Chatham House Rule

To Chatham House last night for a retirement party. Chatham house is the home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and prides itself on "Independent thinking on international affairs". Central to this is the world famous Chatham House Rule which allows speakers' comments to be reported, but not their identities, thus encouraging frank debate. I don't think it was in force last night but I'll refrain from revealing too much other than to say that the general consensus was that libraries are essential to any organisation which want to be taken seriously for its accuracy and independent analysis.

Digital Journalist Survival Guide: Tech terms you should know

At last - a glossary of all those techie terms and acronyms that non-tech information professionals and journalists should know. PoynterOnline's Jennifer 8.Lee has compiled this with the help of the Hacks/Hackers group. As the ResourceShelf put it, being able to "translate from 'geek speak' to layman terms is an excellent skill to have."

Digitising newspapers

In last week's Media Guardian Dan Sabbagh examined James Murdoch's claims that the British Library's plan to digitise newspapers was for commercial gain. Obviously the accusations centre around copyright, but there's an interesting response in today's paper where Ralph Gee notes:

"Most 19th century provincial editors shamelessly lifted from the Times as copies reached them by stagecoach and railway; but London presses reciprocated, for their plunder to be used yet again by other provincials. This very incestuous process is now easily proved."

Indeed it is. Digitisation has completely opened up papers in a way that the original editorial teams could never have imagined. Long may it continue.

Association of UK Media Librarians

After 24 years of promoting and supporting librarians working in the print and broadcast media, the Association of UK Media Librarians (AUKML) is to fold. On May 11, a farewell party was held at IET London, Savoy Place, to celebrate the group's achievements (due to careful stewardship, the group has a healthy bank balance). Over 60 members and former members came together for one last time.

I've written something about the event, for Cilip Gazette (turn to page 3.) See also Annabel Colley's column in Cilip Update, although this is only available to Cilip members...Pictures will soon be available on a Flickr site.