What's New 22 September 2009

15 Essential Web Tools for Students

Mashable have compiled a list of 15 of the best web based applications available for students [http://mashable.com/2009/09/03/web-apps-students/ ].

Categories include:

• Stay organised (Evernote, Notely etc.)
• Study better (StudyRails, Diigo etc.)
• Work and collaborate (Sliderocket, Google Docs etc)
• Cite right (CiteMe, EasyBib & Zotero)

How to Write a Novel Using the Web

Josh Catone at Mashable has created a useful guide for aspiring authors concerning How to Write a Novel Using the Web [http://mashable.com/2009/09/16/write-novel/]. He includes a discussion of various tools for organization, research, writing, connecting with other writers, and publishing.

No parking? Librarians will deliver to your car

The Houston Public Library is piloting a service that delivers books, movies, and music to you car – kerbside service at the library! People who have mobility issues, agoraphobia, are in a hurry, or who are just plain lazy can now rejoice.

BBC Languages

Looking to improve your French language skills? Do you need some reputable language-learning resources to point customers to, and don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on an online subscription service?

Try BBC Languages

The site also provides audio & video courses for learning Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Gaelic, and so on. And, finally, the site covers essential phrases in 36 languages. It is easy to use and the language materials are practical.

SmartDefrag

Smart Defrag [http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html] is a free disk defragmenting utility. There are a few things that set this program apart from other defragmenting tools like Defraggler, JkDefrag and UltimateDefrag.

Smart Defrag:

Can defragment several hard drives or partitions at once

Can also either defragment the disks in question, or defragment and optimize the disks by arranging data for the best possible performance

Includes a handy scheduling utility which allows you to schedule daily, weekly, monthly, or one time disk defragmenting jobs. You can also have the application run when you first boot your system, when your computer is idle, or at regularly scheduled intervals (like every two weeks). If you're the sort of person who keeps putting off the task of defragmenting your hard drive, this feature could really come in handy.

Uses for Google Maps

Google Maps [http://maps.google.com/]

· To find the number and locations of a type of business in an area. By pulling up the map of Brisbane and searching for "bookstores", and then selecting the "Books-Retail" category, I can see how many book shops there are within three miles of where my client is considering locating his business.

· To find out what companies are located in a building. Type in the street address, and Google Maps will show all the businesses listed in the telephone directory for that address. Click on any of the businesses and you will see detailed information on the business.

· To find out more information about a particular company, without leaving Google Maps. For each of those bookstores that I found, I can click the "More info" link and see the company's address and phone number, links to the company's web site, and even an image of the front of the building, if there is a Street View for the company's location. There is even the option for users to post reviews on Google Maps, but not many reviews have been contributed for Aussie businesses.

How did we ever manage before the web?

Licence 2 Test Drive – Part B

Licence 2 Test Drive - Part B, the second part of an online program to learn more about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other, is now available.

Over the course of the next twelve weeks, the program will highlight a selection of Web 2.0 technologies with Discovery, Exploration and Adventure exercises to help you become familiar with online applications and tools, mashups, podcasts and audio, web browsers, Google plus more, and video online. Make sure you read the Introduction and Frequently Asked Questions pages before you begin.

It is not necessary to have completed Part A of this program. If you did not participate in L2TD Part A and are unfamiliar with setting up a blog, please go back to L2TD Part A and complete Test Drive #1 for an introduction to blogs.

Once you have completed Test Drive #1 of Part B using the same blog you set up in Part A of this program, please register your blog using the pre-survey and registration form located at the top right hand side of the Licence 2 Test Drive Part B web page. Note that there are two registration forms and you must complete the one which is relevant to your place of employment. Everyone will complete the survey again at the end so we measure our progress as a group.

What's New 28 August 2009

Person Busted For Stealing WiFi at Library
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/08/guy-busted-for-stealing-wifi-at-nyc-library-%E2%80%94-to-play-halo/
In a public library, a guy sitting at a monitor with his hands in his lap, covered by a newspaper, implicitly means bad things. Fear not, he’s only sneaked in an Xbox to steal the free WiFi and play Halo.

In NYPL a guy brought in a monitor, Xbox, wireless router, what looks like a Turtle Beach Ear Force gaming headset and an external hard drive. His controller is concealed by yesterday’s New York Post.

“He proceeded to play Quake/Halo/Call of Duty, some nerd fighter game, while yelling out instructions to his ‘team-mates’,” says the photographer.

