and colleague Karen VanderVen who has agreed to write for CYC-Online once more on an occasional basis. We shall value her reflective, encouraging and sometimes stern words whenever they may appear. Thank you and welcome home, Karen.

Enjoy the issue with is new, new-older and older writing. There's lots here for everyone.

Thom and Brian