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Whereas the first edition of this directory published 10 years ago was a privately published affair, this edition has been produced by one of the leading publishers of specialist reference books. Another main change is that most of the entries contain e-mail addresses and web sites which were barely a gleam in the early 1990s.
Most entries give name, address, telephone number, e-mail and web sites for the various organisations, and sometimes give publications and date of foundation. Most of the main entries give a synopsis of the group’s activities either supplied direct or taken from their website. One omission which can be significant in this field is that the names of the “leaders” of the group are omitted and often have to be worked out from the e-mail address.
It has to be said that there is an awful lot of padding; most of the USA entries are for local branches of MUFON, and similar listing of local branches pads out the Italian section. More serious is the inclusion of the Aetherius Society, which surely is a religious cult and not a UFO organisation of any kind. Perhaps significantly the British section seems to have the largest quota of unverified entries, some of of which seem to be the same organisation under various incarnations. The perceptive reader will also find it an amusing game working out which of the UK organisations listed exist primarily in the fertile imagination of Tim Hepple/Matthews. But at least Magonia is listed, which is a rarity in these things. -- Peter Rogerson, from Magonia Supplement 49, February 2004
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