Infoblog

As the law regarding hands-free cell phone use gets closer to going into effect (July 1), I thought I'd highlight a couple of tools that I enjoy. These can be of use to you and/or your users, and will keep you from doing dangerous things like texting while driving.

First up is my favorite, Jott. If you have ever called your answering machine to leave yourself reminders about things you need to do, Jott is for you! Set up an acount for free, validate your phone number, then you call a toll-free number and leave a message for yourself or any of your contacts who are in your Jott contact list (which you build online). If you have entered both the person's email address and phone number then Jott sends both a text message and email to the person. If you prefer to only send text messages, then make sure that contact has a phone and no email address. If you prefer to only send email to that contact, then make sure that contact has an email address but no phone number.

Pinger is a service that allows you to call a local (to your cell phone) number and send a voice message to any contact you list on the Pinger website. It then sends the person a text message that there is a voice mail waiting for them. Hmm. Pinger also lets you create groups, and you can then send one voicemail message that will go to all members of your group. Pinger also offers voicemail (that could replace your cell provider's voicemail).

Both Jott and Pinger allow you to save your messages (Jott in voice and text, Pinger in voice), on your personal web page, so you can refer back to them as needed. You can also set up reminders in Jott about an event. Both are free, so give them a shot and see what you think! Jott is one-way, where Pinger allows the person to whom you sent the message to reply.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 4:15 PM in Cool Tools | Permalink

I frequently find out about new and exciting training tools both from Infopeople and the Continuing Library Education Network & Exchange Round Table (CLENE) of the American Library Association. In June 2007, I read a wonderful blog entry, A Quick Intro to ScreenCasting by Steve Garwood in CE Buzz, CLENE's blog. Steve describes how he used Camtasia software to record a PowerPoint presentation he did on ScreenCasting as he spoke.

Since I recruit instructors for Infopeople I contacted Steve and voilà, his Infopeople onground course became a reality, Tutorials 2.0: Teaching the Public and Training Staff with Online Screencasts; sessions start this month.

Even if you aren't ready to take a course, do check out the course description and sample shown in his blog entry to see a really cool tool your library could use to do tutorials for the public or for staff training.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 7:38 PM in Cool Tools | Infopeople News | Training | Permalink

GOOG411 is great for saving money when you need phone numbers and/or addresses. You just call 1-800-GOOG-411 (free) instead of 411 (usually $1.50 and up per call). Especially useful for cellphone users. I programed the number in my phone and named it "info." Check out their video on it -- funny. Another free service from Google.

from Lifehacker's Top 10 Telephone Tricks

Posted by carole leita at 9:48 AM in Cool Tools | not on work time | Permalink

If you know people who want to learn a new language or Spanish or Polish speakers who want help learning English, check out Mango.

You must have Flash installed to use the lessons and register for a free account. At this time, there is no cost for unlimited use of all of the lessons.

When you begin a lesson, you hear a brief conversation, and then you proceed forward and backward through a series of slides at your own pace. Mango does an excellent job of combining audio clips and written text. If you want to hear a phrase again, you just click the sound icon. To skip ahead, you just click the slide advance button.

Billed as "the first Free enterprise language learning course available on the Internet," the beta release of Mango currently offers 11 courses. Each course has 100 lessons available. The 11 languages are: Spanish, Russian, French, Talian, Mandarin Chinese, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Greek, English for Spanish Speakers and English for Polish speakers.

Don't forget that Infopeople offers a variety of Spanish language related resources.

Currently, for those of you who want help teaching Spanish-Speaking Patrons How to Use the Internet, Infopeople will be offering that onground course beginning in October for only $75.

