Sites and Soundbytes

Project for Public Spaces has dedicated their April newsletter to libraries.  Get inspired to become the new commons for your community by several libraries who have extended the missions of their libraries beyond books.  Learn from libraries across the country how you can make your library great.  I found the entire newsletter to be inspiring.  The culture of public spaces directly impacts libraries and how our communities view us.  The question is whether we are up to the challenge to change ourselves as much as our communities would like us to.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A wonderful website to help celebrate National Jazz Appreciation Month.  Join in the discussion on the new discussion board, explore an interactive Duke Ellington class, discover jazz greats, find out what happened on this day in jazz history, and check out the calendar of jazz events for the month. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sky-Map is a visual site that offers access to information on astronomy, astrophysics and space objects.  You can click on the sky and work your way down to specific information on that section's features.  Or you can view photographs, read articles, learn about classification, view the collection, or join in the forum discussions. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How-To-Study is a site that offers free information on studying techniques, strategies, and tips.  You can choose from categories like taking notes, learning styles, listening, test anxiety, and taking tests.  Additionally, you can submit your own study tips for possible publication on the site.  The information is straight-forward and filled with common sense. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you have a Google Account, you can now turn on a new feature, Google Web History.  You can choose to download the toolbar, or you can just view your searches without a download.  This service offers a unique glimpse at what you do online, as well as a scary look at how much can be found about what you do online!

View the searches you did in the past, and see what you busy days and times are.  Click on Trends and you will find your top queries, the top sites you visit (Mine is Wikipedia, which really surprises me!), and the top clicks.

Beware, this is even more addictive than doing a vanity search on Google.  Feed your own self-obsession and log on now!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fisssh is another interesting new search engine.  It does not only a search of the web, but also returns results from Wikipedia, Del.icio.us, blogs, videos, podcasts and more.  The results are presented in a newspaper like fashion with the top results from various sources on the same page.  You can also limit the search to specific areas like news, blogs, videos, podcasts, jobs, and shopping. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Travelistic offers online videos from travelers.  The videos can be searched by destination or keyword, browsed by using the map interface, or you can take a look at the most popular places as well.  Join the community and you can contribute your own travel videos to the site. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

QueryCat is a search engine that searches a database of frequently asked questions (FAQs).  Put a question into the search box, and you will receive links either to the answer of that question or to related questions.  You can also search by keyword and get a broader list of related FAQs to look at. 

This is an interesting search engine because of its focus on questions only.  It returns very different results from other search engines and could find a niche, especially among reference librarians.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The American Association of University Women has a very nice map that offers information on the pay gap between college-educated women and men.  You can view the national figures or see what is happening in your state.  It is particularly frustrating to see that even college-educated women make $16,000 less each year than their male counterparts. 

Also remember that today is Equal Pay Day, so it's the perfect day to examine what is happening with women's pay in this country. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tim O'Reilly, one of the most successful and respected bloggers around, has called for a Blogging Code of Conduct.  I won't post the entire draft code here, but I will list the main points:

1. We take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog.

2. We won't say anything online that we wouldn't say in person.

3. We connect privately before we respond publicly.

4. When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.

5. We do not allow anonymous comments.

6. We ignore the trolls. (Trolls are people who post nasty comments just to get a reaction.)

I am intrigued that most of them are more about how bloggers should handle input than what they should concentrate on posting.

Should there be a Library Blogging Code of Conduct?  How about these:

1. Stay away from corporate influences when reviewing products and materials.

2. Open Comments on library blogs to encourage conversation.

3. Post content that will appeal to all of your community, focusing on under-represented clientèle.

4. Discuss topics with passion and interest so that the library profession benefits from your input.

5. Attempt to blend technology with books, keeping reading and information at the forefront of your blog.

6. We ignore those librarians who do not yet understand the technology and are dismissive of its impact.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Insiderpages is used by Google to pull up local information on communities, but you can also head straight there to do your own searches.  You will find photographs, reviews of restaurants and businesses, and advice seekers and givers.  Sign up for an account and you can contribute your own opinions of the great places in your area or the worst. 

Powered by ScribeFire.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FreeDigitalPhotos.net offers thousands of photographs that are free for use.  The collection can be searched by keyword or browsed by categories such as animals, celebrations, leisure, nature, people, and places. 

Use of the photos often requires a link back to their site for websites or credit on printed items.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Open Clip Art Library is an archive of user-contributed clip art that can be used freely.  You can search by keyword, browse by tags and contribute your own art.  The clip art is very varied in style and quality, but much of it is excellent for use in documents and websites. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Trulia is a real estate search engine that offers three ways to find information.  You can search for homes that are for sale across the country, read real estate guides for specific cities, and see price and popularity trends.  The trends can be looked at very specifically down to the county level.

The interface is clean and easy to use as are the URLs that are generated by the searches.  Very nicely done. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The US Postal Service has decided to offer large publishers postal rate discounts while not offering the same to independent publishers.  This unfairly gives the largest publishers like Time Warner and Hearst an even greater advantage over smaller publishers.

Some independent publishers like The Nation will see an increase of $500,000 in their annual postal costs.  This is not a partisan issue, because it will negatively affect small publishers of any political bent.  Please sign the petition asking the postal system to reconsider their decision.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes Google surprises me with services that I never knew were available.  This morning I was happily surprised to find that if I put in a musician or band and then the word "discography" without the quotes, the top result on the search engine leads me to Google Music. 

