Postings may be a bit sporadic for the next couple of weeks as I will be in England, with limited network access

The InfoToday Blog is reporting on the Online Information 2004 conference in London. Don Hawkins is covering the conference for Information Today newspaper; Editor of ONLINE Magazine Marydee Ojala is blogging the conference; Jim Ashling, Information Today's International Columnist; Dick Kaser is blogging the exhibition; and Nancy Garman, ITI's Director of Conference Program Planning is blogging the sessions

For the fourth edition of its Book History Workshop, the Lyon-based Institut d'histoire du livre is offering five advanced four-day courses in the fields of book and printing history - 25-28 April 2005

Reminder: Online Information 2004 begins tomorrow in London, UK. I will be moderating the Adding Value to an Intranet session, and giving the RSS for beginners masterclass

Links to presentations given at Internet Librarian 2004, Monterey, CA - November 15-17, 2004, are now available

Digital Library Groningen is a weblog maintained by the digital library department of the library of the University of Groningen, Netherlands

The Directory of Open Access Journals now lists 1374 journals. Currently 342 journals are searchable on article level. 61689 articles are included

LLRX.com November 28, 2004 update is now online. LLRX.com is a unique, free Web journal dedicated to providing legal, library, IT/IS, marketing and administrative professionals with the most up-to-date information on a wide range of Internet research and technology-related issues, applications, resources and tools, since 1996

The November 2005 issue of the BMJ Journals librarians' newsletter is now available on the BMJ Journals Library Resource Centre

Copyrightlaws.com is offering online courses on Managing Copyright Issues, U.S. Copyright Law, Digital Licensing, and Canadian and International Copyright Law, in the Spring of 2005

Emerald's Journals of the Week for November 29 2004 are Interlending & Document Supply and Rapid Prototyping Journal

Association of Canadian Archivists 2005 Annual Conference - June 8-11, 2005 - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

The International Association of Technological University Libraries (IATUL) and the Université Laval Library invite you to Québec City to take part in the 26th IATUL Conference under the theme Information and Innovation on May 29-June 3, 2005

The MARC of Quality - providing quality training, software, and database services to help you create better MARC records - November-December 2004 - Sponsored by Florida’s Library Consortiums

LISA, produced by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, has been released on STN. LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts) is a bibliographic database providing information on all areas of library and information science and is designed for library professionals and other information specialists. LISA currently covers over 440 periodicals from more than 68 countries and in more than 20 different languages

SAGE Publications Librarian Newsletter for November 2004 is now available

London Connects is a London-wide agency bringing together local, regional, and central government to support the delivery of the e-government agenda across the capital. Partners include the GLA, the ALG, and London Boroughs; together with other cross-London service providers and agencies, including Health agencies, LDA, TfL, LFEPA, MPS, London Grid for Learning, London Libraries Development Agency, and the London Voluntary Services Council

This week's Friday Brain-Teaser from xrefer tests your knowledge of Animated Cartoons. Answers here

1. Bugs Bunny had a catchphrase which was used as the title of a 1972film. What was the catchphrase?
2. Name the ill-tempered cartoon duck in a sailor suit, created by the Walt Disney Studios in 1934.
3. Which well-known cat and mouse cartoon characters first appeared in a 1940 animated cartoon called "Puss Gets the Boot"?
4. Which American television cartoon series, first screened in 1998, featured four kids from Colorado including Stan and Kyle?
5. Who wrote the music for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" for the 1996 Disney animated film "The Lion King"?
6. In which park did Yogi Bear live?
7. Which TV cartoon series, first screened in 1996, gets its name from a word or phrase describing small children who are too young to walk?
8. What was the first ever feature-length cartoon film animated entirely by computer?
9. Which feature-length Walt Disney cartoon has as its title a shortening of the Italian word for "baby"?
10. Which cartoon character, created by Elzie C. Segar in 1919, was originally called "Ham Gravy"?

