Happy New Year! As I was preparing this column, a colleague recommended including a site for those of us who are putting a positive spin on the new year by starting projects and setting other types of goals. The staff at the University of Maryland Medical Center has compiled some suggestions for a successful 2007, and we should try to apply these in our professional lives as well. A few to get you started: set realistic, attainable goals, share goals with others to keep yourself on track, use mistakes as opportunities for learning, and begin as soon as possible to get the momentum going. And reward yourself for a job well done!

I can’t help it … I’m all about the blogs. The new LISZEN–Library and Information Science Search Engine–uses Google Co-op, a create-your-own search engine, to search LIS blogs. Garrett Hungerford, the site’s creator (also a public library network manager and an LIS student), started with the blogs listed on LISWiki (also worth a click), and now there are more than 500 blogs to search. If yours isn’t listed, add your blog to the LISZEN wiki and submit your contact information. Simple. And now, simpler to find that post about [your topic here] that you know you read but can’t remember where.

What are the LIS students up to these days? At the University of Missouri-Columbia, they’re podcasting. Check out LiSRadio, where you’ll find conversations on jobs and other LIS topics, plus interviews with vendors, publishers, and professors. Download a podcast from the archives, or view the calendar for upcoming shows of interest and listen live. Lots of instructions for listeners and participants. Subscribe to feeds for individual series or all of them. Some content is directed at local students, but you’ll likely find something to listen to and even a few ideas for a podcasting in your own information center.