I bet I can tell you something you didn't know about Google!

(every link in this blog is different and will help you navigate through the activities...if you right click and open each on in a new tab or window it will be easier to come back to this page)
Do you recognize it the logo? Of course you do. If you go to the site and type define: google you will find that it is actually a verb. Go ahead, do it. Then, when you are done looking up random words, because I know you will, come back because there is so much more I have to show you!

Ready? So, now you know that Google is much more than a verb. You know that it is a dictionary. Did you also know that it is a calculator? That's right. Type in Square root of and then pick any random number and you will have an answer...and if you look above the answer in gray letters, you will see just about how long it took to get that answer.

square root(876878) = 936.417642

It took 0.25 seconds for GOOGLE to calculate...much quicker than I could! That works with any math problem...go ahead, try it...again, you can come back and learn more.

You can get stock quotes, sports scores, sunrise and sunset times, currency conversion, flight tracking and so much more without going off of the Google site!

One of my favorite features is weather! You just type in weather your town, your state and without having to wait for any maps to load, you have a five day forecast for your area right there on the google site. Fast. Easy. FAST! For so long I have been waiting for my local news channel to load then I'd click on weekend outlook or five day or something...I'd have half my make-up on before it was up and running. Today? 0.24 seconds...Google said so!

Want to know the time in London? time London ...Google tells you! Need to know the population in Connecticut? Okay. Population CT ...Google tells you!

There are a lot more things that Google can do, but if I told you everything you'd be here all day reading.

Google also has products that people can use to make life easier. I'm going to tell you a few of my favorites and let you explore the rest on your own.

First there is Google Maps. I use Google maps often. I own a GPS, but I still like to go to Google Maps first to check out the routes and the street views if it's unfamiliar territory. If you've never used Google Maps before, you should check it out. You can get directions to just about anywhere in the world. I have a fun assignment if you'd like to do some hands on Google Mapping:

Head over to Google Maps and click on "get directions." Then in the A field type in Japan and in the B field type in China. Now scroll down to direction #42...make sure you bring one of THOSE along or you'll never get to China from where you are!

Seriously, though, if you zoom way in on the map by clicking on the plus sign, you will see real pictures of buildings and streets. Sometimes you can see cars and people if you get close enough, which is street view. Play around. Google maps can be very helpful!

Another favorite in my house is Google Earth. This is actually satellite images as opposed to street pictures. I'm not going to go into detail about it, but you should know that you need to download it onto your computer and it takes up a bit of space. BUT if you have a child who is into Geography at all, they will LOVE this! We discovered it years ago at the Boston Museum of Science and my son still looks at it...and it's ever changing which makes it stay interesting. I just found out that it now goes down into the ocean and explores shipwrecks...I wonder if my son knows that yet?

The last thing I'm going to tell you about is actually related to my line of work. I figure I should talk about at least ONE book related thing. Google Books. You can search books just like you search the web. Whether you're doing research for a term paper or simply searching for a new book that may interest you, you can put in the topic that you're looking for and do a book search. Once upon a time, most books were available to read fully on Google Books. Now most books only have a few pages available to view, but some still can be read in full. This is usually a copyright issue. However, these books are usually available for purchase through Amazon.com or your local library...which Google will tell you all of that information right there as you are viewing the book. Google actually goes one step further and tells you if the book is available in YOUR local library or where the closest library is. You can always get books through Interlibrary Loan if your library provides that service...ask your librarian about ILL. (shameless plug)

Google really has so much more that I would have to spend an entire week talking about every product they own and everything you could do and I still couldn't tell you everything. I'm sure I don't know everything nor could I possibly utilize everything that Google has to offer. However, Google, the verb, the search engine, the dictionary, and so much more, sure has made my life easier. I hope you find something here that helps...or that at least made it a little more fun!

I love my new Kindle...and my job (and I'm not just saying that)

I should probably start every blog by saying, "I love my job." Although, if you are working in a library in the year 2011 you probably say the same thing many days too. (Although, we all have days we'd like to go home early, I'm aware) Today's "I love my job" is brought to you by the letter e (specifically ereaders) and by the number...okay, there's no number unless you want to talk price and the Kindle is now down to $113 if you don't mind a tiny little ad on the screen...and I don't.

