Sites and Soundbytes

Today is the 5th anniversary of my Sites and Soundbytes blog!  This blog originally started as a way for me not to have to manually update my enormous collection of links.  It has gone through a few incarnations in between, but my love of new Internet options and helping patrons find things online has stayed at the forefront of my mind.

I have seen a couple of the hot library blogs start to wonder at whether Library 2.0 is worth anything.  As a library blogger, I firmly believe it is.  When I started blogging, I was the director of a library serving a population of 3000 (no I did not miss a zero).  And it didn't matter.  I could still share the sites I discovered, join the conversation, and reach out.  Now I have three public blogs and even more internal ones at work, and blogging is vital to my work day.  So is IM, so are RSS feeds, so are podcasts and so is a website that invites sharing and talking.  If that is Library 2.0, then it works.  Yes, we must select the tools we use carefully and see how we as librarians can best insert digital tools into our day.  But without these tools, I would be a far less communicative, less involved, and less informed professional.

Thank you all for reading whether you are fairly new or have been along with me for all five years.  I appreciate knowing that what I type here alone in my office is being read by more than a handful of people. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

FedSpending offers you a very slick way to find out what is happening with federal government spending.  You can choose to look at either contracts or grants.  For contracts, you can search by contractor, see the top 100 contractors, view it by congressional district or state, or sort by product or service provided.  With grants you can view the recipients by type, state or congressional district.  You can also view them by agency and type of assistance provided.  The best feature of the site is the many ways you can see the data represented.  It makes the information all the more clear and interesting to view it in a myriad of ways. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are looking for science news, this is the site for you.  They offer breaking news on their front page, but then allow you to access more focused science news lists with categories such as nanotechnology, physics, technology, medicine and space/earth science.  Even better, you can access pictures, videos, subscribe to feeds, leave comments, vote for what it listed on the main page, and chat on forums. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

PortableApps.com offers an open source way for you to carry your personalized desktop around with you on your USB drive or iPod.  The software is free and comes in a suite of programs that offer word processing, Internet browsing, antivirus, email and calendaring.  If you are someone who already carries your Firefox portable around, why not add even more applications?  If you haven't tried portability yet, you're missing the joy of your own bookmarks on any computer you use.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LitLovers is a site that offers information for book clubs.  They have book reviews, discussion aids, recommended titles for discussion, hints to help you talk about books, ice breaker activities, and much more.  If you are running a book club at your library, this site is the place to visit.  Find the next title for your club and a handy discussion guide all at one site!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NowPublic is an interesting news website.  It offers you, the citizen journalist, the ability to write your own news story, and upload photographs, video and audio.  There are various channels you can access as a reader that are similar to newspaper sections.  You can also view the front page filled with the most recent news items and the most popular channels. 

Stories can also be highlighted, which move them up the popular ladder.  And you can discover stories by the contributors who can also be searched by the regions of the world they cover. 

This is a very slick yet friendly site.  RSS feeds are also available.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know that as librarians you all know to be skeptical of the information on websites.  But often our patrons really don't understand that, no matter what age they are.  When I was the one who did the Internet classes, I loved to be able to pull up obviously fraudulent or incorrect information on an official-looking website. 

Well today I have a doozy for you!  www.martinlutherking.org  It is a site by a white-pride group called Stormfront, which strives to question Martin Luther King Jr's speeches, intent, and life style.  It is horrid, racist crap, but worst of all, if you aren't paying close attention it looks legitimate.  Use this one to point out to people who you are trying to inform about being skeptical online, especially with its nice URL that looks so very nondescript.  I think it points to a lot of the mistakes that novice researchers make online.  Then take them to the library databases and encourage them to use those to do online research! 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The 80th Annual Oscar nominations have been announced.

No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood led the nominations with eight each.

Michael Clayton received six nominations.

The five nominees for Best Picture are:

No Country for Old Men
Michael Clayton
There Will Be Blood
Atonement
Juno

Great stuff for your library blog!  :)

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The nominees for the 2008 Razzie Awards have been announced.  These are the awards given to the worst movies of the year.  If your popular movie collection is anything like ours, you will find you have most if not all of the movies nominated.  I think it could be a great PR opportunity for a library to show that they don't stock only Masterpiece Theater, though we have those too.  We stock the movies you love to hate! 

