Tom Roper's Weblog

Online

I'm off to Online today, among other things to present the HLG Barnard prize to Jean Shaw, of which more later. There doesn't seem to be the blogging interest in Online that there has been in other library conferences with a technical focus. UKEIG have a conference blog, Information Today are covering it and Information World Review ran a preview. But a technorati search doesn't turn up very much else: ten posts in last 81 days.

Eastbourne

As I was in Eastbourne yesterday, I captured though the magic of digital photography some pictures of the area where next year's HLG conference will take place, including some of the conference hotel.
My daughter and I enjoyed a splendid ice-cream in Favoloso's (vanilla chocolate chip for her, mango for me). I look forward to soothing my vocal chords with one next summer.

Hurricane Katrina: MLA portal

The Medical Library Association (MLA) has set up a Katrina portal, an excellent example of the sort of thing information professionals can do in response to emergencies such as this, at: http://mlanet.org/hurricane_katrina.html
It includes a link to their Medical Library Disaster Relief Fund.

Leslie Morton commemorative issue of Health Information and Libraries Journal

The latest issue of Health Information and Libraries Journal came yesterday, and with it the commemorative issue in honour of Leslie Morton who died in February 2004. It includes a review of his final, posthumous publication, the third edition of A Bibliography of Medical and Biomedical Biography which he produced with Robert J Moore. The commemorative issue also includes a bibliography of Leslie's work, personal reminiscences and eight original articles, plus a report on the Leslie Morton Memorial Conference which took place at the Royal Society of Medicine in February this year.
There's lots of good papers: Steve Pritchard and Alison Weightman on the history of MEDLINE in the UK, Bruce Madge and Scott Plutchak on the globalisation of health librarianship, but one in particular struck a personal note. By Caroline Sawers, it charts the history of medical libraries in the old Thames Regions (North-East, North-West, South-East and South-West, which covered London, the home counties and beyond) using the Medical Library Bulletin of the Thames Regions as a source, a publication Leslie edited. When I entered health librarianship in 1991, into the North Thames regions of the NHS, first at North Middlesex Hospital, a new library designed as a multidisciplinary library, and then at Edgware General Hospital, both libraries and archives of this bulletin, which was an invaluable introduction to the region, and indeed to medical librarianship for someone pne whose background consisted of some time in public libraries and sojourns with the British Council and Hawker Siddeley Group plc.
Sawers, Caroline
The way we were: health library life seen through the pages of the Medical Library Bulletin of the Thames Regions, 1974-94
Health Information and Libraries Journal 2005 22 Supp 1: 31-37
Single copies are available from the publishers.

CILIP | Call for papers, HLG Conference 2006

Link: CILIP | Call for papers, HLG Conference 2006.

Open Access editorial in Health Information and Libraries Journal

The latest Health Information and Libraries Journal has an editorial on open access:
Walton, Graham
Negotiation in health libraries: a case study of Health Information and Libraries Journal and open access publishing
Health Information and Libraries Journal 2005 22(3):161-3

Draft HLG Manifesto online

The draft version of HLG's Manifesto is online for comment until the end of May.
(Interest declared: I'm the Chair-Elect)