----------------------------Original message---------------------------- The Map and Geography Round Table (MAGERT) of ALA is looking for at least 2 column editors for its newsletter, *base line*: the New Maps column and the Computer Information column. As the new editor of *base line*, I'm looking for a couple of people who can send in a page or two (or three or four :) every two months to be published in the newsletter (it comes out 6 times a year). If you're interested, please contact me (Mark Thomas) at [log in to unmask] This should be pretty easy for anyone with some sort of acquisitions budget for commercially produced maps, since you probably already keep an eye out for new publications and products (through publishers announcements and on the web) and you may already do a list of new acquisitions for a monthly report or to post on your web page. You may be able to easily modify such a list for a column in *base line* Entries should have some sort of bibliographic description and, if needed, information on where to get the item. I'd like to avoid listing depository maps from major US Government series (e.g., topo series, or CIA maps) unless there is something special about a particular one. Feel free to to collect information from several people and put it together in the regular column (i.e., you don't necessarily have to do the whole thing yourself, although it shouldn't be much work if you do). In the past, sometimes the New Maps column was just a list of recently published maps; sometimes a helpful descriptive or qualitative annotation is added by the editor (see, for instance, Paige Andrew's column in the most recent *base line* (18:2/3) ). Although most MAGERT members are using the internet for communication now, I think we can all agree that it's nice to have an old-fashioned newsletter that we can easily browse through and annotate in the margins, without having to stare at a computer. It helps provide a sense of community within the organization, it provides a permanent record of the organization's activities, and can be a nice synopsis of new goings-on in the map world. So, I think such a newsletter is still valid in this day and age, for the wired crowed as well as for the not-so-wired. You're welcome to help out. Also, please give me any other ideas you have for *base line* columns; I'll welcome any input and anyone willing to do a regular column. If you're an ALA member but not a member of MAGERT, please contact Joe Winkler, chair of MAGERT's Membership Committee, at [log in to unmask] or check out the MAGERT web site at http://www.sunysb.edu/libmap/magert1.htm Thanks, ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mark Thomas | The train ... traditional, Perkins Library, Duke University | yet environmentally sound 919-660-5853 / FAX: 919-684-2855 | [log in to unmask] | --Lisa Simpson