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Dear Abby and other REEDers--
   Our discussions of REED's future at K-zoo just happened to be
followed by a student presentation on hypertext for fiction writing,
and this coincidence set me thinking about the value of presenting
REED records in hypertextual form.  Using hypertext would mean no
problems about whether to order by date, place, type of record, etc.,
because all those orders would be possible, depending on choices the
researcher made.  Hypertext would be in some ways easier to use than
the printed records, but also easier than a database.  For instance, a
database would require that someone know what they wanted to look for
when they started a search, but with hypertext, one could simply read
through the records and apparatus, following the hypertextual links
wherever one's interests led.
   I don't consider myself to be in the computer vanguard, so perhaps
some of you have already thought of this, started on it, rejected it
as unworkable, or whatever.  If someone else thought about using
hypertext, I'd be interested to hear what you've come up with.  If no
one has tried it yet, I'm thinking about preparing a sample, perhaps
for presentation at K-zoo.  If so, what sort of links between records,
apparatus, context, bibliography, etc. would people like to see?
   Peter Greenfield