The Advocacy Institute - ALA 2005 Midwinter Meeting, Boston - January 14, 2005 - At the day long Institute, you will build advocacy skills and develop new strategies for raising awareness of the value of libraries in today's society

The CHOICE Survey on Internet Resources is being conducted to determine your satisfaction with CHOICE's reviews of Internet resources and with the content of the special Web Issue in the print and online editions of CHOICE

BookCloseOuts.com has been re-tooled and has a much improved search and browse interface

Free Pint Newsletter 172 - 25 November 2004 - now available

CILIP Workshop - How to bid for funds - 20 April 2005 - London, UK - Many library and information services are learning to look beyond the resources of their own organisations for funding. This highly practical workshop will focus on applying techniques used in fundraising to help you make successful bids

Internet Resources Newsletter - Issue 123 - December 2004 - edited by Roddy MacLeod, Heriot-Watt University, is now available

Zinio Systems, Inc. has announced the launch of two new products: Zinio Express, a browser-based magazine viewer and Zinio Reader 3, a new version of its award-winning Reader software

The preliminary program for Computers in Libraries 2005 - March 16-18, 2005 - Washington, DC, is now available

RLG News Issue 58/59, Fall 2004 is now available

For the first time since 1970, The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, will be open to the public on Sundays, beginning December 5

New Forms of Information Supply - 28 February-1 March 2005 - An Association of Subscription Agents and Intermediaries Conference - London, UK

Dialog has announced that it has added 2,000 additional sources of in-depth global news to its Dialog NewsRoom database

Manitoba Library Conference 2005 - Information in Action - May 3-4, 2005 - Winnipeg, Manitoba. Keynote speaker Nancy Pearl, former director of the Washington Centre for the Book, author of Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason, and model for the librarian action figure

Educational Testing Service has announced the launch of the ETS ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Literacy Assessment, a simulation-based testing program that measures postsecondary students' ability to define, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate information in a technological environment

The OCKHAM Initiative seeks to promote the development of digital libraries via collaboration between librarians and digital library researchers. By promoting simple, open approaches and standards for digital library tools, services, and content, the gap between digital library development and the adoption of digital library systems by the traditional library community will be bridged

The Outcomes of the Meeting of the Joint Steering Committee for revision of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules - Cambridge, England - 18-21 October 2004 are now available

A new exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., offers a glimpse at correspondences four centuries old. Letter Writing in Renaissance England, which runs through April 2005, includes letters penned in invisible ink, sealed in wax and embroidery silk, and sent to and from some of the most famous figures in history

Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, Israel, will bring online its historic new Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names on November 22, 2004. The database, which will allow online public interaction and contributions of new names and materials, seeks to capture the names of as many Jewish Holocaust victims as possible. The sophisticated technology allows users worldwide to access a treasure trove of millions of personal, historical and genealogical documents archived in 14 languages using cutting-edge Web search systems from the convenience of almost any computer

Arizona Library Association: 2004 AzLA Annual Conference - Libraries: Your First and Last Resort - November 30-December 2, 2004 - Tucson, Arizona

California Library Association 2004 Conference: Something for Everyone @ Your Library - November 12-15 - San Jose, California

Emerald's Journals of the Week for November 22 2004 are European Business Review and Vine

Dynix Institute Web Seminar Series: How Libraries Can Achieve Community Leadership through the Web and Other Information Technologies - December 8, 2004 - Host: Liz McGettigan, Libraries and Information Services Manager, East Renfrewshire Council, Scotland

Registration is now open for Online Northwest - January 21 2005 - Corvallis, Oregon - A one-day conference that examines the use of technology in libraries

The 2005 National Forum Committee seeks proposals for high quality concurrent sessions at the 7th Annual LITA National Forum to be held at the San Jose Marriott, San Jose, California, September 29-October 2, 2005. Theme: The Ubiquitous Web: Personalization, Portability, and On-line Collaboration

AAPT, the American Association of Physics Teachers, has added 23 years of back issues to the online version of the American Journal of Physics