Small wonder then, that it “took him 20 minutes to set it all up. Took him 2 minutes to get kicked out.”

Reference Desk: Add-ons for Firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collection/reference
Make the librarian jealous with add-ons that help students, researchers or anyone with a tough question find and document all the answers.
Add-ons include:
• Converter - Contextual unit, time zone, and currency converter on any web site; custom conversions for offline text also supported.
• Wired-Marker - a permanent (indelible) highlighter that you use on Web pages. The highlighter, which comes in various colors and styles, is a kind of electronic bookmark that serves as a guide when you revisit a Web page. The highlighted content is automatically recorded in a scrapbook and saved.
• gTranslate - translate any text in a webpage just by selecting and right-clicking over it. The extension uses the Google translation services to translate the text.

Own Your Domain Name & Aggregate Your Entire Social Accounts with Chi.mp: a free service
Would you like to own your personal domain name, be able to blog, create photo albums, and aggregate all of your social accounts in one place? As impossible as it may sound, you can have all of that goodness in one place with Chi.mp [http://chi.mp/] (Content Hub & Identity Management Platform).

Top 25 Free e-book Sites, the Definitive List
http://www.rotorblog.com/2009/03/09/top-25-free-e-books-sites-the-definitive-list/
A good collection with a brief description of each site. If you're into e-books this is a page to bookmark!

Bing v Google
http://bing-vs-google.com/
Can't choose a default search engine? Want to compare Bing & Google results?
This is the right place to be. Just put your query in the search box and press Enter. You'll see results from both engines side by side.
Search provider for Internet Explorer 7/8 and Firefox is also available - search both engines from your browser!

100 Best Twitter Feeds for Librarians of the Future
http://www.onlinecourses.org/2009/08/18/100-best-twitter-feeds-for-librarians-of-the-future/
Twitter is a great place to find information. Whether you’re learning from other library professionals, staying on top of news, or checking out resources, you can find what you need on Twitter.

10 Most Dangerous Things Users Do Online
Here is a list of the ten most dangerous things users do online from School CIO dated May 29, 2009: http://schoolcio.com/ShowArticle/932
1. Clicking on email attachments from unknown senders
2. Installing unauthorized applications
3. Turning off or disabling automated security tools
4. Opening HTML or plain-text messages from unknown senders
5. Surfing gambling, porn, or other legally-risky sites
6. Giving out passwords, tokens, or smart cards
7. Random surfing of unknown, untrusted Websites
8. Attaching to an unknown, untrustworthy WiFi network
9. Filling out Web scripts, forms, or registration pages
10. Participating in chat rooms or social networking sites

What's New 19 August

Search Options now on Google Images
http://images.google.com.au/
Search Options for Google Images offers quick access to existing tools, including search by colour and image type. Colour search will find images that are only in colour or only in black and white, or even images that contain a specific colour, such as red, pink, or green. Type search is a great way to narrow down your results if you are looking for a specific kind of image, such as a photo, clip art, line drawing or face.

In addition to choosing from commonly searched-for sizes, now you can search for an exact image size or any image larger than a certain size. You can find images of practically any size, including 70 megapixels or more.

The new layout makes it faster and easier to combine and toggle between options. Click Show options.. in the blue bar on the search results page to try out any of these tools.

Screenr
Http://screenr.com
Screenr creates free, instant, up to five minute screencasts. You can create screencasts for your followers as easily as you tweet. Just click the record button and you’ll have your ready-to-tweet/embed/link screencast in seconds.
• Web based recorder – no download required
• Mac or PC
• Plays everywhere on the web, even iPhones

Like most other screen casting tools, I think it has great educational implications – you can easily record short tutorials and presentations, but ScreenJelly allows you to tweet it, email it and/or upload it to Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc.

Interactive German
High school German teacher Ed Curtis has created this site [http://www.quia.com/pages/germangrammar.html] full of interactive general grammar exercises. Challenge yourself or your students to improve German language skills.

