Term paper: researching journals

Yesterday I spent some time in the Hunter Street library scanning the contents pages of the University of Hawaii's Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly from the current issue backwards in time. I was beginning to despair of finding anything relevant when I hit pay dirt with the 2003 winter issue, which had the overarching title OnlineLives. Here are the titles of the main articles it contains:

• Screening Moments, Scrolling Lives: Diary Writing on the Web
  
• Teaching an Old Genre New Tricks: The Diary on the Internet
  
• That Different Place: Documenting the Self Within Online Environments
  
• The Gnome in the Front Yard and Other Public Figurations: Genres of Self-Presentation on Personal Home Pages
  
• At Home in Cyberspace: Staging Autobiographical Scenes
  
• Technobiography: Researching Lives, Online and Off
  

Even though these were written over six years ago, they clearly all need to be read carefully over the next month. Although the university has a subscription to the printed journal it does not have access to the online version. The Subscription page on the University of Hawaii's website did not permit ordering of single copies so I sent off an e-mail.

From: A G Randall [mailto:agrandall@btinternet.com]
Sent: 01 October 2009 14:49
To: 'uhpjourn@hawaii.edu'
Subject: Biography: Winter 2003 

How can I get hold of a copy of Online Lives, preferably in digital form? I couldn't find a way to do this on your website, I'm afraid.  

Best wishes

This morning I receive this response:

From: UHP Journals [mailto:uhpjourn@hawaii.edu]
Sent: 01 October 2009 23:35
To: A G Randall
Subject: Re: Biography: Winter 2003

Dear Mr. Randall,

If you are affiliated or have access to an institutional facility with access to Project Muse, you may access all electronic versions of each issue from 2001. I noticed, however, that University of Buckingham is not listed as a Project Muse subscribers. You may, however, browse the following listing for other institutions that do have Project Muse access:  

http://muse.jhu.edu/about/subscriptions/subscriber_list_country.html  

If you do not have Project Muse access, we can send you a PDF version of the issue via email for US$20. A hardcopy of the issue is also available for the same price, including shipping via airmail. Should you wish to order, please secure payment with a Visa or Mastercard via our web order page. I am sorry, but our online order form is not yet set up to accept single-issue orders; however, if you fill in all of your information and indicate in the "additonal comments" section, the material you wish to order, your order will be duly filled and charged the appropriate amount. If you have any futher questions, please let me know. Thank you.  

Sincerely,  

Norman Kaneshiro
Subscriptions & Advertising Mgr.
Journals Department
University of Hawaii Press
2840 Kolowalu Street
Honolulu HI 96822
VOICE: (808)956-8833 FAX: (808)988-6052
EMAIL: uhpjourn@hawaii.edu
 

I reproduce this in its entirety to bring to the attention of the world the singular courtesy of Norman Kaneshiro. I have of course thanked him personally, telling him that I hope to get an electronic copy of the journal through my Oxford connection this afternoon, but his reply was so prompt, so clear and so helpful that I felt his action should be more generally acknowledged.