Canada Reads 2005 - a panel of five intriguing Canadians who will discuss, debate and deliberate which work of Canadian fiction all of Canada should read

Open Source Software and Libraries Bibliography - compiled by Brenda Chawner, School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

This week's Friday Brain-Teaser from xrefer tests your knowledge of Paris, France. Answers here

1. Which Parisian landmark was the highest building in the world until 1930?
2. Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" is in which Paris art gallery?
3. In 1831, who wrote a famous novel about the Hunchback of Notre Dame?
4. The Arc de Triomphe was originally erected to commemorate whose victories?
5. Is the Bois de Boulogne on the east or west side of Paris?
6. Which famous basilica or church dominates Montmartre?
7. In 1928, who wrote the piece of music called "An American in Paris"?
8. In which year was the Bastille stormed by the mob that set the French Revolution in motion?
9. Name the Prefect of the Department of the Seine, born in 1809, who ruthlessly and efficiently rebuilt whole sections of the city of Paris.
10.Which area of Paris, on the right bank of the Seine, gets its name from a French word for a swamp?

The Special Libraries Association Innovations in Technology Award, part of the Awards and Honors Program, is an award focused on the innovative use and application of technology in a special library setting. Deadline is January 6, 2005

The National Archives in the UK presents Gallery of Victorian Prisoners Online - Two volumes of photographs and case details of prisoners in Wandsworth Prison dating from 1872 to 1873 are now online. Each case gives the prisoner's physical description, as well as a photograph, their date and place of birth, the crime they committed, their sentence, the place of conviction and often their place of residence

Four focused search engines from EEVL, the Internet guide to engineering, mathematics and computing from Heriot Watt University, Scotland, now let you search the content of over 250 free ejournals in engineering, mathematics and computing

The British Library has launched wireless internet connectivity in the public areas of its building at St Pancras. The new service offers wireless internet access (WiFi) throughout the 11 reading rooms, the 225-seat conference auditorium, the café and restaurant and even the outdoor Piazza area. It will enable readers, researchers and business-people to connect to the internet and access email using either their existing service provider or by using the Library's own pay-as-you-go service

Librarians' Index to the Internet - New This Week for November 18 2004 is now available

UK Serials Group 28th Annual Conference and Exhibition - Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh - 11-13 April 2005. The full programme will be available by mid December 2004

Call for papers: IASSIST/IFDO 2005, Evidence and Enlightenment - 24-27 May 2005, Edinburgh, Scotland

Two pillars of wisdom: freedom of information and copyright - what information professionals need to know - 12 January 2005 - London, UK

Endangered Archives Programme - Unless action is taken now, much of mankind's documentary heritage may vanish - discarded as no longer of relevance or left to deteriorate beyond recovery. This website explains what the Endangered Archives Programme is, and how it can help - British Library

Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web

The first issue of the Journal of Community Informatics is now available. It aims to bring together a global range of academics, CI practitioners and national and multi-lateral policy makers policy makers

The American Institute of Physics has announced that it will offer on a trial basis an open-access publishing option to authors contributing to three AIP journals: Journal of Mathematical Physics, Review of Scientific Instruments, and Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science. The initiative has been named AIP Author Select

Immunity & Ageing is the latest independent, Open Access journal hosted by BioMed Central. It publishes material in the realm of immunosenescnence and all aspects of ageing examined from an immunological point of view

British Council Seminar: Reader-centred activities - 23-28 January 2005 - Oxford, UK - Reader-centred activity is a hot topic across the UK; an explosion of reading groups in schools, libraries, bookshops, prisons and homes fuelled by a desire to read and be inspired to take new directions

The November 2004 issue of Biblio Tech Review is now available

A new permanent exhibit that turns old documents into interactive computer stations has opened at the National Archives and Records Administration building in Washington, D.C. The 9,500-square-foot Public Vaults exhibit has more than 1,000 items, including about 25 computer workstations and 47 interactive screens. Visitors can navigate their own paths through behind-the-scenes historical stories using plasma screens, sound recordings and video stations