100 Best Blogs for Library Science Students
http://onlinedegreeprograms.org/blog/2009/100-best-blogs-for-library-science-students/
If you’re studying library science, you’re in luck. There is a world of information available to you online, much of it in blogs. Follow this list, and you’ll find 100 of the best blogs a library science student or any library staff can read. The blogs are categorised into the following categories:
• Technology
Discover how technology is changing the way we learn in the classroom and in libraries.
• Universities
These blogs are written by and educators. Librarians who work in schools and at colleges and universities will find plenty of resources for developing new programs from these blogs.
• Resources
These blogs serve as resources for reference and research librarians, as well as for librarians who want to learn about being published.
• Librarian 2.0
Get a look into the next generation of librarians with these blogs. The future of libraries depends on the innovation of educators, librarians and technology professionals. Read all about what’s next from the people who are planning for the future.
• Information Science and Systems
Check out these blogs to learn about information science and systems.
• Information Literacy
Keep up with new literature and get ideas for encouraging your patrons to read from these bloggers.
• News
Read these blogs to stay up to date on news that matters for library science students.

Book Club on Twitter...
Why not start a book club using Twitter. For readers intrigued by the challenge of a book discussion in 140 characters or less, set a time once a month or fortnightly for readers to get together via Twitter. Enlist staff members to co-host the event. Allow anyone to participate by using #tag. The co-hosts and participants contribute questions and comments. Afterwards, the Twitter discussion is archived on your web page or blog and participants vote on the book to discuss next month.

Here are some examples of Twitter book clubs:
• Dublin TwookClub [ http://twitter.com/dublintwookclub ]
The Dublin Twook Club is a monthly event, with books chosen by means of a poll on the club’s blog (www.dublintwookclub.wordpress.com). It’s an amalgamation of “traditional” interaction – face-to-face – and online media. “We run a liveblog, streaming conversation directly from the room, so people who aren’t physically present can interact and read what’s being said.”
• Twitter Book Club Intrigued by the challenge of a book discussion in 140 characters or less? This Twitter online book club meets live on the second and third Monday of every month at EST 9-10 PM, co-hosted by the Book Studio's Bethanne Patrick and Booksquare’s Kassia Krozser.

Licence 2 Test Drive : Part B

100 Best Blogs for Library Science Students

100 Best Blogs for Library Science Students

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What's New 31 July 2009

Free online OCR
http://www.free-ocr.com/

Have you ever had an image of some text, perhaps a digital camera photo of a document, and wished you didn't have to retype the text into your computer? Free-OCR.com is a free online OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool. This service is free & no registration is required. You simply give it the address of the image, PDF, JPG, GIF, TIFF or BMP, maximum file size 2MB and the language, and it comes back with text you can cut and paste into your document.

Mapspread: Build Interactive Maps with Geo-Data
Mapspread [http://mapspread.com] lets users create interactive mapping applications and allows them to manage their geo-data. Watch a demo video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMXkVcTDBA4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmapspread.com%2F&feature=player_embedded

Mapspread allows you to import or manually add data such as addresses into an interactive map (powered by Google Maps). This map can be used for everything from store/library locators to real-time collaboration. You simply add information in layers and customize it to your needs. Take a look at this video created by Mashable which demonstrates how to use Mapspread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMXkVcTDBA4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F2009%2F07%2F06%2Fmapspread%2F&feature=player_embedded

Note that you can edit the names, colours, text, the map size, and even upload images (so you can have your logo). Once you have finished creating your map, you can then embed it, which is great for a company website. Overall, Mapspread provides an additional layer of functionality to Google Maps.

60+ Great How to Sites and Resources
Cameron Chapman at Mashable presents a mega guide to 60+ Great How To Sites and Resources [http://mashable.com/2009/02/18/how-to-guide/]. If you’re looking for guidance in a particular area, you’ll want to check out some of these resources which are divided into the following categories:
• General How-to
• Technology How-To
• Productivity and Efficiency How-To
• Business and Career How-To
• Mashable How-Tos
• Miscellaneous How-To

Six Things Libraries Should Tweet
Andy Burkhardt in his blog Information Tyrannosaur [http://andyburkhardt.com/] writes about the six things libraries should tweet. They include:
• Library events
• New additions to your collection
• Links to articles, video’s etc.
• Marketing

Google Squared
http://www.google.com/squared
Google Squared is a search tool that helps you quickly build a collection of facts from the Web for any topic you specify.
* Facts about your topic are organized as a table of items and attributes
* Customize these Squares to see just the items and attributes you're interested in.
* See the websites that served as sources for the information in your Square.
* Save and share Squares with others.
Below is a square using the keyword Queensland.

Write Rhymes
http://www.writerhymes.com/
Budding poet, but you can't find words that rhyme? Can't think of a two syllable word that rhymes with book? Write Rhymes is a clever resource that will do the job for you.
Great if you're in a school environment, working with members of the public, or setting up some sort of literary event. It's a nice resource to recommend.