Also Survival Spanish for Library Staff on CD is still available free.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 12:37 PM in Cool Tools | Spanish Language Outreach | Training | Permalink

I just discovered this new (to me) tool today. It's a peer to peer file sharing tool called Pando. If you have ever had to send, or wanted to share with folks, really big media files (pics, movies, etc) and couldn't do it via email, then Pando is worth a look. It compresses your file (or folder) into a tiny .pando file that you can then email or share via IM. You and your recipient need the free Pando app to compress or open the files. Pando works with both Macs and PCs. Cool!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 10:48 AM in Cool Tools | Permalink | Comments (2)

Four Infopeople staff, fondly referred to as "peeps," (Eileen, Gail, Gini and Linda) have been using a FREE, easy-to-use and very practical Web 2.0 online "to do" shared list service, Ta-da Lists.

You can use the website to:

• make one list to keep track of things you personally need to get done

• make multiple lists you can share with other people (co-workers, friends, family)

• subscribe to your lists in RSS

If you're doing the Infopeople 23 Things Challenge, don't forget to blog about trying this idea!

Posted by gail mcgovern at 12:56 PM in Cool Tools | Odds & Ends | Web 2.0 | Web Resources | Permalink

Bookmark Roger von Oech's Creative Think website for those times when you need a quick creative spark to help you solve a problem. Click on Roger's photo and a different card from his Creative Whack Pack cards will pop up with a great idea. You may want to check out his blog as well.

If you want to learn more about the creative process and develop your leadership skills, why not sign up for the Infopeople workshop, Building Leadership Skills: Stimulating Creativity with Joyce Wycoff.

The workshop is designed for library community managers, innovators and emerging leaders who want to enhance their own creativity and who want to be able to lead for creativity and innovation.

The workshop will help you:

• Understand the creative process and how to effectively use it

• Learn how to identify and appreciate different thinking styles

• Understand how and when to use several creative thinking tool

• Use mindmapping to clarify thinking and make it visual for others

• Use metaphorical thinking to generate "out of the box" ideas

• Understand the qualities of a successful creative process

• Be able to use a simple model to make creative projects more successful

• Develop a self-mastery plan to improve creative leadership abilities

Posted by gail mcgovern at 4:47 PM in Cool Tools | Training | Permalink

If you need to perk up your Powerpoint presentations, check out Slideshare, "a place to share & discover presentations and slideshows."

You can even search by tags, e.g. library2.0 and collaboration.

If you think you have a dynamite presentation, you can enter it in the World's Best Presentation Contest and win a prize. Contest judges are presentation gurus including Guy Kawasaki, who wrote The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint in his blog.

Here are a few of my Slideshare favorites:

10 Ways to a Killer Blog: Getting noticed in the new word-of-mouth network.

Art of the Start

iPod Nation: a fresh new look at marketing/advertising

The Social Web: Wikis, RSS, Blogs, Flickr, and MORE!

Value Creation in Enterprise 2.0

Also don't forget that Infopeople has a fantastic archive of presentation materials from past workshops.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 8:28 AM in Cool Tools | Web Resources | Permalink

If your library is a Polaris PowerPac (v3.2 or later) or a Dynix library system (Classic or Horizon - excluding Java-based Dynix WebPAC) and hasn't yet signed up for Elf, an Internet-based tool your users can use for keeping track of what's due, overdue and ready for pickup for one or more library accounts, take a look at the demo.

Reminders are sent based on user preferences - before items are due (up to seven days advance notice, weekly notice or everyday reminders). For families or anyone who'd like reminders before an item is due (user-selectable number of days notice).

There is a list of those libraries already using ELF.

For those library users who have Macintosh computers, there is a a great OS X application, Library Books, that offers tracking as well as displays the information in the menu bar.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 11:42 AM in Cool Tools | Web 2.0 | Permalink

I signed up for a StumbleUpon account a while ago, and haven't really utilized it all that well. It's a toolbar that works with the Firefox, Mozilla, and Sea Monkey web browsers and basically enhances your ability to do, as Gail McGovern likes to call it, "serendipitous searching." Pretty cool idea!