Let me start at the beginning. Mother's day the four children came into the bedroom with a gift hours after already giving me hugs and homemade cards. I opened the gift and cried. NOT because it was a Kindle that I had wanted, but because I didn't expect it AT ALL!!! My better half does not read novels and would never buy anything he didn't think was practical. He would also never buy anything without doing any research online for months about it. July. This was when I started talking about Kindle VS Nook VS everything else. He was sneaky about it and had friends post random links on facebook to which I had no opinion. I hadn't decided which I wanted either. I had it narrowed down to Kindle VS Nook. I wasn't wasting money...I was simply buying bigger purses to carry bigger books. Okay, maybe I WAS wasting money.

You may want to grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, this is going to be long. I'm excited. I tend to write a lot when I'm excited.

I was reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov from the library when I received my Kindle. I'm into fashion, and this book has a distant influence on some fashion right now so I did some research as to why. Then I became interested in the author and how he wrote this novel in English himself though it wasn't his first language, etc. (yes, I recommend it in small doses. I'm having trouble finishing it, though, since the main character is a child molester.) I bought it immediately on my Kindle and within 30 seconds was reading it! EASY! In the waiting room at the doctor,I have the Kindle...while my daughter is in dance class,I have the kindle...during lunch at work, I have the Kindle! That's why I wanted the Kindle.

But wait! There's more!

Then yesterday I go to a seminar called "eReaderpalooza!" I must have looked like a kid in a candy store. I'm a geek. I'll be the first to admit it. This stuff is very exciting to me. Tell me what geeky piece of technology is coming out next and my mind goes in a million directions. Technology fascinates me. THAT is why I love this job! They start out with statistics, of course...we're librarians!!! Blah blah blah...then they start to talk about free books and how to get free stuff for the kindle. WHAT???

First up was netgalley.com, now, this isn't just "come get free books." No, I wouldn't be excited about just free books...well, maybe a little... These are titles that big name publishers, like Harper Collins, and small publishers alike, gather to find people who know books (like librarians, bookstores, bloggers, etc.) to review their books. They give you their ebooks as long as they think you're worthy of them, you review them and as long as you hold up your end of the bargain you'll stay on board. I signed up for the service this morning so that I could write about it in this blog. I requested a book entitled "Jackie O On the Couch" as soon as I signed up, along with five other books. Within ten minutes I was accepted to receive the item. It was sent to me on my Kindle in an email and, because Kindle takes a bit to accept email, with 30 minutes I had the item in PDF form on my Kindle to read! I now have three of the six books on my Kindle.

So, how does this all fit into the wonderful world of the library? There are so many ways. Libraries can put ebooks on their ereaders and lend the ereaders out like they do their regular collection. If they're running out of shelf space but want to add to their collection. If they want to put their summer reading on ereaders. Academic libraries could put all the available books on professors syllabi...okay, maybe not text books, since those may break the bank, but any other books or PDFs supplied by the professor. Which brings me to another idea. Reserves. Professors love putting things on reserves. Maybe Academic libraries have Reserve holdings on Kindles or nooks or on apps available for download on your iPhone, iPod or iPad? I think that may be another topic for another blog for another day. I'm completely exhausted (and totally intrigued) just thinking about the possibilities.

I am definitely going to be writing more about this, but that cup of coffee I spoke about earlier that you should be drinking is sounding good right about now...and that job I said that I love so much is definitely being neglected.

I will leave you with this link that was just sent to me in an email that I will be checking out after my lunch break.

iPhones and Kindles and smartphones...OH MY!

I attended the Handheld librarian conference January 17th & 18th at Worcester public library. I was very excited to have my phone with web access so I could tweet during the conference. Did you know that more people in the US own a mobile phone than a toaster? That was one of the fun statistics they started with...makes you think, doesn't it? People aren't just using their phones to talk anymore. Actually, I believe people are texting more than talking these days. I know I am. In fact, Worcester Public Library has text to reference. You text your question to their text number and they answer it for you! Ingenious! There were a few libraries at the conference that mentioned having this feature. However, not all questions are created equal. Sometimes people text questions that really aren't reference, like "Who is Taylor Swift dating?" They use the text to reference like they'd use google if they had internet access.