Similar-site finds like pages
http://similar-site.com/
Similar-site is one of the new classes of search engines that will find sites similar to one that you already know. Just type in an appropriate URL and it will go off and find new sites for you to view. This one provides a percentage figure of confidence.

Free Utility to Defragment Your Hard Drive
http://www.defraggler.com/download
Defragmenting your hard drive is considered good housekeeping to keep your computer running smooth. Defraggler is a free utility that allows you to defrag an entire drive or just individual files. Installation is quick and easy following the installation wizard. You will be up and ready to roll in a few seconds.

What's New

Spezify
Spezify [http://www.spezify.com]is a freeform search tool that incorporates websites, videos, images, microblog posts and more into a grid of results. It's impressive if you're looking to get an overview of a topic, especially if you're a visual person. Instead of showing text results, like Google, Spezify is more like a multimedia wall that you can scroll across vertically or horizontally to take in information at a glance.
Spezify also provides a list of related words at the top of the results screen, which can help you explore a topic further. Videos in the results are all embedded, and can be played without leaving the site, and a lot of the text results feature slightly longer previews than Google results do.

Just for fun
Hunch [http://www.hunch.com] is a "decision making engine". Hunch helps you make decisions and gets smarter the more you use it. After asking you 10 questions or less, Hunch will provide a concrete result for decisions of every kind.

Live Search has been bumped by Bing
Microsoft's Live.com is now http://www.bing.com. Bing describes itself as a search engine that finds and organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions. Test it out for yourself.

Browsys
http://www.browsys.com (select Advanced Finder)
Browsys Search is a handy web search tool, allowing quick access to multiple search services and online contentproviders from one single page including
Benefits:
- Search and get results from multiple search services at once.
- With a convenient and intuitive interface, Browsys Search Assistant is a simple, fast and powerful way to search the web.
- No registration or login is required in Browsys, and it's free to use.

30+ Places To Find Creative Commons Media
Sean Aune has compiled a list of 30 plus places to find Creative Commons Media. The Creative Commons licence allows you to use the file in the creation of web sites and other media, free of charge. There are different degrees of the license, and some are for private use only, or they may require that you include an attribution to the original creator. Make sure to read and understand the various licenses, and which one each file you discover uses.
Included are links to audio, images, texts, and videos.

Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English (Presentations)
Amit Agarwal, author of the blog Digital Inspiration has gathered some great explanations of Web 3.0.

Web 1.0 - That Geocities & Hotmail era was all about read-only content and static HTML websites. People preferred navigating the web through link directories of Yahoo! and dmoz.
Web 2.0 - This is about user-generated content and the read-write web. People are consuming as well as contributing information through blogs or sites like Flickr, YouTube, Digg, etc. The line dividing a consumer and content publisher is increasingly getting blurred in the Web 2.0 era.
Web 3.0 - This will be about semantic web (or the meaning of data), personalization (e.g. iGoogle), intelligent search and behavioral advertising among other things.

Take a look at some presentations that help you understand Web 3.0 in simple English http://www.labnol.org/internet/web-3-concepts-explained/8908/. Each takes a different approach to explain Web 3.0 and the last presentation uses an example of a "postage stamp" to explain the "semantic web".

What's New

Skype 4.1 beta for Windows adds screen sharing
Skype 4.1 beta for Windows is out and has added a few new features. The biggest change is the addition of screen sharing technology. When you're chatting with a Skype contact, you can now click a Share button in order stream your entire desktop or just a portion of your screen with your contact.
Have you ever tried to help a friend with their computer? Or take a colleague through a presentation? Or help a friend with their essay? Or show off a killer move in a game? Well, screen sharing in Skype makes doing things like that super-easy. Just click the Share menu in the conversation area of the Skype window.
With this beta, you can share your screen with any other Skype user on Windows, Mac or Linux. You can share your whole screen, or just a selection, and best of all, it's totally free.
How do I get it? Download now [http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/beta/ ] Skype 4.1 Beta for Windows
Skype 4.1 beta for Windows also allows you to import contacts from other services including Gmail, Windows Live, Yahoo!, AOL, and LinkedIn. You can also send contacts to other Skype users and there's a birthday reminder feature.