Top nominee was I Know Who Killed Me with 9 nominations followed by Norbit with 5.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Eternal Night is a UK-based site dedicated to science fiction, fantasy and horror.  You will find book reviews, bibliographies, sample chapters, interviews and press releases.  The interface takes a little getting used to.  It works with drop-down menus rather than keywords or searches.  If you are looking at even the bibliographies, they are listed by when they were added to the site rather than alphabetically.  But there is a lot of information here of interest to genre fans and it is worth the bother.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

World-Newspapers.com is a site that offers links to newspapers, magazines and news sites in English from around the world.  You can browse the site by region for the newspapers and magazines, by subject for the magazines, and by targeted coverage for the news sites. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hopefully you have all posted on your library blogs about the Newbery and Caldecott and all of the other awards announced today!  It is big news in the library world.  And it looks like another librarian won the Newbery this year.  Check out the winners at the ALA website.

And though this isn't my KidsLit blog, I must say that I am not impressed that Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie did not even get a Printz honor award.  It should have won! 

But I am thrilled that Repossessed got a Printz Honor and over the moon that Invention of Hugo Cabret won the Caldecott!  And they said it couldn't happen.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hopefully you have all posted on your library blogs about the Newbery and Caldecott and all of the other awards announced today!  It is big news in the library world.  And it looks like another librarian won the Newbery this year.  Check out the winners at the ALA website.

And though this isn't my KidsLit blog, I must say that I am not impressed that Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie did not even get a Printz honor award.  It should have won! 

But I am thrilled that Repossessed got a Printz Honor and over the moon that Invention of Hugo Cabret won the Caldecott!  And they said it couldn't happen.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Looking for audio files online can be a real pain!  Enter SkreemR which gives you the ability to find Mp3 files easily.  Just enter the keyword you want to search for and the results list pops into view.  Any of the files can be listened to from right there, or you can open their player and add it to your playlist.  The site allows ratings so you can mark the files you like, plus links to other social sites for more connections to the album, artist or song.  The ease of use is what makes this such a winning site. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Articulations is a blog from the Smithsonian that focuses on art.  It is a group blog done by five people from varying backgrounds in art and museums.  The blog offers not only great, clear images of art but detailed discussion of particular pieces and artists.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Urth.tv is a site that offers a portal for media that focuses on environmentalism and a green lifestyle.  You will find videos, news, blogs, photographs and forums.  The site offers front page news that gets you informed about current issues very quickly, or you can browse the site to find more detailed discussions and information. 

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

 

We have a collection of online games on our library website where teens can find them.  This collection of Flash games is a wonderful grouping.  All of them have been featured on the front page of Digg, so you know they are noteworthy and probably great fun.  This is a list that should be shared with patrons looking for fun online games to try.  The joy of Flash games is that they return to the roots of video gaming where games were less world-like and more of a fun thing to pick up for a few minutes and try out. 

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

Many of the parents you serve at the library will have opened all sorts of plastic toys at the holidays and may be wondering if they are tainted with lead.  Well, the Healthy Toys site will answer their questions and hopefully put their minds at ease.  Healthy Toys is a project of the Ecology Center and the site is done in collaboration with The Washington Toxics Coalition.  This is a perfect time of year to point parents to this online resource. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For anyone who loves recipe sites, have I got a site for you!  MyRecipes features recipes from Cooking Light, Southern Living, Sunset, Coastal Living, Cottage Living and Health.  All in a single site with tons of photos, a handy search engine and daily ideas. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wikia Search just opened in alpha today.  It takes search engines into open source, allowing users to define themselves and what keywords match them.  It will be very interesting to see how this develops and where it goes.  I ran a few searches and found quite nice and tight results paired with an intriguing social aspect. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a great resource for people who want to learn to travel light.  The site offers packing lists, information on selecting a bag, and also tells you how to pack things.  Just the time saved checking luggage and waiting at the baggage claim have me sold!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Rock Czar is a website that will either have you nodding happily in agreement or seething at your keyboard depending on your tastes in rock music.  The site offers lists of the greatest rock songs and the best rock bands in a variety of permutations. They also have album reviews and featured songs.  Definitely a place to go to get your rock music fix!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Looking for reviews of romance novels?  Are you a librarian looking to make great selections for your collection?  A lover of romance novels looking for a new series to immerse yourself in?  Well, All About Romance is the place for you.  Billing itself as the number one site for readers of romance novels, it offers separate sections for readers and writers.  It also has a newsletter, feature articles, book reviews and a message board.   I guarantee more romance books will be talked about and recommended here than you can read!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let's start the new year with a little light-hearted website.  Ask500People lets you either ask a question or answer a question.  The questions can be anything at all, plus you can leave more detailed comments on the site as well to fully answer the question or participate in a discussion.  If you login to the site, you can vote on the questions waiting the queue and get the ones you are most interested in to move to the front of the line. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)