MISCELLANEOUS WEBSITES TO CHECK OUT

I've been unable to access the blog for a few days, but I think this list of web sites that I've found recently will make up for it. I will not be blogging for the next week--I think--due to a trip to Florida for a family event. (Of course, Hurricane Ernesto may change my plans.)


Worldpress.org

http://www.worldpress.org

“A nonpartisan magazine whose mission is to foster the international exchange of perspectives and information” from press outside the USA and original articles. Sections on Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and the Front Page—breaking or spotlighted news. This site will give you a different view of the news.


WorldGolf.com

http://www.worldgolf.com

“Golf courses from around the world” are the focus of this site. It also includes feature stories, information on course design, golf humor, ravel, reader reviews, the luxury golfer, golf bloggers and photos. Just the thing for the golfing executive—feed golf news to him or her and you’ll be very popular.


LifeHacker

http://lifehacker.com

“Lifehacker makes getting things done easy and fun” and “recommends the software downloads and web sites that actually save time.” Examples: teach yourself speed reading, permanently delete data from your hard drive, wire your home network, and even a wedding day emergency kit. Very useful.


ReallyReady.org

http://www.fas.org/reallyready/

This is a response by the Federation of American Scientists (an anti-government group) to the US Department of Homeland Security’s citizen preparedness site, ready.gov. FAS thinks that site is inadequate (too generic, descriptions too long and repetitive) and offers its own advice. There is a section for businesses and one for individuals (under America). Good suggestions, but I think it’s a bit of an over-reaction to current events.


Doing Business

http://www.doingbusiness.org

“The Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement” and you can compare across 155 economies. There are printable country data profiles, and presentations. Annual overviews are available for download. The source is the World Bank Group.


Video Position Descriptions…and More

http://www.careerinfonet.org/videos_by_occupation.asp?id=33,27,1&nodeid=28

This site has videos describing the work of librarians, archivists, library assistants, and library technicians. They are very well done. There are also over 700 other occupational videos (also available in Spanish) that might be useful to your organization as well.


The videos are part of Career Info Net (http://www.CareerInfoNet.org), which is part of an integrated suite of national web sites that help businesses, job seekers, students, and workforce professionals find employment and career resources. The other sites, which are sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, are: CareerOneStop (http://www.CareerOneStop.org), America's Job Bank (http://www.ajb.org), and America's Service Locator (http://www.ServiceLocator.org)


RSS Feeds from the (US) National Library of Medicine

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/listserv/rss_podcasts.html

Did you know that you can be notified automatically if NLM publishes new content of interest to you? You can, via their many RSS feeds, listed at the web site above. These include: PubMed New and Noteworthy, DailyMed Drug Label Updates, NLM Technical Bulletin, and PubMed Central News.


What (and How) is Your Sign?

http://www.flickr.com/groups/79623799@N00/pool/

There is now a section on Flickr with photos of library signs—both good and bad. How do your signs measure up? You can upload your favorites, too.

THREE LAW BLOGS AND ONE FOR MEDICAL LIBARIANS

Law Librarian Shares Her “Save” Folder

http://resevoir.wordpress.com [yes, resevoir is misspelled]

Law Librarian Gwen Friedman [Montgomery McCracken, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA] has a great new blog called FMI—For My Information. She uses it like a file folder, to organize information that she wants to keep. The nice thing about this is that we get to see what’s in her folder, too. Thanks Gwen!


From a Library Web Manager

http://www.web2learning.net

Nicole Engard is a library school student and web manager at the Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Her blog is called What I Learned Today…. In it she covers Web 2.0, programming tips, blogs, rss, wikis, php programming, and more. Again, we should thank Nicole for sharing her learning experience.


And Now a Word from Canada

http://micheladrien.blogspot.com

Michel-Adrien Sheppard, alias Library Boy, has a great blog that he describes as “law library world odds and ends from the Supreme Court of Canada.” He frequently highlights resources that we might not normally encounter. A recent post was on science and law resources—some good stuff here. Library Boy is well worth adding to your aggregator.


To Help the Nurses in Your Constituency

http://evidence-based-nursing.blogspot.com/

Stephen Barnett, liaison and information literacy coordinator [Casuarina Campus, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia], has created a blog on Evidence-Based Nursing. He says” this blog serves as a guide to the topic of evidence-based nursing. It will point to good resources, learning and teaching materials, etc. for nurses and librarians associated with evidence-based nursing. This blog came out of a discussion with our academic nursing staff, when I suggested I might like to build some resources for their students and colleagues.” This blog is very much like the blogs above in that it lists links he’s come across in his work. The fact that it’s from Australia gives us access to resources we might miss otherwise.

