An additional scholarship fund will provide financial support for eight librarians from Eastern and Central Europe to attend ICML. The funding has been made available through the efforts of Elisabeth Husem, of the University of Oslo, and her Norwegian colleagues. These scholarships will be awarded by the ICML Scholarship Committee using the same published criteria as for all awards. For more information and the application form, click on the button on the ICML home page (http://www.icml.org)

Independent Group to Administer Scholarships

ICML has a scholarship fund to provide financial support for professional colleagues unable to find sufficient funding to attend the congress. Because the funds available will fall far short of the needs which they address, it is important that this fund is administered objectively and distributed according to criteria which everyone understands. To this end, we have set up an independent Scholarship Committee which will make its decisions in complete independence from the programme and organising committees. It is chaired by Dr Lenny Rhine of the University of Florida, who has a deep knowledge and understanding of the international aspects of health librarianship. To serve with him on the committee Lenny has drawn together a group of equally independent-minded people from all parts of the world.

Applications for ICML scholarships will be welcome from anywhere, and a standard form is available on the ICML Website (http://www.icml.org) and make the process as straightforward as possible.

WHO Documentation Centre Meeting to be held at ICML

WHO EURO's network of official documentation centres is the latest group to take advantage of ICML's hospitality and schedule a meeting to take place during the Congress. The centres meet annually to exchange views and ideas and to generally keep up to date with the operation of the scheme, and meetings usually take place either at EAHIL's biennial European Conference of Medical and Health Libraries or at EURO headquarters in Copenhagen.

Background Note: The World Health Organization EURO region supports a network of documentation centres which covers a huge and diverse area throughout the world from Reykjavik to Vladivostok. Documentation centres maintain substantial collections of publications and grey literature relating both to the operation of WHO itself and on general health issues.

Richard Smith and Karen Hunter to Open Plenary Programme

The first plenary session of the congress will feature two eminent figures from the world of scholarly publishing: Dr Richard Smith, editor of the BMJ and chief executive of the BMJ Publishing Group, and Dr Karen Hunter, senior vice president of Elsevier Science. As well as being an eminent medical writer on his own account, Richard Smith has overseen the radical transformation of the British Medical Journal, which has moved from being an entirely paper publication to being a medical resource whose primary incarnation is now online. Fundamental changes are also occurring in the BMJ Group's range of specialist medical journals and in the book publishing programme. Dr Smith will look at the future of scholarly publishing and can be relied on to avoid the easy and the predictable.

Karen Hunter shares responsibility within Elsevier Science for the development of publishing strategy and as such she is a hugely influential figure in the world of commercial scholarly publishing. An accomplished speaker and author, her ideas will help shape the development of health and medical libraries. In accepting ICML's invitation to speak Dr Hunter commented that she found her brief both challenging and exciting: "I suspect that a year from now we will have seen many, many more new initiatives which will not be mere bumps in the road".

There will be five plenary sessions during the congress, each featuring two outstanding speakers.

All papers to be published in full on the web.

For the first time, the proceedings of the 8th ICML will not be published in paper form. With the theme of the congress so firmly based on the impact of the Internet on scholarly publishing, it was time to seize the opportunity to move whole-heartedly into web publishing. All the papers will be published in full within the ICML web site. With none of the cost constraints of a paper publication, the proceedings will be able to include the full version of all papers presented in London, including any graphs, tables and illustrations supplied by the author.

Robert Kiley will edit the 8ICML Proceedings, which will be published only in electronic format and on the web. Robert is head of the Information Service at the Wellcome Trust and has an illustrious record in information and IT at the Wellcome and before that with the National Health Service. The proceedings will be free of charge and available on an unrestricted basis.

Up To Ten Japanese-Language Papers

We have a firm commitment from the Japan Medical Library Association to provide Japanese-language sessions. International committee members Mr Naohiko Yamaguchi and Mr Masaaki Tonosaki will be closely involved with ensuring a high- quality programme of Japanese contributions.

Social Events - Contract Signed for River Cruise

The main social event of the congress will be a river cruise through the centre of London on the evening of Tuesday, July 4th. Agreement has been reached for the congress to hire three of the best and most luxurious boats currently operating on the Thames. On behalf of the Library Association, Janet Liebster has signed contracts for Silver Sturgeon and Silver Barracuda (operated by Woods Boats) , and an option has also been signed for Symphony (flagship of the Bateaux London fleet). The evening will begin at Westminster and Savoy piers, which are within easy walking distance of the congress centre. The boats will cruise between Chelsea in the west and the spectacular Millennium Dome in the east taking in (among many other sites) Big Ben, London's historic City district, and Tower, and two the Wren masterpieces of St Paul's cathedral and Greenwich Palace. As this historic panorama flows past the windows, food and drink will flow across the tables, before delegates are returned to their departure point in time for a nightcap. The cost of this evening is included in the conference registration fee. The delegate pack will include a ticket valid for one particular boat. These will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. If the number of delegates exceeds the places available on the boats then we will make every effort to reserve additional boats of similar standard. Vegetarian and other special dietary requirements will be accommodated and should be specified at the time of booking.

Library Visits' Programme Takes Shape

Already many of London's most famous medical institutions are preparing to welcome ICML delegates as visitors:

Health Education Authority

Institute of Child Health

Royal College of Surgeons

Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

Royal Pharmaceutical Society

The British Library

Wellcome Institute

Department of Health

South Bank University, Library and Learning Resource Centre

Professionally interesting sites are not, of course, limited to central London, and two organisations from outside the metropolis have also joined our visits programme:
British Library @ Boston Spa
Blackwells, Oxford

In many cases visits will only be possible in small groups and by prior arrangement. There will be a Visits Help Desk at the congress centre, which will also help arrange other visits to consumer health information sites, HIV and drug information services and more specialised libraries and information services on request - let us know in advance if possible. Again, a bit nearer the congress date we will be making arrangements for you to contact the Visits team. A number of additional visits are currently being negotiated, and they will be publicised on the web site and elsewhere when they are confirmed.

Bruce Madge, British Library
8ICLM Organising Committee

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