OCLC and Yahoo! have officially launch a free co-branded toolbar that provides one-click access to Open WorldCat as well as Yahoo! Search's Web search engine. The free toolbar plugs into Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. A whirligig OCLC logo to the extreme left on the toolbar clicks to a subset of Open WorldCat (currently 2 million of the 57 million records available in the full WorldCat, reflecting the holdings of some 9,000 libraries). In time, the click-through will access more-perhaps all-of the WorldCat database, as Yahoo! begins to "harvest" the full file now offered by OCLC

Blogging Camp: Easy Content Management Through Web Logs - Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Continuing Education Course - December 2004-January 2005 - Instructor: Scot Capehart, Applications Manager, Boston Public Library

The program of the 2005 Search Engine Meeting - April 11-12, 2005 - Boston, USA - has been released

Soaring to Excellence Teleconference 1 - November 19, 2004 - The Role of Teaching in Modern Libraries - Library staff are increasingly called upon not only to find information for their patrons, but to also teach their patrons skills related to finding, evaluating, and using information. This teleconference explores the expanded roles of librarians in today's modern libraries

Beginning Monday, November 15, 2004 until March 2005, C-SPAN will broadcast live a series of discussions hosted by the Library of Congress' John W. Kluge Center. The series will examine how the digital age is changing the most basic ways information is organized and classified. The goal is to educate the public on the what the digital age means to their lives. The events will include a featured speaker, followed by a panel discussion, and a question and answer session with the audience at the venue, and C-SPAN television viewers

The November 2004 issue of D-Lib Magazine is now available

The Right to Read Campaign from the Royal National Institute of the Blind claims that over 95% of all books never become available in large print, audio or braille, and therefore 3 million people in the UK are denied the right to read

The DNA of Literature — over 50 years of literary wisdom rolled up in 300+ Writers-at-Work interviews from The Paris Review are now available online

The winners of The Literati Club Awards for Excellence from Emerald Group Publishing have been announced

Version 0.2(beta) of Dublin Core Services/Describethis has been published

Emerald's Journals of the Week for November 15 2004 are International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow and Reference Services Review

Nominations are now open for the 2004 CILIP Information Services Group/Nielsen BookData Reference Awards 2004

The Crime Writers' Association and www.MysteryThriller.co.uk have announced the results of this year's Daggers - the prestigious awards that celebrate the very best in crime and thriller writing in 2004

The School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University, Bloomington has announced a new Master's program with emphasis on Digital Libraries. The program is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It has been developed as a collaboration among the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Digital Library Program at Indiana University. For the first year of the program, SLIS-IUB invites applicants for five fellowships to support a complete Master's degree with internship experience. More information about the program can be found at the Digital Libraries Education Program website

Libraries in the Digital Age - 30 May–3 June 2005 - Dubrovnik and Mljet, Croatia

The Autumn issue of E-MmITS the electronic newsletter of the Multimedia and Information Technology Group Scotland is now available

Alice Munro has been named the winner of The 2004 Giller Prize, Canada’s premier literary prize for fiction

Five Easy Pieces by Roy Tennant - "With our noses plastered to the proverbial grindstone, it can be difficult to step back and take a look at the big picture. How is your library doing? Are you focused on the right tasks, solving the right problems? Despite how hard it is to assess your progress, it's a good thing to do on a regular basis. Here are a few ideas you should review every now and then to make sure you offer the right services in the most effective manner to the people you serve..." Full article at Library Journal

This week's Friday Brain-Teaser from xrefer tests your knowledge of World Heritage Sites. Answers here.