Well now there's a new tool in town: Stumble Video. Stumble Video allows you to locate web videos from all sorts of websites, based on your topic preferences. The player is embedded, so there's nothing to download. If you already have a Stumble account, it will work with Stumble Video, or you can quickly set up and account (for free) here. you can either click the Stumble button and see what comes up, or you can locate videos by topic, or "channel," as Stumble calls it. For instance, I found this video by clicking on the Stumble button. Kinda makes me want to go to las Vegas and see it for myself! I found this one by going to the Cats channel. Warning: you think YouTube is a timesink - this may be worse.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 1:50 PM in Cool Tools | Web Resources | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you missed the SirsiDynix online Mashups presentation by Darlene Fichter, be sure to take a look at it and the resulting Frappr map

Here's the description of the presentation.

Mashups : A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

What's a mashup and why would I want one? Whether you're a reference librarian, library trainer, a library webmaster or teacher-librarian knowing about this new breed of web application is important. A "mashup" mixes content from independent sources to create something new. Many mashups are simple to create and require little technical know-how, allowing library staff and library users of all sorts to wave a magic wand and create something new. Jump on board and take a tour of interesting mashups, including some library examples, and explore the opportunities for libraries to remix library and other data sources to create new and innovative services. Take away tools that you can learn about and build mashups, for users or yourself, and recommended sites to learn more. Jump start your thinking on the new Web 2.0 ecosystem that relies on symbiotic relationships and communities rather than "monolithic systems" or the "kindness of strangers".

Darlene Fichter is the Head of the Indigenous Studies Portal and Coordinator of Data Library Services at the University of Saskatchewan Library. Darlene is particularly interested in the area of human computer interaction and designing positive user experiences. She has been a consultant and project manager for several web site, portal, digital library and intranet projects. Darlene is also columnist for Online magazine and a frequent conference speaker about new and emerging information technologies.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 8:45 AM in Cool Tools | Web 2.0 | Webcasts | Permalink

This insightful, best practices video titled Introducing the Book, provides tips that will help staff provide great customer service for all ages. It has applications for both computer and print help desk inquiries. The narration is in German with English subtitles.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:57 PM in Cool Tools | Odds & Ends | Training | Permalink

During the American Library Association (ALA) 2007 Midwinter meeting in Seattle, I was looking for ideas for the 2007 Infopeople Technology Petting Zoo and had a great opportunity to try my fancy foot work out on Dance Dance Revolution dance pads with Jenny Levine. Jenny is an Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide for ALA; she also has her own blog titled, The Shifted Librarian.

You may have read that libraries are using these pads in creative ways such as challenging teen library customers to a contest. If the teens win, their overdue fines are wiped out!

See a movie of us taken with my Canon digital camera at my website.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 3:51 PM in Conferences | Cool Tools | Odds & Ends | Permalink

For those of you out there in LibraryLand who are following the development of online apps, be sure to check out this new entry: LetterPop. Caveat: it's a beta tool, so it has minimal templates and can be a bit buggy. But the possibilities are pretty cool for libraries that need a quick and dirty solution to creating newsletters or brochures. Currently you can sign up and get a 12 month premium membership for free. Nice deal!

Link by way of Lifehacker.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 7:23 AM in Cool Tools | Permalink | Comments (0)

Intrerested in trying out a new tool to gather stats about your website traffic? Check out the beta release of Quantcast. Signing up is free, and then all you do is place a snippet of javascript code into pages for which you want to gather stats. What kinds of stats?

We observe anonymous records of visits to internet destinations. For a portion of these observations, we have certain information, such as the age, gender or income level of the internet visitor and/or their household. This group is called a panel and forms one aspect of our analysis and reporting methodology.

We also analyze internet log records which include information such as the page viewed and the IP (internet protocol) address used to access the page.

You can read their privacy policy here.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 6:24 PM in Cool Tools | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you aren't yet familiar with online productivity tools that rival Microsoft Office, first read an overview article to see a comparison of features.

Then at least take a look at the one getting the most buzz, ThinkFree.