OF THIS AND THAT: Interesting Sites & Blogs

State of the Blogosphere, August 2006

http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000436.html

As of the end of July 2006, Technorati reported tracking over 50 million blogs. The number has doubled every 6 months for the last 3 years. There are more than 2 blogs created each second. There were 1.6 million postings per day, or over 18 per second, double the volume last year. Read more from David Sifry of Technorati here.



Library Tourguide to Technology

http://www.librarytourguide.blogspot.com

Sandra Stewart [San Jose Public Library, California, USA] has a new blog all about “technology that has implications to libraries and library service.” Her post on 13 August has a great list of technology sites.



Computers, Cell Phones and Multitasking

http://www.latimes.com/timespoll

The Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg did a survey of teens 12 to 17 and young adults 18 to 24 to see how they use computers and cell phones. The most important finding, I think, is that these groups definitely prefer multitasking to focusing on one activity at a time. They don’t spend as much time on the computer as we think (most are on less than 2 hours daily), but they maximize that time by also talking on cell phones or watching tv at the same time. Not surprisingly, boys play video games more than do girls, and girls are on their cell phones more than boys. This study has implications for library service—we will not have their complete attention, so we need to tailor our presentations so that they can be followed even when the audience is distracted.



The Public Library Helper

http://www.mei.net/~elsner/

Edward Elsner, a librarian and consultant in Michigan, has put his book, The Public Library Helper: just add building technology, staff, and collection, on the web. It is a relatively complete guide to starting a small public library. The chapters are:

1. Legal (a weird place to start, but there’s some good stuff here)

2. Planning & Statistics

3. Policies (which includes Board position descriptions and other sample policies)

4. Finances (the picky details)

5. Procedures (the nitty gritty daily task and sample forms)

6. Management (really good, but too short)

7. Marketing and Public Relations (good ideas here)

8. Technology (very practical)

Each chapter has a list of resources with it (links and in print materials). The book isn’t comprehensive by any means, but it is worth a lot more than its price (free—except for the 2” stack of paper it takes to print it out). You can’t help but learn something here.



Do you like your info one resource at a time or in a list like this?

Let me know by commenting below. Thanks.

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 2007 RANKING OF US LIBRARY SCHOOLS

Overall Program

1. (tie) University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and University of North
Carolina–Chapel Hill (score=4.5, 5.0=highest)

3. Syracuse University, New York (4.3)


Specialties:

Archives and Preservation

1. University of Texas–Austin

2. (tie) University of Maryland–College Park and University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

Digital Librarianship

1. University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign

2. Syracuse University, New York

3. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

Health Librarianship

1. University of Pittsburgh

2. University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill

3. (tie) University of North Texas and University of Washington

Information Systems

1. Syracuse University, New York

2. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

3. University of Washington

Law Librarianship

1. University of Washington

2. Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

3. University of Texas–Austin

School Library Media

1. Rutgers State University–New Brunswick, New Jersey

2. University of South Carolina–Columbia

3. University of Maryland–College Park

Services for Children and Youth

1. (tie) Florida State University and University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign

3. Rutgers State University–New Brunswick, New Jersey


Looked at another way

Ranked by points where first place= 3 points, second place = 2 points, and third place = 1 point)

9 points University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

8 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

6 Syracuse University, New York

5 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

4 (tie)Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey; University of South Carolina-Columbia; Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

3 (tie) University of Texas-Austin; University of Maryland-College Park; University of Pittsburgh; University of Washington; Florida State University

1 University of North Texas


Methodology

Ranking of 50 ALA-accredited master's degree programs in the USA based on a fall 2005 survey sent to the dean of the program, the program director, and a senior faculty member in each of program. The questionnaires asked individuals to rate the academic quality of programs at each institution as outstanding (5); strong (4); good (3); adequate (2); or marginal (1). The response rate was 51 percent.


URL:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/lib/libindex_brief.php

A SITE FOR CHEMISTRY LIBRARIANS

General Chemistry Online! is a website from Fred Senese, Dept. of Chemistry, Frostburg State University, Maryland. Included are a searchable databse of over 800 common compounds (with structure, formula, and properties), hyperlinked notes and guides for a general chemistry course, construction kits, articles, books, tutorials, tools such as popup tables, self-guides tutorials and quizzes, answers to general chemistry questions, a searchable glossary of over 1000 chemical terms--with audio pronunciations, a trivia quiz, skills checklists and online self-grading examinations.


If you serve a chemistry faculty, at any level, you should let them know about this site.



URL:
http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/index.shtml

A BLOG FOR ARCHIVISTS

Here's a blog for you archivists and records keepers. The Anecdotal Archivist is the product of Mark Harvey, State Archivist of Michigan. He describes it as "a blog to document official and unofficial happenings...." Looks good.