1. Which former royal palace in France, ten miles from Paris, is a World Heritage Site where the peace treaty was signed at the end of World War I?
2. Which wall, built in about AD 122-130 as the principal northern frontier of Roman Britain, is a World Heritage Site?
3. The old city centre of Havana is a World Heritage Site - in which country?
4. Which play by Shakespeare was set at Elsinore in Denmark, the site of Kronborg Castle, a World Heritage Site?
5. Which World Heritage Site in China extends from the Yellow Sea to the Central Asian Desert?
6. Which ruined Inca city in Peru, discovered in 1911 by the explorer Hiram Bingham, is a World Heritage Site?
7. In which American city is the World Heritage Site of Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in 1776?
8. Which city in northeast England has a cathedral and castle which are together a World Heritage Site?
9. Which islands in the Pacific off the coast of Ecuador are a World Heritage Site?
10. In which country is the World Heritage Site of Head-Smashed-In Bison Jump?

The World Almanac E-Newsletter - Volume 4, Number 10 - October 2004 - is now available

Readex has announced the creation of a web-based Archive of Americana featuring fully text-searchable facsimile images. This new resource, comprised of four major primary source collections, provides online access to the printed record of the American nation

A new exhibition reveals The Private Lives of Books - 13 November-31 January 2005 - National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. The exhibition explores the unique relationships that develop between books and their owners and reveals that many books in the Library's own collections have hidden stories to tell

Freedom vs. Control: Rights Management in the Digital Age - 15 December 2004 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Free Pint Newsletter 171 - 11 November 2004 - now available

Applications are invited for research fellowships and travel grants for 2005-2006 at the Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, CT

Links to resource writeups from the latest issue of ResearchBuzz, November 4-November 10, are now available

Freedom's Fortress: The Library of Congress, 1939-1953 tells the history of the Library of Congress during a particularly important period. From 1939 to 1953 the Library underwent a myriad of changes that established the institution as one of America's foremost citadels of intellectual freedom

Microsoft Corporation has announced beta versions if its MSN Search for both the UK and US. Microsoft welcomes your comments on the new service

eLucidate Vol. 1, Issue 6 from UKOLUG is now available

CSIRO Publishing has established a resource section for information professionals managing subscriptions, where you can access Usage Reports for its online journals, view terms & conditions for use of online content, and link to prices and subscriptions options from the How to Order section

Public Library Association Spring Symposium - March 7-9, 2005 - The Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago, USA

The Steering Committee of the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color 2006 invites quality proposals for presentation at its first Conference entitled, Gathering at the Waters: Embracing Our Spirits, Telling Our Stories, to be held October 11-15, 2006, at the Adams Mark in Dallas, Texas. The Deadline for submitting all proposals is May 31, 2005

Cites & Insights 4:14, December 2004, is now available for downloading

Liebert Online provides electronic access to Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. peer-reviewed journals. Browse journals by title or discipline, or search full text, abstracts, and citations using any number of criteria, including author and date of publication

Library Journal's new annual Award for the Best Small or Rural Library in America, cosponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has been founded to encourage and showcase the exemplary work of these libraries. The award honors the library that most profoundly demonstrates outstanding service to populations of 25,000 or less. Deadline is December 1, 2004

The American Library Association Public Programs Office, the New-York Historical Society, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History are accepting grant applications from public, academic and special libraries, as well as National Park historic sites, wishing to host the traveling exhibition, Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America

This month's Info@UK is now available. Info@UK is the guide to major UK Information Society developments and news

Families of British and Commonwealth soldiers who fought in the First World War will be able to trace their relatives' war records through The Medal Rolls Index. The British National Archives has put more than five million records online. They represent the men and women of the army and Royal Flying corps who won service medals during the war

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council is calling for expressions of interest from institutions in England interested in contributing digital content relating to a sense of place to the developing Discovery Service of the People's Network in England. Deadline is 7 December 2004

Presentations given at KMWorld & Intranets 2004 - October 26–28, 2004 - Santa Clara, CA, are now available

ProQuest Information and Learning and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution have announced a partnership that will bring premium historical content to academic institutions and libraries, primary and secondary schools, and government and corporate libraries. In the first release, historical news content from The Atlanta Constitution will be available online from its first published edition in 1868 through 1925

