Looking for an easy, convenient way to take your personal catalogue on the road with you? Look no further than My Library by Josh Pressnell. This powerful and handy app for the iPhone lets you catalogue your home collection and then carry it in your pocket. We do not often review smartphone apps here on iBraryGuy, as we know our readers use a plethora of different models and that any discussion as to which one might be better leads to some serious controversy. Every once in a while though, a smartphone app comes along that is just too cool to ignore. So we don't. My Library is definitely an app worth courting a wee bit of controversy for. Have you ever wanted a quick and easy way to catalogue your home library and then have that information at your fingertips when and where you want it? My Library does all of this and more. Creating a personal catalogue is as simple as entering an ISBN or even scanning the barcode with your iPhone's camera. The app does the look-up and download of the book's information for you. You can organize your collections, back them up, and even share them right from the palm of your hand. We loved how easy it was to use and how quickly we were able to catalogue our entire home collection. But My Library is not just for cataloguing your books. No, it is much more versatile and powerful than that. You can use this app to also organize your movies and CDs. Beyond creating just a catalogue, My Library actually lets you search, track, and rate the items in your collection. Mark your books as having been read, in the process of being so, or even loaned out to a friend. Make notes on what you thought about a particular book or movie. Go ahead, librarians, have at it. My Library is an OPAC in your pocket. And you do not have to be a librarian to use it. It is just that easy. One of the coolest features of My Library is the interface. You can actually view the covers of your books and CDs. If an image is not available in the info that the app downloads from the internet, you can simply use your phone's camera to snap your own. For a really eye-popping experience, turn your phone to landscape position to browse your items in shelf format! As of now, My Library is only available for the iPhone. We hope to see it on other platforms soon. As iPhone users, the iBraryGuy team have become eager and enthusiastic adopters of this app. We highly recommend it!
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It is certainly no secret that America's libraries have been hit by the economic downtown. They have been hit hard. The media and the internet are constantly buzzing about library cutbacks and closings. It is almost overwhelming to try to keep up with it all. Yet, there is no greater sense of urgency that can be had than by seeing the full picture. Only in seeing the full picture can we truly estimate the staggering weight of the consequences. Losing Libraries is just the site you need to get a sense of how America's libraries have been affected by the economic chaos. Special thanks go out to reader Ty Webb (@tywebb on Twitter) for turning us on to today's site. Losing Libraries is a simple, stark site that delivers a powerful message. America's libraries are suffering and they are suffering everywhere. The interactive map shows you which libraries have been affected and how. The icons show whether there have been cuts, furloughs, closings or more. You can zoom in and move around the map to get a sense of what is happening far and wide to our nation's libraries. You can also use Losing Libraries to report what is happening to your own libraries. The "Link Roll" takes you directly to sites that are fighting the good fight when it comes to our endangered stacks. The picture that Losing Libraries paints is not a pretty one. It is a wake up call to all who support and believe in the necessity of libraries. It is not about a story here and there. It is the aggregation of what is happening across the United States. If libraries are important to you, get involved in the push to maintain them today...before one of those icons is sitting on the location of your local library. Share this site with friends and colleagues. There is still time to change the map!
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If you are a librarian, chances are two things are true about you. First, you love your job. You don't just like it, you LOVE it. Second, you are constantly being asked either why or how it is you ended up becoming a librarian. Chances are good that you have already gotten tired of answering those questions. Yet, they seem almost compulsory for any of us in this venerable and exciting career. Truth be told, we librarians tend to tell our stories with pride. Now there is an awesome wiki that is gathering those stories for posterity. Special thanks goes out to reader Sara Batts in the UK (@Batty_Towers on Twitter) for recommending today's site - The Library Routes Project. The Library Routes Project is wiki that documents and links to the personal stories of library and information professionals from all over. Started in October of 2009, it invites both bloggers and non-bloggers to write about their library roots (what got them into the profession) and their library routes (how their careers have been shaped). It is a brilliant concept and an excellent resource for anyone contemplating a library or information career. Heck, it's a great place for even us seasoned library-types to reaffirm our committment to the field or simply find a quick pick-me-up! Getting your story onto The Library Routes Project is easy. If you are a blogger, just post it to your own blog and then link it to their online list. If you are not blogger, they offer the chance for you to create a page for your story right on their wiki. Full instructions are provided. Reading the stories others have left is as simple as clicking the links on the main page. By our last count, The Library Routes Project was already home to over 120 personal accounts of librarianship and info-pro careers! So what are you waiting for? You have probably already told your own story hundreds of times. Why not put it down one more time for all to see. Check out The Library Routes Project and share your roots and routes today!