To compare with the others, check out Zoho and Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 7:02 AM in Cool Tools | Web 2.0 | Web Resources | Permalink

This is a neat tool for all you iTunes fans. Let your friends know what you're listening to (and give them a chance to get their own copy) by using iLike. It's a free download for iTunes (you can also use the web page as a stand alone tool). You get a web page (here's mine), and/or you can add a link to your MySpace page (here's mine). Folks can see what you're listening to, and then can click on a link to buy it at the iTunes Store (and you can do the same with them). Pretty cool!

And speaking of MySpace pages, the American Library Association has one! Become their friend today!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 11:47 AM in Cool Tools | Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

For all of you fans of Firefox, Mozilla has released an official version of Firefox 2.0. What's new? It now comes with a spell-checker, a phisihing filter, and better web feed handling. Read more here.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 7:49 AM in Cool Tools | Permalink

Book Burro is a Web 2.0 extension for Firefox and Flock. When it senses you are looking at a page that contains a book, it will overlay a small panel you can open to see prices at online bookstores AND whether the book is available at a library close to your home.

By entering your zip code, Book Burro uses Open WorldCat's web service to display local availability. For more information on how it works, see the blog.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:01 PM in Cool Tools | Web Resources | Permalink

Check out SightSpeed for Videochatting between Macs and any other computer.

See my demo both of the look of a videochat and as a way to send video messages for someone to view alone.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 1:12 PM in Cool Tools | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just when I think I'm current, Google releases a new tool. This is really more of a merging of tools: they now have something called Google Docs & Spreadsheets, where you can log in and find both their web word processing app and their spreadsheet app. And once you've created a user login, you'll find all of your files saved there, too. I posted about Writely a while back: Writely is now Google Docs.

Come on Google, let's just get it over with: release the presentation software already! You know you want to!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 10:48 AM in Cool Tools | Web Resources | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apparently Google is attempting to replace Microsoft Office one app at a time. First it was Writely, a word processing app that runs on the web and can be used as a shared app. Now there's Google Spreadsheet (wow, catchy name!), that is - surprise! - a spreadsheet app that runs on the web and can be used as a shared app.You have to have a gmail account to use it, and you have to use one of the following browsers: IE 6.0+, Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7+, Mozilla 1.7.12+, or Netscape 7.2, 8.0. I bet you're thinking that pretty much covers the bases, huh? I tried it the first time out with Safari for the Mac and bottomed out. But once I switched to Firefox it was all good. Here's a screen shot:

It's another handy tool for libraries that don't want to or can't offer Microsoft Office to their users.

Another way to go is a service like ThinkFree, that offers online word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Los Angeles Public Library has opted for this route. You don't have to be a library to sign up for ThinkFree; an individual can sign up in just a minute or two (they'll need an active email address for verification purposes), and once they're signed in they have instant access to the three apps and a gigabyte of online storage (Google Spreasheet storage is part of your two gigabyte Google account's storage limit). Only downside: it runs on Java, which can be a problem for some libraries' public use machines.

Update on Google Spreadsheets: if you decide to share a spreadsheet with someone else, keep in mind that only one of you can edit the spreadsheet at a time (a pretty good safety measure, if you think about it!).

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:22 AM in Cool Tools | Keeping Up | Web Resources | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well, it's a cool tool for any day. From Google, it's Writely, an online word processor. You can upload existing Word docs, create new ones online, email them to your Writely account, then share the file with other folks for collaborative editing (or just keep it to yourself). Documents can be downloaded to your desktop in Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF*, HTML or zip formats, and you can also publish straight to your blog.

This could be a great alternative for libraries that don't offer Word on public machines. Sign up is free; they plan on integrating this into a Google account sign in, but currently you'll need a separate Writely account. After you sign up, they'll send you an email confirmation that you will need to confirm to activate your account, then you're good to go!

The editing screen looks a lot like a simple version of Word; the only problem I had came when trying to export my file - it took me a minute to realize I had to select the doc by checking its box before I could access the Actions commands (where the export options live). Their online help is a little slim, but there is a Writely Help Group that seems pretty lively.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 6:09 AM in Cool Tools | Web Resources | Permalink

43 Folders is an independent web site by Merlin Mann. Mann describes the site as a "parking lot for some of the ideas that excite me. Nerdy stuff like OSX tricks, productivity hints, and the rapidly growing field of mental overclocking that Danny O’Brien has called “Lifehacks.” You’re also going to have to endure frequent references to David Allen’s Getting Things Done system—and, believe me, if you keep finding that the water of your life has somehow run onto the floor, GTD may be just the drinking glass you need to get things back together." He hopes his readers will enjoy his “Mental Sausage.”

The most frequently mentioned topics are:
• productivity and time management tips
• “life hacks” to improve efficiency and get things off your mind
• ideas about modest ways to improve your life and reduce stress
• cool or helpful shortcuts that make life a bit easier
• interesting Macintosh OS X programs and technologies

Posted by gail mcgovern at 8:56 AM in Cool Tools | Permalink

Check out the new podcast search engine, PODZINGER, that lets you search the full audio of both audio and video podcasts just like you search for any other information on the web.

"When you type in a word or terms, PODZINGER not only finds the relevant podcasts, but also highlights the segment of the audio in which they occurred. By clicking anywhere on the results, the audio will begin to play just where you clicked. There are also controls that let you back up, pause, or forward through the podcast. Or you can download the entire podcast."

Posted by gail mcgovern at 9:06 AM in Cool Tools | Permalink

If you are as big and long-term a geek as me, you'll remember the debut in the mid/late 90's of babelfish.altavista.com - the world's first Internet translation service. I had hours of fun translating random chunks of English into French, Spanish, Italian, and German. Sometimes I even used it at the library to help people!

Over the years, AltaVista changed hands a couple of times, but BabelFish stayed free and even added languages. Fastforward to today, and say hello to Yahoo! Babel Fish, still free and now offering Simplified Chinese into Traditional Chinese, and Traditional Chinese into Simplified Chinese. You can even add Babel Fish to your Yahoo! Toolbar now.

Pretty neat! Read all about it on the Yahoo! Search blog.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 7:06 PM in Cool Tools | Web Resources | Permalink

Even if you don't want to read all 45 pages of this Urban Libraries Council study of some highly effective Chicago public libraries, you should at least take a look at the "Engaged Libraries Toolbox" that shows how to assess your library's community standing and possible partners.

The Engaged Library: Chicago Stories of Community Building [PDF].

From the August 7 issue of Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff on the Net.

Posted by carole leita at 1:16 PM in Cool Tools | Interesting Libraries | Permalink

We recently received an email from Lauren John announcing the publication of her new book, Running Book Discussion Groups: A How-To-Do-It-Manual by Neal-Schuman publishers. ($65)

Lauren says, "The book is a direct result of online classes that I taught for Infopeople in 2004 and 2005. Infopeople is acknowledged in (where else?) the acknowledgment page and suggestions/ comments from one of my class bulletin boards are included in Chapter Four (pages 50-54)-- "Planning When and Where to Meet" (I got permission first from the librarians, Sandy Smith of Lodi, Deborah Dean of Shasta County, and Pat Koskinen of Oroville who posted)."

To order the book, go to:
http://www.neal-schuman.com/db/4/524.html

It is also selling on Amazon.

Congratulations, Lauren, on this accomplishment!

Posted by holly hinman at 2:27 PM in Cool Tools | How We Did It Good | Infopeople News | People | Permalink

Keep up with what kids are saying by checking out Aaron Peckham's Urban Dictionary.

You can also hear a fun NPR interview with Aaron.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 5:54 AM in Cool Tools | Keeping Up | Permalink

Check out Omnipelagos, a search engine that "finds the shortest paths between any two things."

It reminds me of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon trivia game in which you tried to connect Kevin Bacon and any other actor through films or television shows the two worked on using no more than six steps.