The first speaker, Tom Peters, said "lose the reference desk and the reference schedule." This had everyone up in arms. No one seemed to want to listen to what he said. I understood where he was coming from, though. Maybe because I'm not a reference librarian? The reference desk is NOT where patrons want their questions answered. I never did when I was a student. I would either ask another student or figure it out on my own. If I could have gone online or on my cell phone for the answer at any time of day or night, I would have, but, alas, I was in school before the internet was used regularly. I didn't even have a computer in my dorm room!

Then we started talking about eBooks. The eBook phenom is very intriguing to me. Not only do I think it is very cool that you can carry a few books around in your purse without it getting too cumbersome, but I also think the technology behind the eBook is smart. People are always looking for the newest technology. If you like books, then you'll always read them whether they're on a kindle or on paper. However, if you only like technology the eBook may be the only way to get you to read a book!

The day before the conference Kindle came out with an app on iTunes for the iPhone. These apps also work on the iPod Touch. I was so fascinated with all the app and iPhone talk that I went out and bought an iPod touch over the weekend. I cannot picture reading an entire book on the iPod Touch. It's just not big enough. However, on day two of the conference I had a migraine. Guess what? There's an app for that! http://www.cellphonehi.com/iphone-3g/iphone-app-to-help-migraine-sufferers/

I will be blogging more about this conference once I can review the other material online. The speakers I went to see were more interested in what we were already doing in our libraries to get mobile and less interested in teaching us how to use the newest technologies out there. They had a lot of questions for us. It felt like we were being surveyed more than informed.

LibGuides

I received an email from the Head of Reader Services last week. It had a link in it and told me my username and password asking me to check it out. So, I checked it out and didn't think it really applied to me. I couldn't imagine how I could possibly use this site called LibGuides. I read through a few of the pages and saw that there was a faculty welcome, information about ARTSTOR and some LibGuides pertaining to classes here on campus. What could this possibly have to do with Interlibrary Loan?

Every summer I work on a folder about how to fill ILL requests. Just in case I ever suddenly go away, anyone could do what I do by simply following my step-by-step instructions in this folder. I call it my "Hit By the Bus" folder. Although, I never cross enough busy streets to actually get hit by a bus, but one never knows. I mentioned to the Head of Access Services that I'd like to start a wiki to use as this guide instead of a folder. She immediately asked if I had thought of using LibGuides. OH! That's what I could do!

Now I have all these ideas about how to use LibGuides. I have already started my "Hit by the Bus" page and it should be published by the end of the summer, but it will be private. Which is another great part about LibGuides. Some of them can only be seen by admins and others by the public right from the homepage. I have been having a great time playing with it and figuring things out on my own, but there is also a tutorial that can be viewed at any time.

I'm going to start one right now about our ILL policies. There is a permanent widget on this blog in the side bar that has links to a few of the LibGuides we have published here. Check it out!

What does this have to do with libraries?

