#11 iGoogle

I have had fun setting up my iGoogle page - I deleted some of the default features and added others. I now have WorldCat search, Google docs, Google books, Google Reader, Google Maps (showing Fairhaven as the default map), World Clocks (where I have added the time in Seattle and California where my 2 sons live) and World weather (where I have added the weather for Seattle and Santa Clara in California), and ABC news. I dragged some of the gadgets around to have the important stuff at the top. It is certainly easy to use once you get the hang of it.

It could be useful for a library application as I could have links to our docs, RSS feeds, etc all in the one place. However, I'm not sure about its usefulness to the library in general, unless an iGoogle page could be set up so that all users logged in to our network could access it to look at the latest feeds, WorldCat search, etc.

Would I like to work at Google? - well, I have a son who works for Google and it is a great place to work - apart from a wonderful work environment they have excellent free meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner and not just a small selection of food, but a whole range of cuisine from steaks to vegetarian to Mexican to Asian, etc. At lunch time you can sit outside and enjoy the beautiful gardens and employees can bring the family too (even for dinner) - check out the photo below of me and the grandchildren playing at one of the outdoor eating areas at Google. Note the colours of the umbrellas - the Google colours! Also, free snacks and drinks are freely available around the offices. As Google is now a series of building complexes, bicycles are provided free to cycle from one building to the next. It seems to be a great place to work - but would they ever need a librarian?

#10 Google Book Search

This is a very ambitious program from Google and I'm not sure how I feel about it. For the obvious reason of copyright, there is very little that is available full text. Most of the current books had either No preview available or Snippet view (which gave a bit of a summary and maybe table of contents). I did find some books that had Limited preview, which consisted of scanned pages of the book, with certain pages not included. The only book I could think of to find that had Full view was Hamlet, by Shakespeare.


I don't think that I would choose Google Book Search as the first port of call when looking for a book - I would use Libraries Australia or Library of Congress or the British Library.

#9 I love Google maps

I think that Google maps is one of the best free services Google offer. It is great when planning a trip overseas - you can type in the location of hotels, etc. to find out if it is near a highway, close to the attractions, public transport, etc. And if you plan ahead, you can print out directions on how to get to the airport, train station, your accommodation, etc.

I am looking forward to the virtual street tour that Google are trialling - you could then see exactly what the street is like where you might be staying. How often does the reality of the hotel not match the description!

I have added an aerial shot of Fairhaven which I mentioned earlier in my blog. The only think I can't seem to do is get rid of the text box. I went to 'Customise and preview embedded map' and got rid of the text, but it still appears on my page - any suggestions?

#8 Google Docs

I like the idea behind Google Docs, but I am finding it frustrating to use - maybe because of the slowness of our network. I was unable to load a power point presentation - it just kept freezing and I had to use Ctrl Alt Delte to close it down. In the end I was able to get 1 slide from the presentation loaded, but the loading of the rest just took too long and I had to exit the program. I also had problems with one of my Excel spreadsheets - I could only get one page to load with no options to look at the other sheets. This spreadsheet had coloured cells, so maybe this was causing a problem - I had no problem with a simpler spreadsheet.

In general, the idea of being able to share documents with people who are not on the same network is an excellent idea. It is not particularly useful for our internal use as we all have access to documents on the network. But it could be useful for network groups we belong to, as a place to post minutes of meetings, etc.

The file size for word documents is also limiting. I had hoped to be able to upload a family history document to Google Docs, and this could then be viewed by family members overseas. However, the document is large as it includes pictures, and the file limit of 500kb is too small for this sort of thing.

Having now written this, I am trying to find if I can post it straight to my blog.

Success! - I posted it successfully - though without the information in our instruction sheet that it could be posted straight to a blog I would not have know about this feature. And I had to search the help menu to find out how to do it - which is not straightforward or intuitive.

#7 Facebook

I had a look at Facebook but have no interest in registering and so did not complete any of the tasks. Because of this it was very difficult to judge Facebook, but from what I have read it does not appear that it would be suitable for our library. I think that MySpace would be a more useful networking tool.

#6 MySpace

I can see some benefits of MySpace for special libraries, but it appears to be more useful for Public Libraries, which are using it for connecting to the youth in their area. Some of the topics I saw covered were upcoming music events, fashion events, comments on books, etc. The most useful appeared to be the UCF's Ask a Librarian, which had a Popular Resources area with links to their databases and other useful resources. I also thought that the Forums area could be good for library networks (such as ViGLA) where comments on topics could be posted and discussed.

#5 RSS feeds

I have experimented with RSS feeds before and believe they would be a good way to keep library users informed about new items of interest. Unfortunately not very many government related website that we use (such as the UK Home Office) seem to have RSS feeds. I also think that one could become overwhelmed with information resulting from the feeds.

I used Google reader and like the way you can create subject folders for the various RSS feeds. I couldn't find out how to easily add an RSS feed from a website I have just visited to my Reader account. I just copied the URL and then logged in to Google Reader and pasted it in. But is there an easier way? - this way seemed a bit cumbersome.