Here are a couple of opportunities to dip your toes into the pool of publishing and contributing to the library profession.

MLA has posted the MLA 2007 Section Program Themes and the call for posters and papers is out and the deadline is November 6, 2006. Here is the chance to showcase what your library is doing and share your ideas with the library community. I did a poster for MLA in Arizona and it was a relatively painless way to get start writing. In fact the thing I liked the most about doing the poster was meeting all the people who came up to look at the poster. I learned so much from them.

If you are thinking about writing an article, the Patchwork column of the Journal of Hospital Librarianship is currently accepting articles for submission for its upcoming January 2007 issue. Past topics have included: The impact of culture and tradition on health, revitalizing your library, accessing consumer health information, career development, and collection management. Articles for this column are not limited to a particular theme, but should be pertinent to the field of Medical/Health Sciences Librarianship.

Feel free to email the editors of the Patchwork column for further information: Jeff Perkins Jeff.Perkins@UTSouthwestern.eduor Nandita Mani nmani1@hfhs.org

If the idea of a whole article is a little intimidating to you, try writing a review for JMLA. Do you know about a website, database, PDA product or software package that would be of interest to other medical librarians? You should write an electronic resources review for JMLA!

Please contact Chris Shaffer chris-shaffer@uiowa.edu if you're interested in writing a review.

Information for reviewers can be found at: http://www.mlanet.org/publications/jmla/jmla_eresource.html

Here are some potential review topics:
TRIP Database http://www.tripdatabase.com/
MEDEM Medical Library http://www.medem.com/medlb/medlib_entry.cfm
InterDok Directory of Published Proceedings http://www.interdok.com/dopp/
Thompson Gale Health & Wellness Center and/or Health Reference Center Academic http://www.gale.com/title_lists/
CSA MultiSearch http://multisearch.csa.com/
Helia http://www.healia.com/

Here are three opportunities to share your knowledge and help strengthen and expand your profession. Hospital librarians we need you! There are a lot of you out there. Judging from the previous chatter on the hls-list regarding interest among hospital librarians attending a symposium on open access for MLA 2007, you feel your thoughts, needs, wishes, interests are not always being heard. Here is a chance to do something about that. Please don't say that lack f time is the reason for not publishing. How hard is it to write one thing a year?!