At a web site called ACI Plus (created by Dr. Daniel K. Berman) there is a page titled "The Single Greatest Secret to Good Writing." The secret is: At its best, all writing -- any type of writing -- is storytelling. There is on that same web page, a list of 10 principles of good storytelling. Many of these points are valuable, if nothing more than as reminders to review before you launch off to write that article or book. The 10 principles (they have them in the form of questions which you're supposed to answer yes or no), are listed below in the same order they have on the web page, however, I've tweaked them for this column's readership. [Yessss, I got permission from Dr. Berman to do this.]

The 10 principles are:

1. The opening sentences catch a person's attention,
2. The narrative is clear and to the point,
3. The material is presented in a logical manner,
4. The writing has a clear beginning, middle and end,
5. Content is easy for the reader to follow,
6. The author has put himself or herself in the reader's place,
7. The content is interesting enough to make the reader want to read to the end,
8. The main point of the "story" is obvious,
9. The conclusion satisfies the readers, rather than leaving them confused or "hanging," and
10. Readers who have read the content are likely to tell it to others.

I like the notion that what we write is similar to storytelling. Have you gone to a conference lately? Did you strike up any conversations with colleagues and wish someone would write about those topics? That someone can be none other than you. Where do all those post-conference ideas go? More often than not, they go nowhere. There's no place to put them so they slip-slide out of your mind, perhaps dropping out of your mental notebook or briefcase like autumn leaves to be carried along the curb, later to be swirled away down the sewer. Yes, I've painted a horrific picture. Ideas are a terrible thing to waste. But it doesn't have to be this way— Catch those idea-leaves!

If you've been reading this column regularly, I bet you've made your very own PIF (Publication Ideas Folder) by now. You probably didn't assign a "name" to this file, so I can help you out with catchy buzz-word for it. PIFs are great things to keep nearby. PIFs are not effective if you put your PIF with other folders in your file cabinet or inside your desk drawer with other folders you seldom use. Some of the more technologically-addicted may not prefer the "Folder." But we still have PIF C Publication Ideas File (heh-heh.) A desktop item, of course. Not buried somewhere in your network neighborhood or c-drive.

Ideas for an article or book are ubiquitous. You just have to notice them. They are like dandelions or house sparrows. They are everywhere most all the time, you just need to become aware of them and then the trick is when you notice one, you have to JOT THEM DOWN immediately. Jot, I said.... don't get bogged down mentally by thinking you have to write up a formal sentence or two for an idea. Just jot down a word or two on any slip of paper and put it in your PIF. When you find time to write up something more substantial about your idea/s, you'll have them in one handy folder. The techno-potential-authors can jot down their idea/s quickly using their PC's "notebook" or on a Macintosh, you can use the neat "sticky" applications.

I just said "When you find time to write..." Are you going to "find time to write?" Probably not. Time to write isn't normally available for us. It's just not there. It's like having "time" available to volunteer for professional committees, or offices in AALL or volunteering to help in AALL chapters, or helping in AALL SISs. There simply isn't time for those activities either... but, people are doing it anyway, aren't they?

I understand. When you start thinking about publishing, it may remind you of thinking about trying out a new recipe, or when thinking about whether to go to some new restaurant in town. An instant and subtle mental barricade is formed: yes, it's far easier to just keep doing the safe--the familiar-- rather than it is to think about what all is involved in getting the ingredients of that new recipe or taking a chance on going to that new restaurant and possibly being disappointed at having a lousy meal and having wasted the money for something you didn't enjoy. I'm writing all this, hoping to get you warm to the idea to actually start writing to get published. Heck, your article doesn't have to be very long either. For example, page 310 of volume 50, no. 2 (June 2000) of the Journal of Legal Education, Professor Grant H. Morris wrote two words and one footnote to those words in his now-famous article titled "The Shortest Article in Law Review History: A Brief Response to Professor Jensen." No, I'm not telling you what those words are!— you have to do a little research to find those two words he wrote.

Capital Community College (Hartford Connecticut) has a very nice web presentation titled "A Guide for Writing Research Papers." It's geared for undergraduate students, but is a nice place to begin your journal for researching on your path to getting published. The URL is: http://ccc.commnet.edu/mla.htm. This is part of a larger web page titled "Internet Resources for Writers" which is also quite good as a starting point.

