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                               POST SCRIPT BY THE EDITORS
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                 The 1971 Wisconsin Blue Book is an interim publication designed
to
            bridge the gap between the last hard-cover edition issued in
1970, and the
            next full edition to be issued after the Spring Election in April
1973.
            The changed publication time was authorized by Chapter 82, Laws
of 1971.

                 In a senrse, the 1971 edition is a preview of the technical
inno-
            vations to be utilized in publishing future editions. Beginning
with the
            1973 edition, one-half of the roughly 58,000 books printed will
be issued
            in "a substantial soft cover". These books will be
bound using the tech-
            nique known as "perfect binding," which has been widely
used for textbooks
            in recent years. The cover material will be similar, except for
improve-
            ments in available papers, to the material used for the present
edition.
            Both the paper thickness of the cover material, and its treatment
and
            enamel coating, are designed to give it considerable tear resistance.

                 Another innovation, already used in the present edition
for this
            page and the other 174 pages containing continuous text, will
be the way
            in which the type is set. At the direction of the Legislature,
and with
            the help of private industry, the Wisconsin Legislative Reference
Bureau
            in 1968 began the development of a computer-assisted typing system.
Ini-
            tially, this system's function was to improve the speed and accuracy
with
            which bills and resolutions could be readied for introduction
in the
            Legislature; today, this typing system is used also for a number
of other
            tasks. Using the system, the text is recorded in a computer.
At the
            instruction of the typist, the computer verifies the spelling
of the words
            recorded, and organizes the text into pages of predetermined
line numbers
            and line widths. This computer output is then fed into an electronic
type
            generating machine, which sets the type by exposing each letter
on photo-
            graphic paper. Thus, the text ultimately printed is identical
to the
            manuscript initially typed, and all intermediate steps of typing
revised
            drafts, proofreading of manuscript copy and galleys, and dummying
of the
            galleys into printed pages, have been simplified or eliminated.


                                                                    THE EDITORS


58,000-64