URL:
http://www.anecdotalarchivist.blogspot.com

WEBSITES: Four Serious and One for Fun

What’s New on the Web

http://www.library.uq.edu.au/internet/new/webnew.html

This site lists some of the new sites and tools available on the Web. Categories include: Reference Tools and Services, Social Sciences and Humanities, Biological and Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering, Electronic Journals, and Reference Tools and Services. It is compiled by the Library at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and uses a variety of sources, usually including FreePint, elogon from ILANET, Internet Research News (researchbuzz), Internet Resources Newsletter, LIIWEEK from Librarians' Index to the Internet, Neat Net Tricks, the ResourceShelf, and the Scout Report.


Internet Resources Newsletter

http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/

This monthly newsletter from Roddy MacLeod, Catherine Ure and Marion Kennedy, Heriot-Watt University Library, Edinburgh, Scotland, contains information and reviews of new and notable Web sites, press releases, network news, news of blogs and RSS, book reviews, and more. The newsletter is free and is distributed to over 38,000 readers. You can sign up on the website.


Resource Discovery Network

http://www.rdn.ac.uk/

“The Resource Discovery Network is the UK's free national gateway to Internet resources for the learning, teaching and research community. The service currently links to more than 100,000 resources via a series of subject-based information gateways (or hubs).” Gateways include: arts and creative industries; hospitality, leisure, sport and tourism; engineering, mathematics and computing; humanities; geography and environment; physical sciences; health, medicine and life sciences; social science, business and law.

“In contrast to search engines, the RDN gathers resources which are carefully selected by subject specialists in our partner institutions. You can search and browse through the resources, and be confident that your results will connect you to Web sites relevant to learning, teaching and research in your subject area.

“The RDN is a collaboration of over seventy educational and research organisations, including the Natural History Museum and the British Library and is a JISC service with support from ESRC and AHRC.”


DLIST: Digital Library of Information Science and Technology
http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/

DLIST “is a cross-institutional, subject-based, open access digital archive for the Information Sciences, including Archives and Records Management, Library and Information Science, Information Systems, Museum Informatics, and other critical information infrastructures.”

It is supported by the School of Information Resources and Library Science and Learning Technologies Center, University of Arizona.


Uchronia: The Alternate History List

http://www.uchronia.net/

This site consists of a searchable annotated bibliography of over 2700 novels, stories, essays and other printed material involving the "what ifs" of history. It is a creation of Robert Schmunk of New York, New York, USA. What ifs include: if Oswald had missed, if Germany had won World War II, if Marilyn Monroe had been elected President of the USA, and many more. Absolutely fascinating.


Thanks to Kerry Webb, author of the Webb's web column in inCite, the monthly journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, for finding these neat sites.

GREAT PR IDEA: BOOK LOVER'S WIKI

The Princeton (New Jersey) Public Library has put together a website, the Book Lovers Wiki, for their customers. In addition to announcements of library events, there are user-written reviews of their favorite books. Each review counted as an entry into a raffle. These—the wiki, the user reviews, and the raffle—add up to a wonderful PR idea for all kinds of libraries.


Thanks to Sarah Houghton, Librarian in Black blog, for pointing me to this.


URLs:

Book Lovers Wiki: http://booklovers.pbwiki.com/Princeton%20Public%20Library

Librarian in Black: http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2006/08/princeton_publi.html

121 LIBRARIES USE PERSONALIZED, BRANDED TOOLBARS

Bill Drew noted on his blog, Baby Boomer Librarian, that he found 121 libraries currently using Effective Brand’s toolbars. Toolbars can be wonderful publicity for your library and are very easy to make available to your users. Check the Effective Brand website for all the information.

URLs:


Libraries Using Effective Brand Toolbars, http://babyboomerlibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/08/libraries-using-effective-brand.html


Effective Brand Toolbars: http://www.effectivebrand.com/

LEGAL BLOGS BEING CITED IN COURT

Ian Best [The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, Columbus, Ohio, USA] lists 32 citations of legal blogs from 27 different cases on his blog, 3L Epiphany. The eight blogs (or blawgs) cited were: Sentencing Law and Policy (24 citations in 19 cases), The Volokh Conspiracy (2 cites), Crime and Federalism (1), De Novo (1), How Appealing (1), Legal Theory Blog (1), Patently-O (1), and
The UCL Practitioner (1).