Scientists and researchers across the UK generate increasingly vast amounts of digital data, with further investment in digitisation and purchase of digital content and information. The scientific record and the documentary heritage created in digital form are at risk, by technology obsolescence and by the fragility of digital media. Working with other practitioners, the Digital Curation Centre will support UK institutions to store, manage and preserve these data to ensure their enhancement and their continuing long-term use

The Location Register team in the University of Reading Library has now completed work on a project funded by the Laser Foundation, surveying the holdings of modern literary manuscripts in British public libraries

This Remembrance Day, the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections is launching a 10,000 image website documenting Canada wartime participation covering the Red River Resistance, the Boer War, World War I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The digitized documents, photos and publications comprising The Canadian Wartime Experience website cover a wide variety of topics, including everything from women who gathered clothing for bomb victims to a Jewish writer trapped with Nazis in a holding camp in Halifax, from a first hand account of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles to letters from soldiers who never returned home

The Renaissance Library Calendar is in its fifth year. The 2005 edition contains libraries from eight countries - Austria, Croatia, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the USA. It is published by ISIM of Stockholm, Sweden

MIMAS (Manchester Information & Associated Services) course calendar for December 2004 and January 2005 is now available

The New Numbers Racket by Andrew K. Pace, Head of Systems, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh - "While it might be said that not all librarians love automation or the all-consuming power technology holds over their patrons, it's still safe to say that most systems librarians love statistics....." - American Libraries

LIBCOM-2004 - Eighth International Conference and Exhibition - Information Technologies, Computer Systems and Publications for Libraries - November 15-19, 2004 - Moscow, Russia

The Writer in the Garden - This website, which is associated with the British Library exhibition of the same name, looks briefly at some of the ideas associated with the garden, from the middle ages to the present day. Using the work of poets, novelists, essayists, philosophers, designers and scientists it explores the interrelationship between writers, writing and gardens

Dynix has announced the general availability of Universal Resource Sharing Application 4.0. The product has completed extensive quality assurance testing and is now ready for purchase and implementation by new customers. URSA 4.0 is the most powerful interlibrary loan system available to libraries and contains a subset of the functionality found in Horizon Information Portal 4.0, which will be in general availability on December 15

Emerald's Journals of the Week for November 8 2004 are Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives and Journal of European Industrial Training

The first of the Project Gutenberg Consortia Centers is located at a site designated by its initials: pgcc.net. The mission of the Project Gutenberg Consortia Centers is to help people legally exchange eBook collections under the various new copyright laws

Science & Technology Web Awards 2004 - 50 of the best sci/tech sites on the web, selected by the editors of Scientific American

Call for papers: International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society - University of California, Berkeley - 18-20 February 2005. This conference takes a broad and cross-disciplinary approach to technology in society. With a particular focus on digital information and communications technologies, the interests addressed by the conference include: human usability, technologies for citizenship and community participation, and learning technologies

American Society for Information Science and Technology 2004 Annual Meeting - Managing and Enhancing Information: Cultures and Conflicts - Providence, Rhode Island - November 13-18, 2004

Emerald Group Publishing Limited has announced the launch of its flagship knowledge portal Emerald Management Xtra, to be unveiled at Online Information 2004 in London November 30-December 2. As the largest, most comprehensive collection of peer reviewed management journals and online support, Emerald Management Xtra has been created to meet the specific needs of educators, students, researchers, and information professionals working in the business management community. Emerald invites Online attendees to the official launch and ribbon cutting ceremony on the exhibition floor December 1 at 12:30, and to an Emerald Management Xtra product presentation on December 2 in the London Room from 10:00-11:00 a.m.

