Mars library a gift to future explorers

Mars as taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Photo Credit: NASA, Dr. Nicholas Short's Remote Sensing Tutorial.

When I was in library school, an administration class had us creating our own libraries, that is, collection development, writing position descriptions, working with budgets, describing mission, etc. A friend and fellow graduate assistant created a library in space. It was generally known as the most far out (no pun intended) and clever library planned in the class, at least in my time at USF. However, it was also considered by some to be the least likely to ever exist. As of today, though, Mars will play host to a library of earthly creations. The Planetary Society has created the Vision of Mars library on DVD, which traveled to the planet on the rover Phoenix. The press release from the Planetary Society has information about the contents and purpose of the library.