[Editors] MIT Editors' Club, Sept. 06 Minutes

[Elizabeth Thomson]

MIT EDITORS' CLUB

*Meeting Notes from September 21, 2006*

*The News Office and PR*

My colleague Heather Manning, Public Relations Assistant in the News 
Office, joined us at this meeting, giving me the opportunity to not 
only introduce Heather but also remind Editors how the News Office 
can help publicize your MIT news.

Heather works closely with me and Patti Richards, Senior 
Communications Officer for the office. Together the three of us work 
to find and promote great news about the Institute. I focus on 
research advances, while Patti covers large institutional projects 
like the opening of the Stata Center or the announcement of the 
Energy Research Council.

Of course, YOU are great sources of news for us! So keep those 
stories (and story ideas!) coming.

Here's a recent example. Michelle Gaseau of the Lean Aerospace 
Initiative sent me a piece she'd written for their website about a 
new tool for estimating the costs of complex projects (like building 
a new fighter plane). Together we reworked it into a press release, 
then I gave it to Heather. Heather in turn did a little sleuthing for 
business publications not already in our media database that might 
find the work interesting. End result: we sent the story directly to 
some 300 reporters and reached others by posting it on EurekAlert, a 
press release service the News Office subscribes to that's run by the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science.

*Great Resources*

Heather Denny, communications officer for the MIT Libraries, brought 
to our attention a variety of really cool resources now available to 
us free through the libraries. For example, members of the MIT 
community no longer need to subscribe to the Chronicle of Higher 
Education---we can now access it online. Also, we now have access to 
the "electronic backfiles" of historical newspapers! These include 
the Globe (1872-1922), the Washington Post (1877-1988), and the Wall 
Street Journal (1889-sometime before 2006---I forgot to jot down the 
exact date).

Several of the folks who've joined Editors' Club recently are new to 
the field of communicating university research to the rest of the 
world. As a result, I told folks at this meeting about a few of my 
favorite resources to that end, available either online or through me.

--A Field Guide for Science Writers. This paperback covers science 
writing for newspapers, TV, the government and, of course, 
universities. I think it's such a great resource that I (well, the 
News Office) bought a load of them. If you'd like a copy, please send 
me a check for $16 (made out to MIT) OR a "cost center number" that 
that amount can be billed to. First come first served...I only have a 
few left. If I run out, however, you can buy the guide through 
amazon.com.

--Getting Your Story Out, A Communications Toolkit. NSF's Office of 
Legislative and Public Affairs has created a CD aimed at researchers 
that explains how and why to communicate research news to the public. 
Last year I distributed about 30 of these to Editors' Club members 
and recently just asked NSF for 20 more. They're free---let me know 
if you'd like one and I'll simply pop it into interdepartmental mail.

--PIOnet (Public Information Officer network). This is an electronic 
list just like Editors' Club that allows you to ask questions of 
university science writers from around the country. Go to 
http://www.newswise.com/community/pionet/ for more info, including a 
set of directions for participating.

*Photo Archives*

Sarah Griffith, manager of educational initiatives at the Harvard-MIT 
Division of Health Sciences and Technology, told us about an image 
archiving program that HST has started using. The Thalia Image 
Management software being developed by MIT Information Services and 
Technology is a web application that works on MIT certificates. IS&T 
is trying to make it Institute wide, Sarah said. For more information 
or if you'd like a demo, contact Catherine Iannuzzo at 
iannuzzo at mit.edu or (617) 324-0226.

On another note related to photos, if you're looking for great 
science-related images, head to the NSF.  Images in the NSF 
Multimedia Gallery are available to the public for non-commercial use 
http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/.

*Next Meetings*

Following is the Fall '06 schedule for meetings of MIT Editors' Club. 
All meetings are in the News Office, 11-400, from 12-1. Feel free to 
bring a lunch.

Tuesday, October 17

Thursday, November 16

Wednesday, December 13

Cheers!

Elizabeth