Hey--Publishing opportunity right here!! I need some help with the next few "Research & Publications" columns. I'm on AALL's AMPC for 2003 Seattle, and I'm going to be busy with that commitment for the next several months. If one of you could write some guest columns, that would be wonderfully excellent. Otherwise, the next several columns will be... will be.... well, let's not go there. So please, call or e-mail me. We can go over some ideas for future columns.

Another publishing opportunity is that LLRX.com is looking for potential authors. The purpose of LLRX.com is ‘to provide our readers with a dynamic forum in which to exchange information ... on a broad range of topics including: technology and legal research; Congressional activities effecting technology, research, and libraries; technology training resources; and, seminar materials and presentations from leading legal and library-related technology conferences." They also are a forum for unbiased reviews of: software and online legal database services, resources for intranets, and books on technology topics. Contact them at: editors@llrx.com.

Cynthia Cicco (U. of Pittsburgh Barco Law Library) forwarded me an "ACQflash" e-mail in early February 2002 that announced an exciting new research forum for acquisitions and collection development librarians. You may have already heard about it, but in case you haven't, it's called CAROL. Collections and Acquisitions Research Online is an information clearinghouse for library research. It's a web database where librarians can go to send a description of their research to locate other researchers active in a similar topic. The purpose of CAROL is to encourage research by providing a central source of information about ongoing work. For more details launch to: http://128.253.121.98/carol/start.htm.

Library research: are you interested in diving into it? Try this URL: www.dpo.uab.edu/~folive/LRSII/ . Someone could write a guest TSLL Research and Publications column on this web site alone! Or how about writing an article based on an article by Peter Jacso "Digital Librarianship: Librarians as Digital Authors and Publishers" published in the May 2001 issue of Computers in Libraries.

If you are new to tech services law librarianship and don't know about Ellen McGrath's now-famous CPOEAS (Current Publishing Opportunities Email Alert Service), contact her at emcgrath@acsu.buffalo.edu, and she'll add you to her address book. I wish we could name it COPIUS, but it just wouldn't work as an acronym. Thank you Ellen for continuing your volunteer activities for this service!

Here are some recent publishing activities of our colleagues that I know about. If you or someone you know should be included in future columns, let me know please. Patricia Turpening ( U. of Cincinnati)- submitted an article for publication in the May or August LLJ volume titled "Survey of Preservation Efforts in Law Libraries, with Recommendations." Pat has also published an article in the April 2002 issue of Spectrum, in the Professional Development Desktop Learning Opportunities Series, on starting a preservation program. Janet McKinney (Shook, Hardy, Bacon-Kansas City) wrote an e-article "Shaking up Shook: A Case Study in Implementing LawPort Portal" in the February 1, 2002 LLRX.com web site (to read, go to: www.llrx.com/features/lawport.htm then do a web home page search under Janet McKinney). Janet told me that she was asked by the vendor (SV technology) to do the article. Marlene Bubrick (Loyola-Los Angeles) wrote "A Technical Services Link to Public Services Staff" in the Spring 2001 issue of Academic Law Library Newsletter.

Need money for research that leads to publication? There are a lot of resources in our Association. Read Spectrum regularly to tap into the various grant money that's available. Money for research is available from OBS and TS through the OBS/TS Joint Research Grant Committee, of which I am the chair. Other current members are: for TS-SIS, Julie Stauffer and Rosemary Hahn, and for OBS, Ruth Patterson Funabiki and Elizabeth Duncan, and advisor is Richard Amelung. In a nutshell, you can go to either TS or OBS web sites and find forms to fill out for the Joint Research Grant. We have "plugged" the purpose and policies of this fabulous grant opportunity in past TSLLs, so I won't go into details. Contact me and/or poke around either SIS web sites to find all the info you need to start thinking whether you want to apply for a grant for a special research project you want to get off the ground.

LRTS is issuing a call for original, unpublished manuscripts. It's a marvelous opportunity to report research results or other scholarly activity among our non-law library colleagues. LRTS is Library Resources and Technical Services, the official journal of ALA's ALCTS (Association for Library Collections & Technical Services). They are a very large, very active organization. They have a web site called "ALCTS Research Topics in Cataloging and Classification: a Summary of the Literature, 1995-". It's packed with all kinds of research ideas. To get to it, just do a Google search with the terms ALCTS research topics. Have fun!