The Fall 2004 issue of CONSERline is now available

The Jewish National and University Library has announced the first stage of a project to digitize rare and out-of-print monographs from its collection. The aim of this project is to make these works freely available not only to on-site users but also to the public worldwide. This will both preserve the originals and greatly increase the number of people who will be able to refer to them

Links to resource writeups from the latest issue of ResearchBuzz, October 28-November 3, are now available

Presentations from the Digital Library Federation Fall Forum 2004 in Baltimore, Maryland, are now available

The preliminary program for the Music Library Association 74th annual conference - February 14-20 - Vancouver, Canada - is now available

This week's Friday Brain-Teaser from xrefer tests your knowledge of political leaders. Answers here

1. Which country had Charles Haughey and then Albert Reynolds as its prime minister?
2. Gamal Abdel Nasser was president of which country from 1956 to 1970?
3. Who established a socialist government in Cuba in 1959 and became its president in 1976?
4. Which country had Gough Whitlam as its prime minister from 1972 to 1975?
5. Who became president of France in 1995?
6. Which country had Jan Smuts as its prime minister from 1919 to 1924 and from 1939 to 1945?
7. Who was the first woman prime minister of Pakistan?
8. Put these three men in the order in which they were president of the USA: Reagan, Ford and Nixon.
9. Which country had Carlos Menem as its president from 1989 to 1999?
10. In which country did Zog become king in 1928 after being its prime minister and president?

Dialog has announced that it has reorganized and expanded its renowned Beilstein organic chemistry collection. With research dating back to 1771, the Beilstein collection is the world’s oldest, most recognized and most respected authority for research and analysis in the field of organic chemistry

In celebration of Family History Month, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. has announced the official re-launch of its award-winning website www.ellisisland.org, featuring improved navigation, retooled and advanced search capabilities, as well as family history research tips and forms, free to all users. The newly revamped site, which contains 25 million ships' passenger records covering entry through the Port of New York and Ellis Island from 1892-1924, first launched on April 17, 2001 to critical acclaim and a deluge of traffic. To date the site has received over 6 billion hits

International Conference on Politics and Information Systems: Technologies and Applications (PISTA '05) - July 14-17, 2005 - Orlando, Florida, USA

The University of Texas at Austin School of Information seeks applications from Master's students interested in a careers in digital libraries, as well as from PhD applicants interested in teaching and research in the area of digital libraries. Thanks to a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the iSchool can offer five stipend awards to Master's students and one to a PhD student

Information Online 2005, the 12th Conference and Exhibition, is to be held in Sydney Australia, from the 1-3 February, 2005. It is the leading conference and exhibition for the online information industry in the Asia-Pacific region

The thirteenth annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) will be held at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on 14-17 July 2005

Springer has announced its 2005 Price Lists. There are separate price lists for journals formerly published by Springer-Verlag and for journals formerly published by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Scopus, the world's largest abstract and indexing database, offering access to 14,000 peer-reviewed titles from more than 4,000 international publishers, has officially opened

The UK National Aquisitions Group has launched a new website today

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services has announced the establishment of a Support Staff Grant. Underwritten by a contribution from Sage Publications, the Support Staff Grant will make it possible for an eligible individual (or individuals) to attend ALA Annual in Chicago in June 2005

The Canadian province of British Columbia is investing $23.4 million to improve library services and promote innovative literacy programs in schools and communities across the province as part of a strategy to make the province the most literate place in North America by 2010

Alexander Street Press has acquired Classical Music Library. The acquisition of the library music reference service will allow Alexander Street to add audio capabilities to their text- and image-based humanities collections. Alexander Street will continue to grow the existing Classical Music Library service, adding it to their growing catalog of award-winning indexes and full-text collections, and will also use the newly-acquired music platform to create new collections—both new music services and new collections that combine music, text, and images

In collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Health, the Minnesota Historical Society has agreed to index, preserve and provide access to the 1900-1934 birth certificates (approximately 1.8 million records) through The Minnesota Birth Certificate Index

Americans for Libraries Council has announced that it has been awarded a four-year, $2.7 million grant for its Lifelong Access Libraries initiative by The Atlantic Philanthropies. The grant will enable the development of a nationwide network of Lifelong Access Libraries that offer a new model for library services focused on baby boomers and older adults making the transition to active civic participation in retirement

xrefer has announced the winner of its Online Reference Research Award. Cynthia L. Gregory, head of electronic resources at the Archbishop Alter Library, College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded a $1,000 grant toward research aimed at uncovering undergraduates' attitudes towards and usage patterns of ebooks. The study reveals surprising student perceptions about ebooks versus print books that run counter to widespread assumptions about the reception of ebooks at universities

