85+ TOOLS AND RESOURCES FOR FREELANCERS AND WEB WORKERS

Sean P. Aune of Mashable has put together a list of resources for those working freelance on the Web. Not many relate to librarians, but may be good for your customers. If you do any freelance work, you should at least check out some of the Work Tools (especially time tracking and invoicing).

Also on the site are Adobe AIR applications and sections on job opportunities, freelance photography, and freelance programmers, web designers, and writers.


URL: http://mashable.com/2009/03/03/freelance/

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO WITH GOOGLE?

Google has a nice list of 19 things you can do with their browser that you might not have thought of. Each has a video demo, too. Here are just a few of them:
browse a book, check the time in another country, check your flight, translate a phrase, stargaze (!), and "settle trivia disputes in the pub" (or the library!). The site is UK-based but the applications are universal.

URL: http://www.google.co.uk/landing/thingstodo/

CAUTION: THIS MAY BE HABIT-FORMING! WORDLE

If you want to have fun, try out Wordle, a neat free software program to make word clouds*. You can input any text or an RSS feed from your website, a blog, or anything else. Once the cloud is made, you can edit it to change color, format (horizontal, vertical, rounded, etc.), language, and other characteristics. Then you can save it (even as a PDF), print it, or add it to their online gallery for others to see (and use).

The author of the program (Jonathan Feinberg), an engineer at IBM, says that you can use any of the Wordles you create (or the ones from the gallery) for any purpose you want, including making money. Wouldn't it be neat to have a poster or t-shirt with a Wordle made from your library's website or mission statement? Or from your club or organization? I made Wordles based on the University of Illinois Fight Song, the Beloit College web page on academics (note that the largest word is students, showing their orientation), and the RSS feed from this blog. You can see the first two in the gallery, search on "University of Illinois Fight Song" or "Beloit."
Oh yeah, the gallery is searchable--a neat feature. Try searching on the "Lord's Prayer"....

There are even business applications for Wordle. Karen Blakeman [RBA Information Services, Caversham, Berks UK] wrote on BUSLIB-L, "I was alerted to using tag cloud generators for business purposes by Sue Hill of Sue Hill Recruitment. Her organisation sometimes pass candidate CVs and job descriptions through a cloud generator to highlight which words are being emphasised and used more than they should. I've used Wordle to look at individual promotional materials for membership organisations and events. Some turned out OK and were focussing on the topics we intended to promote, but for a few it became obvious that the advertising had failed because it had all the wrong buzzwords. Very illuminating!"

*In case you don't knoow what a word cloud is, here is the Wikipedia definition: "A tag cloud or word cloud (or weighted list in visual design) is a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, used typically to describe the content of web sites. Tags are usually single words and are typically listed alphabetically, and the importance of a tag is shown with font size or color."

URL: http://wordle.net/

TOP 100 MAC APPLICATIONS

For those of you using the “other” computer, Chris Pirillo (a well-respected Mac expert) has compiled a list of his top 100 Mac applications. There’s also a list of honorable mentions. Both lists have links to the actual site. He is planning to add coupons and/or exclusive pricing for any commercial applications.

URL: http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/11/06/top-100-mac-apps/

WHICH WIKI TO USE?

If you’re contemplating creating a wiki, you are probably confused as to which software program you should use. Never fear, WikiMatrix is here to help. This site, from CosmoCode, a German software company, allows use to make side-by-side, feature-by-feature comparison of the most popular wiki programs. You can also print out all the data for just one or two wikis. Points of comparison include: cost, storage, limits, spam and security features, support, common features, special features, linking, syntax, usability, statistics available, output formats, media and file handling, and examples of formats. It is most impressive—and free. Highly recommended.

URL: http://www.wikimatrix.org

LOOKING FOR A WEB APPLICATION?

Try The Unofficial Web Applications List. I don’t know who put it up, but it looks useful. There is a sidebar with the following tasks you may want to do: convert to PDF, edit photos, send large files, make web buttons, translate, use spreadsheet, use word processor, read RSS feeds, scan for viruses/spyware, play Sudoku, etc.

URL: http://www.webapplist.com/

SAVE TIME WITH WEB 2.0 TOOLS

Aaron Schmidt [North Plains Public Library, North Plains, Oregon, USA] writes in a post on his blog, Walking Paper, that he is a very busy reference librarian in a small public library. He uses Web 2.0 tools to same time. You don’t have to be in a public library to follow his example.

The library’s website was created with WordPress; the library tour is powered by PictoBrowser and Flickr; and the librarians use Google Spreadsheet “to organize the collaboration of multiple employees that are infrequently in the same room.”

He concludes, “I hope this mini case study of a time strapped library helps expose the ‘I don’t have time for social software’ excuse to be just that: an excuse for not wanting to expand and learn.”

URLs:
Complete post: http://www.walkingpaper.org/402
NPPL website: http://nplibrary.org/
Library tour: http://nplibrary.org/tour-the-library/
WordPress: http://www.wordpress.com
PictoBrowser: http://www.db798.com/work/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com
Google Spreadsheet: http://docs.google.com

INTERNET LIBRARY FOR LIBRARIANS

This “portal designed for librarians to locate Internet resources related to their profession,” has several links that appear to be very useful. There is a list of library-related electronic lists and newsgroups devoted to cataloging. There is a list of products for privacy protection and online security. The Librarian’s Toolbox links to things like Label Maker, ShelveIt!, Link Checker, Internet Library for Librarians, QuickBib!, and a couple of library-specific spell checkers. Their information for advertisers says that the site received 200,000 hits and 26,000 user sessions per month. The site is provided by InfoWorks Technology Company, Sewickley, Pennsylvania and is maintained by Internet Library for Librarians Editorial Team. a leader in developing network and PC security software and appliances; an innovator in developing library application tools for improving productivity and quality control; and a full service provider for label design and printing solutions.

URL: http://www.itcompany.com/inforetriever/emailcat.htm

ORGANIZE YOUR ACADEMIC PAPERS

CiteULike is a free citation organizer designed for academics. It automatically extracts the citation details so you don’t have to re-enter them. You can also share your set of citations with others and see who else is reading the same articles. The home page shows recent articles posted to the site and lists most active tags.

There is also a list of electronic tables of contents and links to the articles (if you have the right to see them). (Emerald and Elsevier journals are represented.) Another neat feature is the list articles posted by groups on subjects as diverse as bone and soft tissue engineering, biocultural anthropology, and academic librarians. Seems worth a try.

URL: http://www.citeulike.org