URLs:

3L Epiphany: http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/
2006/08/cases_citing_le.html

Sentencing Law and Policy: http://sentencing.typepad.com/

The Volokh Conspiracy: http://volokh.com/

Crime and Federalism: http://federalism.typepad.com/

De Novo: http://www.blogdenovo.org/

How Appealing: http://howappealing.law.com/

Legal Theory Blog: http://lsolum.blogspot.com/

Patently-O: http://patentlaw.typepad.com/patent/

The UCL Practitioner: http://www.uclpractitioner.com/

BOOK EXCHANGE SERVICE

BookMooch is a free service for exchanging used books; you can give away books you don’t need anymore and request others that you would like to have. You earn a tenth-of-a-point for every book you type into the system and one point each time you give a book away. To get a book you need two points. You can also give your points to charities, such as children's hospitals or African literacy. You can request books from other countries, in other languages. You receive two points when you send a book out of your country, to help compensate you for the greater mailing cost. You can keep a wish list and books will arrive automatically when you have the points and/or the book becomes available in our catalog. You also earn two points if you supply a book on someone’s wish list.




John Buckman runs BookMooch from his homes in California and London, England.




URL: http://bookmooch.com

CAR REPAIR ASSISTANCE SITE

Jonko.com, an automobile reference and opinion site that uses an all-volunteer staff to offer a variety of auto repair tips, tricks, and tutorials, was launched in 1999 to sell one item. It has obviously grown, but still has a lot of ads. They have nearly 500 registered users, 160 categories in their database, 165 links, and over 40,000 page views.



The best features are their auto diagnostic forums and articles and their tutorials. The diagnostics series is by Austin Davis of TrustMyMechanic.com. Some of the subjects are: What do I do after an accident? What can I do about my squealing brakes? And Do I need to worry about the check engine light? Their auto repair tutorials cover subjects like: Overheating Quick Fixes, Common Leaks, Select an Auto Repair Shop, Check Your Fluids, and Change Your Spark Plugs.



There is also Kyle Busch’s Corner with articles such as: Questions to ask When Buying a Used Car, Fuel Efficient Automobiles, Making Big Repairs on a Small Budget, and Saving Money When Buying a Used Car.



URL: http://www.jonko.com

FREE WEBSITE SERVICES FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Glenn Peterson, a former reference librarian, has over 10 years’ experience developing websites for the Hennepin County (Minnesota) Library. His company, Engaged Patrons, provides free website services (including programming) to connect public libraries with their customers.

Engagedpatrons.org services are free to qualifying public libraries.

The following services are currently available.

A list of your library's upcoming events, searchable by branch or keyword.

Interactive blogs integrated into your site's look and feel.

Easy-to-complete customer comment form.

Providing library news updates via RSS.

Custom Web-enabled Databases.

URL: http://engagedpatrons.org/

SERVING SENIORS: A HOW-TO-DO-IT MANUAL

RoseMary Honnold and Saralyn Mesaros [Coshocton (Ohio) Public Library] have written a how-to manual on how to create library services for older adults. Included are collection development hints, assistive technologies, partnering with other senior agencies, programs, and implementing Internet services.


However, you don't have to buy the book to gain access to its Internet links. They are online and updated and look very helpful. This is a rapidly growing segment of every library's constituents. Take a look.


URL: http://www.cplrmh.com/seniors.html


Serving Seniors: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians, Neal-Schuman, 2004, ISBN 1-55570482-4, US$59.95

MARKETING HELP FOR ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

The Association of College and Research Libraries (part of the American Library Association) has put together some wonderful tools for academic libraries. They are all good, have some specific examples that you can emulate and, best of all, they are free.



Included are:

The Power of Personal Persuasion: Advancing the Academic Library Agenda from the Front Lines (PDF format)

@ your library Toolkit for Academic and Research Libraries (download either in PDF or Word format)

Manuals and slides on strategic marketing for Academic and Research Libraries (from 3M Library Systems and ACRL)

Train-the-Trainer slides (also from the 2003 3M/ACRL training session)



URL:

all the above can be downloaded from http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/
acrlissues/marketingyourlib/marketingyour.htm

DEWEY RESEARCH ADVISOR

This is an interesting library application from the libraries at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is an online database "that provides starting points for specific research questions in the fields of business, management and economics."

You can look at the beta version (and use it for reference) for free. While you're there, look at some of of MIT's other programs that they are sharing.


URLs:

Dewey Research Advisor: http://faq-libraries.mit.edu/record
List?library=mit_business&institution=mit

MIT Libraries' Betas: http://libraries.mit.edu/help/betas/

AN IDEAL LIBRARIAN

“In a word, a librarian should have the learning of a Bacon, the manner of a Chesterfield, the patience of Job, the divining power of a wizard, and the temper of an angel. Besides, he must not only be born a librarian, but must continue to make himself one as long as he lives.”


(from An Ideal Librarian, The Kalends, Goucher College’s student literary magazine, October 1898)


found in a post by Bill Drew, Baby Boomer Librarian, 1 August 2006, http://babyboomerlibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/08/
ideal-librarian.html