Video file formats, what and when to use
Video file formats are a real nightmare! Sites like Youtube - or specifically Flash Video have helped solve this compatibility problem for viewing on the Internet, but it’s still a problem for those who like to download and perhaps even edit videos.

So what format should I use?

3 rules of thumb:
.The master copy of your digital video should be in AVI set to play at 25 frames per second, displaying a size of 720x576 pixels.
. Use this master AVI to export Internet ready versions in MP4, WMV and Ogg Theora, all set to play at no less than 12.5 frames per second, displaying at 320x240 pixels.
. Upload the MP4 to your preferred video publishing service (eg Youtube or Blip.tv) and that service will convert your video to the Flash Video format for reliable playback on all computers.

Why AVI as the master format? Because it is an old, long used format that is generally reliable on the widest range of computer software and players. As the Wikipedia entry for AVI says: ...the age of the AVI format, being widely supported on a vast range of operating systems and devices, and the availability of video editing and playback software ... help keep the AVI file format popular amongst amateur videographers.

Why the 3 export formats? Video for the Internet needs to be a small file size, but not so small that it makes it unwatchable. An MP4 at 320x240 pixels gets good file compression and can play on Windows, Macintosh and Linux, not to mention iPods. A WMV gets very good compression, and is reliably played on Windows based computers including PDAs. And Ogg Theora also gets good compression, but is the only non-commercial, open standard video format that plays on Linux, and that is accepted by Wikipedia and other free and open source initiatives - who tend to have longer term, commercial free, sustainability in mind. If you offer people the choice of these 3 formats, you have all bases covered nicely.

But how do you get video into all those formats? There are a few free to use video converters you can use. These applications can take just about any video format and convert it into any other format. SuperC was one of the first to become available, and it can do so much in the one application. It's not always easy to use, so sometimes simpler tools such as Videora iPod converter, or Pazera Video Converters are worth a try. Alternatively, you can upload your video to Archive.org and they will convert your video on their website for you.

More information on encoding can be found on the Wikipedia entries for each format. AVI, MP4, WMV, and Ogg Theora.

Lego Character
Picture yourself in plastic. Mini-mizer [http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mm2/mini2.swf ]offers billions of combinations, there's sure to be something to amuse you. Fantastic school holiday activity.

Mary as a Lego

Google Wave
Google Wave is a new type of communication tool. It's a combination of email, instant messaging, and many other collaborative features and will be available to the public later this year. Google plans to make the application Open Source. PCWorld asks Is Google Wave a Twitter Killer? [http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/blogs/bizfeed/165726/is_google_wave_a_twitter_killer.html]
Here is the YouTube keynote from their conference in which the application in fully demonstrated.

LIS Publications Wiki
http://slisapps.sjsu.edu/wikis/faculty/putnam/index.php/LIS_Publications_Wiki
This wiki gathers information about publications that LIS professionals might want to write for -- whether they want to reach their colleagues or their communities. All editors, publishers, and LIS professionals are welcome to contribute to the publication profiles. To participate, just create a free account and log in.

Microsyntax
One of the side effects of Twitter's 140-character limitation is that users are coming up with their own microsyntax and abbreviated Twitter grammar to make their Tweets more expressive. If you're merely retweeting someone else's tweet, for example, you acknowledge that by placing an "RT" at the beginning of your micro-message. If you are replying publicly to another user or just referring to them, you indicate that with an @username. You can even add hashtags to a tweet so that it shows up in searches for specific topic.
Microsyntax.org has been launched to keep on top of the latest Twitter lingo. You can follow @microsyntax.
Microsyntax is not just about coming up with commonly used abbreviations. It is also the way that structure can be added to the mess that is Twitter today. Hashtags, for instance, lets you find all tweets about a particular subject or event. We probably need more microtags for different purposes.
Thanks to Vicki Bates at slq for this link.

Registration for SLQ's Licence 2 Test Drive program has now closed. 325 Queensland library staff have registered to do SLQ's Licence 2 Test Drive, but so far only 15 participants appear to have completed all 6 Test Drives. When you have completed all 6 Test Drives, be sure to fill out the Follow-up Survey (the link can be found on the top right and side of SLQ's Licence 2 Test Drive homepage. Remember that the deadline to complete all 6 Test Drives and be entered in the draw for the Asus Notebook is July 1, 2009. You must complete all 6 Test Drives and the Follow-up Survey to be eligible.

Licence 2 Test Drive Part B (another 6 Test Drives) will be released in August 2009.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain