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Welcome to The Genre Traveler! Please sign up using the form to the right so that you'll get all the latest updates to the site. You also might want to sign up for the RSS feed, which you can do via email or your favorite RSS Reader. Last week, the results of the Heritage Health Index (HHI) were announced, and they weren’t pretty. As you read this, millions of artifacts stored in museums, libraries and other institutions across the United States are slowly disintegrating, due to improper storage.

The HHI, the first comprehensive survey ever to assess the condition and preservation needs of U.S. collections, found that 65% of collecting institutions have already experienced damage to their collections because of improper storage, 80% of U.S. collecting institutions do not have an emergency plan that includes their collections nor do they have staff trained to carry it out, and 190 million objects are in immediate need of conservation treatment.

Although damage and potentially damaging conditions can be found at institutions large and small, the worst offenders are small-town museums and historical societies.

“There is an urgent need for a better environment for collections of all kinds,” said Debra Hess Norris, chairwoman of Heritage Preservations, a conservation advocacy group.

However, Kristen Overbeck Laise, director of the HHI project, said that “it’s hard to raise money for something as boring as storage.”

What does this mean to genre travelers? Most collections of science fiction, fantasy and horror artifacts can be found at small, under-funded museums and institutions – those that are most likely to have collections in trouble. In fact, this year alone, many, such as Baltimore’s American Dime Museum and the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, Calif., have closed or will be closing by the end of the year.

If you live somewhere that has one of these little institutions, provide your support. Donate money, time or expertise. Help these places survive and keep genre heritage safe from mold, bugs and time.

For more information about the HHI, go to their website at www.heritagehealthindex.org.

If you’ve always wanted to visit Alaska to see the aurora borealis, you'd better hurry. Scientists at the American Geophysical Union meeting last Thursday said that because the Earth’s magnetic pole is drifting away from North America toward Siberia, the Northern Lights might be leaving Alaska’s skies for a new home in Siberia.

“This may be part of a normal oscillation,” said Joseph Stoner, a paleomagnetist at Oregon State University, “and it will eventually migrate back toward Canada.”

Now, this potential event won’t happen over night. In fact, it will take about 50 years, if it takes place at all. But if it does, you can always change your vacation plans to include Siberia or parts of Europe.

The north magnetic pole, first discovered in 1831, has been moving for centuries. Usually it moves between northern Canada and Siberia, but it has sometimes moved in other directions. Why the magnetic poles move is till a mystery.

If you’d rather visit Alaska for the Northern Lights, several companies offer tours. For more information visit:

www.alaskatours.com/winter/default.htm
www.iditarodtours.com/iditarod.htm
www.goalaskatours.com/winteractivities_northernlights.html

Or create your own tour. Visit The Genre Traveler’s Shop at www.nasw.org/users/carms/GenreTraveler/TGTShop.htm#travelsvs for a list of services that can help.

For more information about the Northern Lights or the Earth’s magnetic poles, visit:

www.dced.state.ak.us/oed/student_info/learn/northernlights.htm
science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/29dec_magneticfield.htm
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10388147

Harlan Ellison – a name that conjures a plethora of emotions from those who say his name. I can say this, because I was recently at a con where his name came up often and with much respect as well as rolling of eyes.

Ellison has been called irascible, curmudgeonly and a great writer. Since his first sale to Infinity Science Fiction in 1955, he's won eight and a half Hugo Awards, three Nebula Awards, many script-writing awards for his television work, two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, two World Fantasy Awards, including their Lifetime Achievement Award, and five Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers Association, including their Lifetime Achievement Award. He was part of the science fiction movement in the 1960s called the New Wave and his influence is still quite strong.

Recently, the SFWA’s Board of Directors named him a Grand Master. He will be honored at next year’s Nebula Award Weekend to be held May 4-7 in Tempe, Ariz.

Connie Willis, winner of six Nebula Awards, eight Hugo Awards, and nine Locus Poll Awards, will serve as Toastmaster and William F. Nolan, author of Logan’s Run, will be Author Emeritus.

If you can make it out to Tempe – this will probably be a very interesting event.

WHAT: 2006 Nebular Awards Weekend
WHERE: Tempe Mission Palms Hotel, Tempe, Ariz.
WHEN: May 4-7, 2006, starting at 6pm on Thursday

For more information: sfwa.org/awards/2006