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Citizens' journalism, that is to say - news reported by people on the street - is quite the rage today. From CNN's "iReporters" feature to the contributors to Newsvine's ever-growing stream, the internet and mobile technology have turned us all into roving reporters. AllVoices champions the "peoples' media" concept in a way that is really garnering attention. AllVoices has actually been around since 2007. Yet its look, functionality, and approach remain as fresh and intriguing as ever. Claiming to be the first of its kind, AllVoices is striving to create a global community of people who share news, videos, images and opinions tied to news events and people. Literally, anyone can report on anything from anywhere. Reader beware though, AllVoices is open about that fact that content is unedited (except by the submitter) and unmoderated. The concept is huge and its reach is growing rapidly as people from around the world join its ranks. What goes on behind the scenes is what is most fascinating from an information professional's standpoint. According to its site, AllVoices "takes your reported news event, organizes it by location, time and category, and creates context by bringing together relevant news stories, blogs, images and videos. It creates a place for the community to share and discuss news, by contributing related text, video and images and commenting - adding a voice." Contributions this do not stand alone in a vaccuum and are made more meaningful by the way in which AllVoices presents them. We info-types know well the importance of context. It is exciting to see the AllVoices does as well. At first glance, reading the news on AllVoices may seem a little daunting. The front page is busy to say the least. With so much coming in, though this is not surprising. However, once you get the swing of navigating it, using AllVoices is easy. Choose your news interests by topic or location and enjoy. It is also searchable. For the technology inclined, there is even a selection of e-goodies: RSS feeds, blog widgets, etc. Clearly, AllVoices is doing something right. It's popularity is growing and its user base is VERY active. If citizens' media is the future of news reporting then AllVoices is a powerful look at where that future is taking us!
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These days it seems like whether you subscribe to cable or satellite, even if you are still using rabbit ear antennae, there is never anything good on television. Hundreds, if not thousands, of stations from which to choose and yet most of us still end up channel surfing. Many times this is because TV programming runs on its own schedule and not ours. DVRs and other recorders can help, but you still have to know when your programs are on to record them and then remember to set the recording. Well, why channel surf in hopes of finding a show, when you can web surf to find exactly the shows you want? Blip.TV is a web site chock full of original programming that is available when YOU want it. Blip.TV is NOT network television. Nope, it is better! This is independent creativity at its finest. From sitcoms produced by college comedy troupes to cooking shows filmed right in the host’s kitchen, Blip.TV is unique programming by and for “the little guy”. How expansive are its offerings? Well, the site actually already hosts over 50,000 independently-produced Web shows. Network TV and cable can’t touch that! The iBraryGuy team's personal favorite, either because we are always on diets and like to torture ourselves or because we simply love food, is Cindy Harris’ “Nothin’ But Muffins”. Cindy has taped almost 20 episodes in which she bakes and shares her favorite muffin recipes. The best part of it all is that with Blip.TV, we can watch any of the episodes any time we want. Episode 17’s strawberry muffins are on constant replay in our homes! Like normal television, the programming on Blip.TV is full of the good and the bad. What can you do? Some folks put a lot into their productions, others not so much. It is up to you to choose your favorites. The good news is that Blip.TV does enforce some fairly rigorous standards and, as part of its commitment to community relations, does not allow adult or pornographic material. This is family-friendly broadcasting, folks. So the next time you are tired of the television line-up, put down your remote and pick up your keyboard. Tune into Blip.TV and take control of your programming!
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To round out the week, we thought we would recommend a little fun. Today's site actually came to our attention thanks to the fine folks at #Fastcase and their exellent blog. They recently featured some cool word art that they made by feeding the text of seminal Supreme Court cases into an online app called Wordle. Wordle is a sweet, java-powered application. You can cut and past some text into it, direct it to a web page that has an RSS or Atom feed, or give simply enter a Del.icio.us username. Wordle will then analyze the text and tags to create a word cloud. But what's so artistic about a word cloud, you may ask. Well, Wordle actually lets you control colors, layouts, fonts, languages, and even which words to include. The results can be quite stunning! Wordle is free to use and you can even use the Wordles you create for your own commercial or personal purposes (t-shirts and bookcovers come to mind!). Not a bad deal! Below is the Wordle created when we feed our own iBraryGuy RSS into wordle. We gave it a bit of an African flare in deference to the World Cup. Make your own. Enjoy!
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Looking to make your home and life a little more eco-friendly? Being tech saavy and earth-conscious no longer has to be an oxymoron in practice. No sir. Let Envirogadget help you green up the world with a little bit of fun and flare. From water-powered clocks to bug zappers that get their power from the sun, Envirogadget has green gadgets for every tech toy lover! Seeking to stem the tide of throw-away consumerism, blogger Dan Harrison has created a site that showcases the latest in eco-friendly technology. Not only are the products he features fascinating and fun, they are also practical and affordable. Appropriately enough, the site itself is clean, friendly, and easy to use. The main page features the gadget of the day. Links on the top provide access to the Envirogadget archives and gadget galleries. In the interest of full disclosure, Harrison does let readers know that he is compensated to review products. However, he is also very clear that the compensation does not affect the review or his honest opinions on the site. With so many environmental mishaps making the headlines these days, we can all do a little more to help heal our wear planet. Luckily, even those of us who are gadget-obsessed can do our part as well. Thanks to Envirogadget, our love of technology just got a bit greener!
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In times likes these, job security is on everyone's minds. Unfortunately, for many, so is the job search. The unemployment figures are staggering and competition for job vacancies is stiff. Simply Hired is a beacon of hope in these difficult days. Its simple, yet feature-rich suite of tools just might make finding that dream job a whole lot easier and more manageable!
The creators of Simply Hired had a single goal in mind - creating a single site where job seekers could easily search all jobs available on the web. What resulted is no small feat to say the least! Simply Hired aggregates job listings from thousands of websites including the leading job boards, company career sites, newspaper classifieds, non-profit sites, government sites, and more. It's an amazing one-stop-shop for job hunters!
Do not be fooled, however. Simply Hired is more than just a job search. The site packs in some great and unique features that make it stand out above similar job search sites. Yes, you can search company names and job titles and even locales. That is standard. However, after you run your search, Simply Hired lets you filter the results with additional keywords or using special filters that focus on things like the Fortune 500. Specialty searches are even offered to cover company qualities such as mom-friendly, dog-friendly, eco-friendly, and GLBT friendly companies. How cool is that?!?! One of our favorite features allows you to link Simply Hired to your LinkedIn account. Doing so will let you see who you may know at companies that are hiring. Talk about a neat way to get a virtual foot in the door!
Accounts on Simply Hired are free and recommended. By signing up, you can save listings, make notes on the listings you have saved, and even rate the opportunity for follow-up. You can save your searches and even turn them into an RSS feed. Your Simply Hired account will also allow you to map the jobs that interest you and set up handy e-mail alerts for new job postings. Aside from an actual job with the company, there is not much more for which you could ask them.
Simply Hired's tag line is "job search made simple". It should also be "job search made powerful", because that is really what Simply Hired is all about. An impressive set of job hunting tools, this site is a real bright spot in a tough job market. Check it out today!
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With so much being reported on the major search engines these days, it is easy to overlook the little guys. Yet even the Googles and Bings of the Web started out small . . . with a concept and a simple search site. The oddly named DuckDuckGo is one of the little guys to watch. It is serving up searches with an old-fashioned look backed by some state of the art power.
Remember when Google was just an uncluttered search interface that brought you great results? Or when the early incarnation of Microsoft's Bing brought you your hits without all of the advertizing and fluff? It almost makes one nostaligic for the early days of web search! Web searching has come a long way since then, with the additions of real-time results and semantic searching for example. Search engine interfaces, however, have gotten cumbersome and cluttered as results compete with advertisers for your attention. With DuckDuckGo though, you can have a clean search interface and eat the sematic web too!
Based in Valley Forge, PA, DuckDuckGo is a new search engine start up that aims to simplify the search experience without compromising the quality of the results. The interface is one of the cleanest and most uncluttered we have seen in years. Search the web classically, search info summaries, or search shopping sites. It almost seems too simple. The simplicity, however, is only on its face. DuckDuckGo has a lot going on in the background. Take for instance its disambiguation feature. Enter a search that has multiple meanings and it will first give you the chance to choose which one you want. There is also the built in ability to search other sites (even Google!) using its "!bang" words functionality. Add to the mix a whole host of shortcuts, power customizations, and "Zero-click info" which aims to provide you with basic info on your search topic before you even get into the results and you can see while it may look old-fashioned, DuckDuckGo's search capabilities are anything but!
The iBraryGuy team took DuckDuckGo for a spin and had a blast. For a start-up, they have made a strong and impressive debut with a feature-rich offering that offers a welcome reprieve from the world of search engine overload. Clean, fast, and fun are three ways we'd describe DuckDuckGo. Powerful is another. The first three aspects grabbed our interest. As info pros, however, it was the fourth that really won us over.
Give DuckDuckGo a try today and let us know what you think!
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Ning Alternatives: Guide To The Best Social Networking Platforms And Online Group Services http://pop.is/jfuh
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