An Apology: Of Volumes, Numbers, and Accuracy of Berita Anchor

In the past few days I've been pouring through all the Berita Anchor magazines that we have available in an attempt to piece together more of 3rd KL's history. This was made possible by BBMHQ which has diligently digitalised the copies back in 2021. Many of the editions were lost as BBM did not have a physical office in its years and therefore had no central location to archieve them. Due to generous contributors, namely Mr Tan Geok Soon and Mr Alfred Ong (the latter of which is the son of former BBM President, Mr Ong Tit Hoe, the Anchor Magazine's founding editor), we have been able to recover and digitise many copies which unavailable prior to 2021. 

Alas, today's random blog post (especially considering that my postings on this blog have become infrequent) is not about acknowledgements, but an apology - one that was made more than 14 years ago.

To understand the mistake, I must first talk about how Berita Anchor works. The Anchor Magazine, as it was known then, used a form of publication system that follows journals, where a calendar year represents the volume number and a "number" or "issue". A person who has gone to university and has read academic journals will be familiar with this. 

For example, Volume 1, is for the introductory year of publication - let's say 1960. If there were 4 issues published within the same year, each have a number. For examples, the first published in February 1960 is Vol. 1, No. 1, the next published in June 1960 is Vol 1. No. 2, another in August 1960 is Vol. 1, No. 3, and finally the December issue is Vol. 1, No. 4. The following edition that is published in, say March 1961, would be Vol. 2, No. 1. This is how it works in its simplest form. 

Beyond this, how and organisation practices its voluming depends on its preference. If there is a gap of publications of a year or more, organisations can either skip the calendar year and follow the volume sequencing where it left off : Example:

1960 = Vol. 1

1961 = No publication

1962 = Vol. 2 

Another method is a volume is skipped if there are no publications for a given year(s). Example:

1960 = Vol. 1

1961 = No publication

1962 = Vol. 3

 Our early pioneers adopted latter system as a means of tracking. 

Berita Anchor's first publication was in 1960 (though alas, there are no copies of it available at this time), making the year Volume 1. BBM's earlier available copy is Vol. 5, No. 1 that is published in 1964. For 21 years, the editors of Berita Anchor have faithfully kept this system. We know they did as there was no publication in 1966 and it skipped the Volume 7 (but it didn't make sense that there wasn't any Anchor magazines that year - I would be happy to be proven wrong and if copies miraculously reappear). 

From 1981 and 1982, BBM forgoed the voluming system - publishing by month and year (the voluming system also indicates the month) - example: Berita Anchor January 1981.

In 1983, the volume system was returned, but with a "reset" back to Volume 1. There were 3 issues for the year: 

• January-June 1983, Vo1. 1, No. 1 & No. 2 (published as a single edition)
• Vol. 2, No. 3 (Month unknown - copies are missing)
• December, 1983 Vol 3, No. 4

In 1984, the numbering did not apply, but it continued to newly "reset" volume into its second year. 

• October, Vol. 2

By 1986 and 1987 (no known publications in 1985), volumes and numberings were forgone once again, replaced by an indexing system:

• 1/86
• 2/86
• 1/87

In 1988, the simpler month and year system was reestablished. Some years, only one edition was published the entire year. This was the case all up to 2005 when a version of volume system was reintroduced, but this time without numbers. However, the ones from 2005 onwards sequenced numbers according to the order they were published. It was also reset again to Volume 1 and did not practice the voluming system set by our early pioneers . The first two volumes did not have months assigned. 

• Vol. 1, 2005
• Vol. 2, 2005
• Vol. 3, July 2006
• Vol. 4, Jan 2007
• Vol. 5, Oct 2007

In short, there were many inconsistencies in how we published and index Berita Anchor - something I was keen to rectify. 

Okay - now all that is explained, time to own up to my massive mistake and error. 

I was editor of the last published Berita Anchor in February 2012 (at the point of this post anyway). Knowing how the various systems work, I was very keen to set things right and reintroduced the volume and numbering practice of our early pioneers. It all sounds well and good. I was pretty smug about it too.. 

However, I made what can objectively and scientifically be descripted by psychology medical journals as a stupid oversight. Somehow, in the Excel sheet in 2012 (which I still have) trying to track down and assign the correct volunes after 1980, I somehow mad an administrative error and skipped several years. I don't know how this happened exactly (epecially when I replicated the mistake again today at the time of posting when double checking, though the error improved by 1 Volume), but I must've mixed up my labellings of years with "no publications" of Berita Anchor as years that "don't need a volume all the sudden" when it should (didn't make sense either way, so I dunno lah). 

In short, the last Berita Anchor, Vol. 47, Iss. 1, February 2012, should have been Vol. 53, Iss. 1, February 2012. Not sure why I used "issue" instead of "number" either - but this was still very consistent with academic journal practices. 

Yeah, so this should have been Volume 53, Issue/No. 1

My sincere apologies for the massive error. If you need to punch a hole in your wall / door / other forms of hard surface, my head is available for pro bono hire. I'd also take this opportunity to offer myself as editor for any upcoming issues of Berita Anchor, F.O.C. to make up for this grave sin (bolding making this offer cause I know it will probably not be cashed in - trends have changed and these magazines are out of touch already in its current form). 

If you're interested, the below are the copies of Berita Anchors. Green for ones available in BBMHQ, red are ones we know must have existed, and the black ones - we're just unsure if there were publications in those years unless they are marked "none". 

If you have any of the red and black ones above, please let me know. We'd like to digitalise them. Contact me at zhenyi.voon@3rdklbb.org.