Anyone who knows me knows that I attend as many library workshops and meetings as I can. I recently attended "Blogs and Wikis and Podcasts, Oh My!" Which, of course, are all great tools for libraries. Although, I'm not completely sold on Podcasts yet. What interested me most in this workshop, however, really had little to do with libraries.
First they talked about mobile devices (which I do not own) and how they bring the private world of the PC to the public spaces like the subway. I use twitter.com as a way to learn about news during the day. What twitter does is allows me to go about my business and if something happens in the world...or at my friends house...that person tweets about it and I read it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter It's a social network of sorts since you can find people and add people to your followed friends list BUT it's also a micro-blog, or a little update. I have a few libraries that I follow on twitter. They don't update often, but when they do it directs me to their blog or let's me know that their hours are changing for the summer, etc. I think it's better for librarian-to-librarian updates, but people are using for all kinds of things. In fact, I had a librarian following me while I was at the workshop AND I was twittering away...giving her links to what we were learning about. How does twitter tie in with mobile devices? Well, this librarian follows twitter on her mobile device so she is constantly informed by her twitter friends! It's really a very cool thing!
A few other sites that were mentioned at this workshop were digg, skype and facebook. With skype you can make phone calls from your computer. Why use a phone when there's skype? I'm not completely sold on that. This is DIGG http://digg.com/how Another one I have never used, but I like the idea of it. It's a social network of sorts that uses popular websites to connect people, from what I understand. I'm not sure how libraries could use it, but I have heard about it from numerous librarians who are online. Facebook is a social network, not unlike MySpace, where you find people you know and add them as friends. You can play games with them, leave them comments, join groups, and even send out party invitations on facebook. Of course, if not all of your friends are on facebook you'll find yourself using email and evite and snail mail as well as facebook to invite everyone to your shindig. Can you tell I have some experience in this? The difference here is that libraries ARE using facebook and MySpace to connect with patrons and staff members as well as other libraries to collaborate. Think about it. If your patrons are constantly "plugged in" as I like to call it, and you are a "friend" on their Facebook page you can tell them about upcoming events or hour changes or even have a link on your social network page directly to your catalog. You can also link your live help there too!
We learned about Wikis and podcasts too, which I plan to blog about on another day. They really each need their own blog.
The woman closing the workshop told us about a bunch of really neat stuff, and I have been trying to figure out why. This workshop is for librarians, so why did she tell us about whoissick.com? A website where you go on and put your mark on the map telling people what your ailments are. Why did she tell us about mash-ups and QR Codes which don't even exist in the US yet? Why? Because librarians are all about information. Librarians want to know where people are getting their information if it's not from a library. Librarians want to know how they can get the information first so they can give it to their patrons so their patrons keep coming back for more.

Rethink Resource Sharing

I attended the Nelinet Conference all about "The Future of Interlibrary Loan." Parts of it were interesting. The most interesting thing I found was the section about the Interoperability Committee.
This committee has come up with a plug-in called the GoGetter. It sounds as if it almost done and is just awaiting OCLC to complete the licensing portion. This plug-in "lets people search the web to get published items from a variety of sources, including libraries and booksellers. When the plugin is used through a browser, a list of sources appears showing the source, format, title, author, terms of use, and any cost. The user will simply click on the item they want and, depending on their choice, will then be able to order the item, place a hold, make an ILL request, or view the item online." (from rethinkingresourcesharing.com) I have been playing with the plug-in for a short while now and it seems to not be working yet. Although, right on that website they do have a download...which my computer didn't seem to like very much. It is only for firefox, which I suggest you use anyway. ..but that another blog for another day. Once they have this up and running I will plug it in and use it a few times before blogging about it again. It is an exciting thing for libraries, however.

Blogging is so last year!

I'm a little jealous, but my supervisor went to a workshop yesterday. I'm jealous because she actually learned things that I didn't already know!

Last year I went to a bunch of library related workshops and learned nothing. They were about MySpace and Facebook or Blogging and YouTube...who doesn't know all that?

She came back all wide eyed like a child in a candy store talking about twitter, twhirl, animoto and tumblr. It's a whole new world I don't know about! I've been playing around a bit with them today, but I really suggest you check them out for yourself.

twitter- it's a mix between a chat and a myspace or facebook update...you know, on facebook your status updates. It let's you tell your friends what you're doing...in real time. You pick who you want to watch and who you want to block from watching you. I only have 5 people and, so far, only two of them have used it. You can upload a picture so people see your face when you update...it's neat. You can put it on your website or blog so others can see it, but it won't show up on my MySpace page...I do have it on my facebook, though. I haven't really found a great use for it yet, but I have it open at all times...which brings me to the next cool application

twhirl- it's something you download onto your computer so you can keep your twitter open all the time. It's kind of like IM only different. It dings when someone posts an update (I think it's actually called a tweet), which is nice, but you have to refresh it everytime so you can see what they wrote. I'm sure it's a work in progress, but it made me like twitter better.

animoto- it makes 30 second movies out of pictures. It's neat for myspace or facebook, but I'm really not sure what else you'd use it for. I have it on my facebook. I don't remember, but I don't think I made a movie yet.

tumblr- It's like a short blog. You can very easily post pictures, websites, just words, anything...as long as it's not too long...with the touch of a button. It's a way of putting multi forms of online media, that you like, together in one place. I posted three times today and, as you can see on mine, it is all on one page and it's short and sweet. Well, it's short anyhow.