The November/December 2004 issues of Computers in Libraries, Information Today, Searcher and ONLINE are now available

Thomson Scientific has released a new White Paper entitled: Open Access Journals in the ISI Citation Databases: Analysis of Impact Factors and Citation Patterns. The findings indicate that journals published under the Open Access (OSA) model continue to gain impact in the world of scholarly research

Call for papers: The 1st International Conference on Information Management and Business - Taipei, Taiwan - March 26–27, 2005

The November 2004 issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter is now available

Complementing its range of products that enhance the reference function of libraries, Altarama announces Reference by SMS, the first service designed specifically to allow libraries to seamlessly expand their reference delivery methods to include SMS ("simple message service")

Two and a half years ago, the JISC funded PORTAL Project ran a survey to gather information on the services users wanted to see in institutional portals. The survey was completed by over 600 users, and helped inform community perspectives on institutional portal development. Analysis of the initial survey, and other project
deliverables are now available

Wiley InterScience has announced the premier issue of its Customer Newsletter

Artifact, the free guide to the best of the Web for the arts and creative industries, has a new website

Ovid's Resource of the Month for November 2004 - AGRICOLA and AGRIS

Presentations given at 4th International Web Archiving Workshop - September 16 2004, Bath, UK - are now available

Presentations given at Beyond the Building: Taking the Library to Our Users - 2004 October Conference: Biomedical Libraries at Dartmouth, New Hampshire - are now available

Call for Papers - 36th Annual conference of the Corporation of professional librarians of Quebec - May 18-20, 2005 - St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada

Following the integration of the old Concord site within the main British
Library pages, the homepage of the Laser Foundation has moved. Linked to the homepage, you'll find information about the Foundation's history, its past grants and publications. There are also guidelines on submitting a speculative proposal to the Foundation and details of the projects currently supported. The Laser Foundation is a grant making organisation whose mission is to improve library facilities available to the public

Leadership in Library Acquisitions Award - This award of $1,500, donated by Harrassowitz Company, is given to recognize the contributions by and outstanding leadership of an individual to the field of acquisitions librarianship. This recognition is made for individual achievement of a high order in this area. Deadline for nominations is December 1

Applications for presenting poster sessions for both US and International participants at the 2005 American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago are now being accepted

Society for Endocrinology and BioScientifica Ltd journals are now online with HighWire Press. There is currently a free trial period for access, which is available until 31 March 2005. Subsequent to the free trial, access to the full text of articles will be available to all institutional subscribers in 2005

The approximately ten thousand cartoons in the British Cartoon Collection at the Library of Congress date largely from the period 1780 to 1830, an era dominated by the prodigious talents and prolific efforts of such famous caricaturists as James Gillray and George Cruikshank. The cartoons highlight aspects of British political life, including tensions with its colonies and other nations, as well as society, fashion, manners, and theater

The CILIP/LiS Libraries Change Lives Award is established as one of the leading accolades in the library and information world. Its aim is to highlight and reward good practice in any innovative library/information related project. Open for entries until 28 January 2005

Internet Resources Newsletter - Issue 122 - November 2004 - edited by Roddy MacLeod, Heriot-Watt University, is now available

The 2004 Archive Awareness Campaign is a three-month-long promotion of celebratory events across the UK and Republic of Ireland. Local and national archives, large and small, public and private will open their doors to you

AHC-UK Conference and The Royal Historical Society Gerald Aylmer Seminar - Recasting the Past: Digital Histories - 27 November 2004 - National Archives, Kew, London. The aim of the conference is to explore how the ever increasing number and variety of digital and electronic sources have changed the way in which history, and historical sources, are created, selected, researched, taught, written, presented and used

To mark its 25th anniversary, the London Review of Books is organising a series of public discussions