Join the fun and education in Omaha, Nebraska this October 12-16, when the MCMLA and Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association conduct their joint meeting: License to Learn/License to Lead. Take a look at the website for more information: http://www.mcmla.org/2007/

The UK National Health Service has announced on March 28 that they will be doing consumer health information service: Tailor Made Information Will Help Patients Take Control of Their Treatment http://media-newswire.com/release_1046575.html

Inside Higher Ed article: Libraries At the Cutting Edge, by Pamela Snelson
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/03/29/snelson

Xerox has some free brochure templates for small business use: http://www.office.xerox.com/small-business/resources/brochure-templates/index.html.

If you serve K-12 science educators in your audience, or if your campus works with them through community outreach programs, please send this link to them: NIH Curriculum Supplement Series http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/. The supplements are now alligned to state standards.

For those in your audience that don't have access to a RefWorks account or haven't bought their own EndNote software to collect, manage, and cite their research sources, Zotera might come to their aid. This is a free Firefox extension: http://www.zotero.org/.

xps vs. pdf? How does the new Microsoft XML Paper Specification (XPS) stack up against the established Adobe PDF? Some links on the topics follow. You may wish to check with vendors to see how they are supporting both formats. This topic may be of interest to someone in your team that is working on digitizing projects.

XPS Overview (Microsoft) http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/default.mspx


Adobe-Why PDF? http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/adobepdf.html


XML Paper Specification (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_Paper_Specification

Adobe PDF vs. Microsoft XPS (Digital Inspiration blog) http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/01/adobe-pdf-vs-microsoft-xps-xml-paper.html

Michigan Library Consortium uses Second Life as training location
I saw this story in the Lansing State Journal online edition: Second Life brings virtual, real life together. http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070308/NEWS03/703080351/1004/news03.
They also had a virtual party to celebrate their new eLibrary gateway: http://www.mlcnet.org/cms/sitem.cfm/news__announcements/mel_remix/.

TechWatch, according to its web site, identifies and tracks developments and standards in communication and information technology that are critical to higher education. It is a function of JISC in Great Britain.
They released a report in February 2007 on Web 2.0 and Education. You can read the most recent TechWatch reports online.
JISC also sponsors a conference that might be of interest to anyone involved with information and communication technologies in their institution.

A great explanation of the anatomy of Second Life and how businesses (insert 'library' here) can use it for collaboration, research and marketing:

The Anatomy of Second Life
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1540,2098917,00.asp

Please take this professional association survey! (Posted with permission of the authors-TH)

Many professional library associations have generated surveys to figure out what their members want from a professional organization. The purpose of our survey is to query librarians directly, regardless of what association they might belong to, in an effort to determine how library associations in general are meeting the needs and expectations of their members.

The survey is confidential and takes only 10 minutes to complete. The results will be reported during a poster session at the upcoming Medical Library Association conference in Philadelphia.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=676253314746

If you are interested in receiving a copy of the results, please contact us directly. Thank you!

Megan von Isenburg, MSLS
megan.vonisenburg@duke.edu

Rebecca Pernell, MSLS
rebecca.pernell@jefferson.edu

Dan Kipnis, MSI
dan.kipnis@jefferson.edu

Who needs a library when you can purchase your own archives? (Of course, that is a rhetorical question, folks!) As seen on BoingBoing, here is a link to the entire archive of the New Yorker Magazine on a hard drive, offered by Levenger: link .

Research journals could do the same thing.