Romancing the Tome
Looking for information on film adaptations of great literature? Then try this blog: Romancing the Tome. They post about upcoming films and existing adaptations, providing reviews of both.
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January 31, 2006
PollingReport
PollingReport is an independent resource for polling results. It offers polls on elections, state of the union, national security, and topics in the news.
January 30, 2006
Solar System Exploration
Solar System Exploration is a site from NASA that lets viewers explore the solar system from their computers. Visit the planets, learn about missions, view multimedia, read news, and much more. The entire site is beautifully done, making you feel as if you are experiencing part of the magic of space exploration.
Gamer Dad
GamerDad has reviews and articles about gaming with children as a parent. Very active forums will let you talk with others about games and you can subscribe to the RSS feed as well. Librarians looking to do gaming programs in their libraries can look here for ideas about popular games and appropriateness.
January 29, 2006
Kaboodle
Kaboodle lets you do online research easily by allowing you to collect information via their site and a bookmarklet. If you are doing comparison shopping, you can collect all of the sites and prices easily and then compare. You can also share what you find with others.
Blummy
blummy is a bookmarklet that lets you have a single bookmark on your toolbar that leads to bookmarks within it that have functionality. This means that you can have bookmarks inside that tag items on del.icio.us, move things to Flickr, or subscribe to feeds on Bloglines.
January 28, 2006
Draw a House
Draw a House is a site that has you draw a house online and then analyzes what it says about your personality. It is a pretty slick site where you can just have fun drawing, creating a street of houses done by friends, and the analysis adds an interesting component.
Wallpaper Site
TopWalls is a site that offers all kinds of computer wallpaper. From nature photos to art to animals to vehicles to much much more.
January 27, 2006
Writing EZine
WritersWeekly is an online magazine on freelance writing. They have information on books, courses, articles, and markets. They also offer online forums for discussion.
OTC Drug Resource
Familydoctor.org has a very nice section on Over-the-counter (OTC) Medicines. They cover specific medicines, drug interactions, active ingredients, and basic information on OTC drugs.
January 26, 2006
Google Sides with China's Regime
The Boston Globe has an article on Google's China web about Google's willingness to support China's censoring of the Internet and Google's search engine in their country. The article makes a compelling argument for questioning what Google would be willing to do to people in this country, especially in view of its shoddy privacy practices.
January 25, 2006
BooksPrice
BooksPrice compares book prices across the Internet. The comparison works for not only books, but also DVDs and music. You can do a simple keyword search, use advanced search features, or browse by category. The site also lists bestsellers and offers book-related news. The search nicely compares both used and new books and adds in the shipping cost as well so that you are really comparing true costs.
Stanford Podcasts
Stanford on iTunes offers downloadable faculty lectures, interviews, music and university sports. You don't need an iPod to listen to their podcasts, but iTunes is helpful.
January 24, 2006
Encyclopedia of Nations
Encyclopedia of the Nations is a site with very detailed information on all of the nations of the world. Search or browse by continent to find information on climate, topography, languages, religions, history, government, economy, population, ethnic groups, and much much more.
January 23, 2006
Zoho Writer
Zoho Writer is an online word processor that lets you create, edit and share documents easily online. You can try a demo or sign up for a free account that will let you import existing Word and Office documents, share documents in email without using attachments, generate pdf films from your documents, and much more.
FeedPing
FeedPing is a very handy service if you have a blog that needs to get more attention. Just submit your feed to them and they submit it to the directories you want to be included in.
January 20, 2006
OpenCourseWare
OpenCourseWare Finder is a site that lists course materials that are open to public access. They are currently listing courses from MIT, Utah State University, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Tufts, Foothill De-Anza SOFIA, and Carnegie Mellon. You can browse by tag or select the type of course you are interested in.
DropSend
DropSend is a free service with no software to download that lets you email large files. The service lets you email files up to 1GB in size or to store large files online so that you have access from multiple computers.
January 19, 2006
Bound for Glory
Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943 is a Library of Congress site that offers color photographs taken by the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information. The photos show the effects of the Depression on rural communities and people, America's recovery from the Depression, and then the mobilization for World War II.
Num Sum
Num Sum is a free, shareable online spreadsheet. Just register for a free account, use the spreadsheet without downloading any software, and then share the URL with coworkers or others who need the information. Pretty slick!
January 18, 2006
Etsy
Etsy is like Ebay, but they specialize only in handmade items sold by the artist. You can find items of any style here. Shop by color, featured items, materials, categories, or the newest added items.
Digg Spy
digg spy is an addictive aspect of the popular digg site. You can watch in real time as people digg sites, finding the brand new hot ones. Be sure to look away occasionally and check the clock to see how long you have been spying.
January 17, 2006
I Want To
I want to is another site from the amazing Phil Bradley. Now this is the sort of information and simple interface that public libraries should be providing their patrons. Phil links to over 300 web applications by listing them according to what they do for you. Wonderful!
And why aren't public libraries approaching things from this plain language, simple design approach. You don't have to be a Web 2.0 expert, but you and people on your library's staff are experts at something. Think of the database of pathfinders we could all create!
A reference one called I Want to Find...
Reader's Advisory: I Want to Read...
Literacy/Lifelong Learning: I Want to Learn...
Pathfinders are part of my library's Long Range Plan, and this may just be the example I was looking for to get me going on the project.
Futurist Site
Future is a wiki about studying the future, futurism, future history. You can read articles, visit recommended links, or enter the community portal to chat and discuss.
January 15, 2006
WorkHappy
WorkHappy.net: killer resources for entrepreneurs is a blog that rates software applications, websites, and products for doing business. Even those of us in management of libraries or simply trying to get along and stay informed online can use this information. I especially enjoy the Happy Quotes scattered throughout the blog that inspire readers to take risks.