Click on it and you find a list of the person's music sorted by popularity.  You can also change it to sort by release date.  Every album listed contains the tracks as well as where online it is available for purchase.  Nicely, on the left-hand menu you can also choose to view their websites, the latest news on the artist, photos or participate in a discussion about the artist. 

Very nicely and cleanly presented, this makes finding information on musical artists a real breeze.  Point patrons in this direction or use it to answer questions about songs and musicians at the reference desk.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On her site today, Martha Stewart has a Going Green Checklist which offers advice on ways you can help the planet.  The advice ranges from Energy Star appliances to line drying your laundry to GET A LIBRARY CARD!  Hooray!

What a great way to sell libraries with environmentalism so high on everyone's priority right now.  Libraries are green.  Lovely. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Swivel is a site that lets you upload data and charts and share them with others.  You can view graphs that other people have created, view entire data sets, join or start groups on specific topics, and much more.  This site is all about taking data and creating useful charts for everyone to access. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Open Source Food is a community website that promotes beautiful, delicious food by sharing both photographs of the food and the recipes.  The photos are inspiring and the recipes are obviously tested.  Dig in!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Take Back the Tech is a movement that is in response to female bloggers being targeted for hate-speech, especially sexualized and violent threats.  For insight into the issue, read How the Web Became a Sexist Paradise.  Then, if you are a blogger, link to the sites and articles and support female bloggers by linking to them and standing against this sort of sexist intimidation.

If you aren't a blogger, you can support the movement anyway.  Post supportive comments on women's blogs, check out the site above and take action, and most of all support the women in your life to use technology without fear.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From modern websites to ancient ones:

The Tale of Genji has long been one of those books that I have always meant to read.  I have read part of it and wrote a college paper on the section I had read.  I remember it as being one of those books that change the way you see yourself and your world.  The ancient Japanese appreciation of poetry, words, art and nature subtly color your perceptions.  I will eventually return to the world of Genji and this website gives you the opportunity to view the world of Genji and better understand and visualize the setting.  It's just as gorgeous as my imagination, which is saying something!

If you wish to see how your imagination compares, you can read the full text of the Tale here.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Midomi is a site that offers exactly what those of us who are always forgetting the names of songs but not their tune need!  On this site, you can search by humming or singing part of a song into a microphone attached to your computer! 

They also offer more conventional searching by song title or artist.  Additionally, the site offers a community aspect where you can link with those who share your taste in music.  Mika anyone?

Blatantly stolen from Neat New Stuff.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The ACLU has released files on the civilian casualties in both Afghanistan and Iraq.  They received the files in response to their Freedom of Information Act request in June 2006.  All of the files are available on their website and can be searched. 

This sort of information release could only be achieved online.  Though libraries sometimes shun online resources, there are times like this when the Internet shines. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just installed Office 2007 on my laptop yesterday.  If you have already done this, you will understand why I had to head out and find a way to figure out what this new Word was and how I used it.  Well, after much dinking around on Google, I decided to actually try the Microsoft site for Office.  There I found a great series of training pieces for all of the parts of Office.  To find the training section, click on the tab towards the top marked "Help and How-to."  That will lead you into the right place.  For the exact training items I used, click on Training under Help Resources on the left-hand menu.  But there are lots of things here.  So far, I have gone through both Word and Outlook.  I have Excel to go and those three make up the bulk of what I use Office for. 

I am creating a little cheat sheet of tips for my staff who will slowly be converted to the new Office.  Things like how to open files or create new ones can be baffling with the new Word.  That said, I think that they really fixed a lot of the issues of the old Office and created a refreshing new suite of programs.  It is certainly worth taking a look at and seeing if the features outweigh the learning curve.  For us, it was an easy choice.

Once my cheat sheet is complete, I will post it here.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LoudLit.org offers free online audio books.  The books are classic works in the public domain.  They have about 30 books available right now, and offer most of them in two formats:  web and mp3. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! Podcasts is a site that offers a great list of podcasts.  You can search by keyword, find recommended podcasts, find popular casts, or explore by categories or tags.  If you are iTunes adverse, this is a handy site to find a list of podcasts.  If you do use iTunes, it will still work well for you, since you can choose to subscribe via iTunes right at Yahoo.  Pretty slick!

If I had patrons asking about where to find podcasts, I would direct them here.  It is user-friendly, filled with graphics, and allows you to immediately start listening to podcasts without having to subscribe. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Trippish offers a service that I haven't seen on a map site before.  It combines driving directions with weather information.  This is great for anyone going on a long-distance road trip, because it offers a glimpse into what sort of weather you will be hitting on your journey.  Want to avoid a large city during a downpour?  Worried about snow in the mountains?  This is the site for you.

Definitely one to recommend to any RVers you have in your community.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mohawke's Best of the Best is a list of the best free and open source software.  You can browse by Windows, Mac, Internet, OS, and games.  On the main list, you will find items of interest to programmers, animators, and network technicians.  But next to those, you will find anti-virus programs, podcast listening programs, thumbnail creators, and much more that those of us who aren't geeks will find useful. 

What I think is very exciting is having recommended freeware and open source software listed.  This would be a great place for libraries interested in starting to use more open source software to begin.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)