Anniversaries Speak Volumes
The volume number of a newspaper, unlike a birthday, is measured from the moment a publication begins issue, and that minor difference has confused more than one person about how old a publication is.
A child who has been alive for one year becomes 1 at the end of the year; A newspaper that begins publishing is immediately assigned Volume 1 and starts Volume 2 at the end of one year.
The University Weekly, which started Volume 1 on October 10, 1906, initially switched its volume number to Volume 2 at the beginning of 1907 even though the editorial staff members did not change. The change in volume numbers was soon pegged to the change in school year rather than calendar year so that Volume 3 began with the fall semester of 1908.
Occasional mistakes have still crept in. In 1978, a staff member mistakenly assumed the volume number should correspond with the year of publication and the newspaper jumped from Vol. 72 to Vol. 78. Librarians contacted the newspaper during the next school year, and the volume number was corrected.
In 1959, the staff of The Traveler published a commemorative edition at commencement to honor the retirement of Walter J. Lemke. The edition was intentionally issued as Vol. 0, No. 0.
Volume 100, which begins issuance in September of 2005, means that the paper is beginning its 100th year and will celebrate its 100th birthday at the beginning of the next school year.
Comments