Omnipelagos lets you enter two names or concepts and then connects the two. Here's a preset example I saw when I visited.

From Desperate Housewives to William Shakespeare:

Desperate Housewives
set on Wisteria Lane in the fictional town of Fairview and written by Marc Cherry. The series tracks the lives of four housewives

Marc Cherry
Designing Women as Dixie Carter's personal assistant. In 1990 he became a writer and producer for the longrunning hit sitcom

Dixie Carter
A Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare. In 1967 she married businessman Arthur Carter (to whom she is not related)

William Shakespeare

Posted by gail mcgovern at 7:04 AM in Cool Tools | Web Searching | Permalink

With Google Mobile you can put your personalized home page on your phone.

See how easy it is at the 3 step sign up page.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 9:21 AM in Cool Tools | Keeping Up | Permalink

You can now podcast an online birthday greeting!
See the sample Ben did for his Nana using Odeo

Posted by gail mcgovern at 8:43 PM in Cool Tools | Podcasts | Permalink

       
Hop on over to Salem Press, click on the button and they'll send you one for free.

Posted by carole leita at 7:04 AM in Cool Tools | Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mac OS X users can keep track of library books using Library Books by Harold Chu. Not only does the program connect to multiple library catalogs, download lists of books checked out at each and display them in the menu bar, but also can automatically add entries to iCal as a reminder to return or renew them. Users can also sync a Palm handheld or mobile and be reminded while on the move.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 7:12 AM in Cool Tools | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Typetester is an online tool that can be pretty useful when you need to check on or choose a typeface for your web project. It allows you to compare fonts for the browser screen. JavaScript needs to be on to use this application.

Posted by carole leita at 4:31 PM in Cool Tools | Web Design | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've ever wondered what colors are safe on all browsers for your website, take a look at 4096 Color Wheel. Just move your mouse over the wheel to get the web safe colors and over the square for the hues.

Posted by carole leita at 8:44 AM in Cool Tools | Web Design | Permalink | Comments (1)

A couple of related web tools of benefit to people with vision problems you should know about and that should be on disability resources lists. Speegle reads search results and Speakwire reads from a selectable list of newsfeeds that includes the San Jose Mercury News. In Speegle, you have a choice of English or American accents. Male Voice #1 has an English accent and #2 and Female Voice have American accents. Speakwire doesn't give you a choice or accents, but it has a really neat tool lower down on the page -- Custom Feeds, where you can enter the feed URL of your favorite blog and have it read to you.

Posted by carole leita at 9:53 AM in Cool Tools | Web Resources | Web Searching | Permalink

If you're not only a librarian at work, but at home too, check out Library Thing. You can create an online catalog of your books using LC Classification. The first 200 items are free. After that it's $10 for a lifetime membership. Can't beat that!

Posted by at 3:02 PM in Cool Tools | Permalink

If you are stuck for a way to solve a problem, check out Idea Generation Methods, a comprehensive list of idea generation methods from Martin Leith, a consultant based in the UK who designs, plans and manages collaborative meetings. One of my favorites is Backward Mapping in which you imagine that the future has arrived and the problem has been solved or the outcome has been achieved and then you look back at the significant steps you took to arrive there.

Posted by at 2:48 PM in Cool Tools | Permalink

Lori Ayre wrote extensively about the Web developer extension over at Mentat, but I wanted to emphasize that it's a tool anyone interested in the user-friendliness of their website should be using. It installs as a toolbar in Firefox or Mozilla browsers and lets you, with a click of a drop-down menu, validate your site's coding against the usability standards.

Posted by at 11:00 AM in Cool Tools | Web Design | Permalink

or your library? Or any other topic of current interest? I put "infopeople" into Intelliseek's BlogPulse and came up with links to several dozen blog posts mentioning us. Check it out with your library's name or any other topic as long as it's no more than three words. Really cool feature -- you can subscribe to an RSS feed of your search.

Posted by at 9:58 AM in Cool Tools | Permalink