PriceGrabber
PriceGrabber offers consumers two linked services. First you can pull up a category of products you are interested and browse by vendor and specific product, and second, you can write and read reviews from other consumers.
January 14, 2006
KritX
KritX is a site that aggregates reviews from blogs and other web content. Reviews include popular products, well-known companies, and websites. The content is searchable by keyword, item or author. You can also browse the most recently added reviews.
Voice of America
Voice of America is one of the top news sites online. It has a wide variety of language choices, as well as video, webcasts, RSS feeds, and podcasts.
January 13, 2006
Philosophy Site
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy lists philosophical terms by first letter. From there, you are taken to lengthy articles on each term. This is a great resource for report-quality information on philosophy.
800 Numbers
This is a must-bookmark site! Hard to Find 800 Numbers is the perfect resource to know about to aid people (or yourself) when they have to contact places like Amazon, Ebay, PayPal, Yahoo or Microsoft.
January 12, 2006
Medieval History Site
TimeRef is a medieval history site that has key dates from 1000 to 1499. It also has timelines, information on important people of the period and medieval places.
TruthDig
TruthDig is a news site that looks beneath the headlines and offers stories that should be major headlines, but are being overlooked. It does have a definite progressive bent to it, but even those of the opposite opinion should find stories they want to know about. The site offers email updates as well.
January 11, 2006
Newsknife
Newsknife is a site that rates news sites. They have a list of the top news sites online and right now they are examining why some new sites are wildly fluctuating in rankings on Google News. In addition, they have a free email newsletter.
43 Things
43 Things is an amazing site that lets you set 43 goals for yourself, register them on the site and you will be hooked together with others trying for the same goals. There are over 180,000 people registered on the site now with over 300,000 things registered.
January 10, 2006
GiveMeaning
GiveMeaning is a site that lets you donate to smaller charities. Each GivingGroup has a profile on the site with a button that lets you donate immediately to the cause. You can search for a charity by keyword or browse the list by specific type of cause.
Voters Database
The Washington Post offers a Voters Database for the U.S. Congress. It covers both the House and the Senate through the last seven years. There is a list of recent votes, a database of votes by type, and RSS feeds to subscribe to. This is a very handy site for reference.
January 9, 2006
Podscope
podscope is site that lets you search audio and video by keyword. Just type in the topic or keyword you are interested in and you will get a list of podcasts and videocasts that may be of interest. They have RSS feeds for searches as well.
LitBlog Co-op
The Litblog Co-op is a group of the top literature bloggers joined to offer recommendations for new fiction, authors and presses. They have roundtable discussion of specific titles, with a new one starting in mid-January.
January 8, 2006
Animated Knots
Perhaps it is being a community on a lake, but we are regularly asked for knot books and how to tie knots. This site does a better job than any book with their animated knot tying instructions.
KnowThis
Know This is a great resource for information on marketing. It covers customers, Internet marketing, legal concerns, market research, management, promotion, publications, retailing, and sales. They have the latest marketing news stories, featured topics, and additionally serve as a section of the WWW Virtual Library. An RSS feed is available for the site.
January 7, 2006
SF Crowsnest
Science Fiction Crowsnest offers the latest in science fiction news from books and authors to TV and film. You can subscribe to their RSS feed or browse their collection of recommended science-fiction sites.
Clipfire
Clipfire is a site that gives you the latest deals on new products. But the difference is that you get to add the deals you find or add deals already on the list into your personal clip collection. In order to clip, you have to join, but even non-members can browse the existing clips. Just run a search or click on great deals in opening page. They also have a very impressive list of sites that offer coupons, list deals, etc.
January 6, 2006
Liberty Arcade
Liberty Arcade is a site that offers online games for "people in complex societies." The games demonstrate societal concepts, including trade, government, and economy.
Squidoo
Squidoo allows you to create a "lens" about any topic at all. Since their motto is everyone is an expert on something, they give you an opportunity to share your expertise. Your lens will be open for people to visit and rate. You can include links, recommended books, original content, whatever you'd like. You can browse existing lenses by topic, keyword or top ratings. There is certainly something here for everyone and if you can't find the topic you are looking for, perhaps you are the person to build it.
January 5, 2006
GuitarNoise
GuitarNoise offers free online guitar lessons, beginning bass, songwriting tips, and related articles. From beginners to intermediates, there are lessons on the site for you. They also have a selection of songs to play.
Sloganizer
Sloganizer is a fun site if you are trying to come up with a slogan for your business or for the library. It can get pretty silly, but some of the slogans really work.
January 4, 2006
RailServe
RailServe is a directory of sites related to railroads and model railroading. The site includes a list of sites, classified ads, discussion forum, news, and information on computer simulators.
Quiz Hub
Quiz Hub is an online site for quizzes, games and logic puzzles. It has chess, crosswords, cryptograms, sudoku, and word puzzles.
January 3, 2006
Yahoo Picks
Yahoo! Picks - Top Picks of 2005 has their top 25 websites from 2005. Very cool things mixed in with the very strange.
Blog 100
CNET News.com's Blog 100 offers their list of the top 100 blogs. The list focuses on technology-oriented blogs. If you disagree with some of their choices let them know, they will be editing the list on a regular basis partially based on reader feedback.
January 2, 2006
Opinmind
Opinmind lets you search for bloggers that have similar opinions or interests as you do. You can click on one of the popular searches, or type in one of you own.
Findory
Findory is a personalized news site. The more articles you click on to show an interest, the more personalized the news items become. Very easy and slick.
January 1, 2006
Happy New Year
Happy New Year! Here's wishing you even more helpful online applications in the next year and websites filled with great information. And here's wishing that everyone in your community realizes the wealth that is their public library.