50,000 Terms

I marked a milestone last Tuesday, July 14, as I entered the 50,000th term into the Disneyland Resort Thesaurus at 11:06 PM EDT. At roughly 50,000 terms a year, I expect I'll reach 100,000 terms in the summer of 2011 and 1,000,000 terms in 2047. Of course, the number of terms isn't the sole criterion on which to judge the thesaurus--the number of relationships also count, as does the amount of information recorded for each. There are more than 131,000 relationships contained in the thesaurus and in the past week I have edited 2,224 terms (or 4.4% of the total thesaurus). So, when I'm not posting here, I am still busy working behind the scenes on gathering sources and working through them. I've been meaning to undertake a broad look at the state of the thesaurus and its possibilities, but I feel, here, now, I can at least share a little about the sources with which I'm working.

Probably the greatest source in numbers is the Disneyland Line. I estimate there are somewhere over 2,000 of these (52 issues a year [fewer in recent years with a biweekly publication schedule] x 40 years). As of this writing, I have very thoroughly and methodically pulled apart 314 of those, or around 15%. (I have immediate access, either in hard copy or scans, to almost 1,500.) From the earlier monthly Disneylander of the 1950s and early 1960s, I have thesaurused 9 issues out of an unknown total which probably numbers between 50 and 60. For Backstage Disneyland, the quirky publication started by Wally Boag that was published on an erratic basis between 1962 and the 1980s, I have gone through but two issues out of an unknown total that I estimate at somewhere less than 80.

From materials produced for the public, I have input information from 8 of 159 Disney News/Disney Magazine issues. Of Disneyland Holiday/Vacationland, I have thesaurused 13 of about 84 issues. From The "E" Ticket, a mere 5 of the 46 issues. A mere 8 guidebooks from Disneyland's 54-year history. I've only started recording information from 3 of the roughly 26 souvenir wallmaps. I've only gone through a measly ONE copy of The Disneyland News (but it did yield information for 278 terms). I have made it through several books (including Disneyland: The Nickel Tour and Disney A-Z, two of the first sources I worked with), but have yet to start working with other treasure troves such as Disneyland: Then, Now, and Forever and Van France's Window on Main Street.

I have used a few hundred newspaper articles out of about 7,500 saved so far. Other sources will include miscellaneous Cast Member publications (such as land/departmental newsletters and phone directories), interviews, press releases, blog posts, and anything else that contributes substantive information about the history of the Disneyland Resort. (Note that I didn't specify it has to be accurate information; it's just as important to document the origins of misconceptions!) I'm meticulously documenting where all the information comes from and what sources have been used or should be used, so if I drop dead tomorrow somebody would know exactly what I had done.

If anybody has bibliographic information for the Disneylander or Backstage Disneyland, I'd appreciate it, as I would a staff to help me out!