The Galactic Sherlock Holmes 8.1
By Don Hobbs

I woke up the other day and low and behold it was 2008! It has been 7 years since the dreaded Y2K. Along with a big ole helping of black-eye peas, a rash of boring college football games, and a plethora of New Years Day Sales supplements in the local newspaper, the new year also brought the first "complete" version of The Galactic Sherlock Holmes. Release 8.1 has no missing bibliographic information and all of the images are oriented in the right direction.

I mention the orientation of images because I had burned copies to be mailed out at Christmas. These were version 7.12 but I discovered that 4 of the cover scans were inverted.  It was just a slight problem. I have The Galactic Sherlock Holmes database as a Word document. This is the source document that I am continually updating. Each time I get information on a new translation, it is added to the source document. In the past, I have copied the source document to a thumb-drive and taken it the local Office Depot where they convert it into a pdf. document. Somehow, during one of the transfers, the 4 images flipped.

I already had the source document converted to pdf. when I made the discovery, so I simply inserted an additional Errata document with the 4 scans correctly displayed. I have since then corrected those scans in the source document. I now have a pdf. converter program and do not have to rely on  someone else to convert the source document. I can now double-check the entire database for errors before burning it onto CD's.

I plan on taking copies with me to New York City this week where I will be offering subscriptions to  The Galactic Sherlock Holmes.  They will be available for $15.00 in the United States and $20 for the rest of the world. A one-year subscription includes at least 2 versions. Being a subscription 'book' allows such easy revisions. The entries are alphabetical and chronological. The most recently published translations are the last and any newly-discovered older entries can be inserted exactly were they need to be.

I have many contributors sending me information on books in their collections. I hope to generate interest form The University of Minnesota, where the Friends of Sherlock Holmes Collection is held. I would like some one to send me cover scans of all of the missing De Waal entries. It would really be a significant boost to The Galactic Sherlock Holmes database. I will present the university a version 8.1 for their collection next week in New York City. Anyone who would like to help with non-English translations can send the bibliographic information and cover-scan to my email address - 221b@verizon.net. Contributors will receive a CD of The Galactic Sherlock Holmes.

Happy Collecting!!