Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 35/1-2. (Győr, 1997)

Letter to the reader

Letter to the reader Lectori saluteml This present issue of Arrabona - which is already the twenty-fifth volume - reached your desk with a changed cover, and the layout and typography of the text was also modified by means of computer-editing. Our yearbook, published since 1959, calls for modernization concerning its visual appearance as well. This aspect was certainly included in our motives, but was not the only one. Beside existing claims for modernization of the layout and the contents, there was a stil more important and cogent argument for giving Arrabona a new outward appearance. On the 4th of June 1996, the Department of Cultural Policy of the Ministry of Education and Culture (Dr. János Seregélyesi chief councellor), appreciating the reasons mentioned in the request of the Directorate of the Museum (several decades' tradition, solid support of a wide range of authors) gave its permission for the transformation of our annual, as the proceedings of the Museum, to a periodical. Therefore, Arrabona will be published in the future as the Proceedings of the Museums in County Győr-Moson-Sopron, according to the rules of journal-editing. As a consequence of this change, we shall hopefully publish several issues each year, thus providing the opportunity to widen the thematical scope our interest. The editorial board, striving to include a rich variety of content, will take initiatives to establish new columns (essays, source publications, biographies, reviews, features on museology). The scientific character of Arrabona will be preserved, or even strengthened by this new concept. The character and value of each issue will be defined first of all by the academic merits of the published essays, and the quality and quantity of solid scholarly work will hopefully give new emphasis to the scientific output of Arrabona. These changes go far beyond the limits of simple formal and visual renewal, but have the aim of providing valuable contribution to the scientific life of the region. The primary function of our journal will continue to be to investigate and publish archaeological, ethnographical, historical, artistic and natural relics and remnants from the region including County Győr-Moson-Sopron. Our concept of regional studies, however, should represent a wider horizon. In our view, scientific research cannot be bound by political and administrative boundaries. Therefore we are keenly interested in remains and monuments reflecting the history of the whole territory of West-Pannonia, including present-day Burgenland, and parts of the Small Hungarian Plain, lying west of the Vág River. Finally, Arrabona will continue to be a basis of exhange, by means of which we would like to maintain fruitful relationships with about 120 national and 220 foreign institutions (museums, libraries, universities), thus promoting the flow of scientific information and the intenational research of historic values. The Editor ARRABONA WM 35/1-2.