A Handful of Great Undiscovered Websites

PC Magazine, the "independent guide to technology" (as its website claims) recently announced the Top 100 Undiscovered Websites. These sites are described by the experts at PC as "the top new or under-the-radar sites of 2007. You may not know many of the sites on this list, but you should." To access these sites (as well as PC's Top 100 Classic Websites), click here.

While I do not have time to review all of these sites, I would like to recommend a few.

1) http://www.videojug.com/: This site offers video footage on a wide variety of "how-to-do-it-yourself" topics. The tone of these videos ranges from serious (e.g. what should I wear to my job interview video) or comical (e.g. the how to be lazy in the office & get away with it video). This site has particularly strong videos related to minor car care, family and parenting issues, & cooking.

2) http://mediastorm.org/: This site features stories similar to those seen or heard on MPBN, PBS, or NPR which are told through video, audio, photography, and personal essays. One particularly compelling story is New York Reacts, a short film which catalogs the feelings of New Yorkers on September 13th, 2001.

3) http://community.livejournal.com/act_i_vate/: Act-I-Vate is, according to its website, "a laboratory for an exclusive cabal of cartoonists plugging in and giving you free serialized graphic novels as we create them ... because the very future of the medium demands it." If you are a fan of graphic novels or of art, this site will have something for you.

4) http://www.librivox.org/: LibriVox provides free audiobooks of works from the public domain. As I type this, I'm listening to a recording of Mark Twain's Roughing It. The current LibriVox catalog has 864 readings. Another interesting aspect of LibriVox is that the site offers users the opportunity to record chapters of books in the public domain & post their recording on the website. I'm not much a fan of my own voice on recordings, but this may be for you.

5) http://www.roadsideamerica.com/: PC Magazine describes this site as "your definitive resource for the kooky, nichey, and downright bizarre landmarks that help make this huge country so unique. Use this site to plan your next roadtrip and getting from here to there will be more interesting than your average game of 'I Spy'." The site is pretty amusing. What other site could you go to find out where the Kool-Aid Museaum is (Hastings, Nebraska)? For that matter, what other site would help you to know that there even is a Kool-Aid Museum?

So, those are just a few of the sites you may be interested in checking out.

Feel free to post any comments with your thoughts about these or any recommendations for other "undiscovered" websites.

You may also email me directly with any thoughts about this posting or other posts at playne@bpl.lib.me.us.

How to Find an Article or Review about a Short Story or Novel using Literature Resource Center

How to Find an Article or Review about a Short Story or Novel using Literature Resource Center

Need to find a journal article about a short story or a novel for a homework assignment or just for fun? You can find one of these articles rather easily on Marvel!, Maine's Virtual Library. Just follow this short and illustrated guide below.

1)Access Marvel! on the Bangor Public Library website or through http://libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/.

2)The database to access is Literature Resource Center. You may get to this database by

A. Selecting Literature from the Select a Subject list: B. Selecting Literature Resource Center from the Literature list:

C. Scrolling down to Literature Resource Center on the A-Z listing of databases:

3) Do an Advanced search.
4) Put an author's name in the first search box, using Author as the search term. Put the title of the story or novel in the second search box, using Title as the search term. Click the green Search button. 5) For journal articles and reviews, click the Literary Criticism, Articles and Work Overviews tab.

6) To view the journal articles and reviews, click Literary Criticism. 7) From this results list, you can easily read or print any articles that will be helpful for your research.

If you need further assistance with this search or for other tips on how to use this or other Marvel! databases, contact a reference librarian (reference@bpl.lib.me.us or 207-947-8336 x 130) at the Bangor Public Library.

Zoho & Web 2.0

Zoho

Some of you may already have known this, but web-based versions of Microsoft Office applications such as Word & Excel are available on-line. Zoho Writer actually is a tremendously more worthwhile version of what Word is. I'm not sure that I'll ever even use Word again. It looks like Zoho can give Bill Gates a run for his money. In fact, I predict Mr. Gates will be broke within three years.

Um ... anyway, Zoho Writer allows users access from any computer (provided it has Internet access). so they can share or edit documents. This means, if you don't want, no more discs or saving to the desktop or hard drive. You might think that creating & storing documents on-line may not be secure, but, my thinking is that it is as secure as sending emails or attaching Word files to emails.

One appealing feature of Zoho Writer is the ability to post a document you've created as a webpage. Here is an example: http://writer.zoho.com/public/c6J71Xb9695i0e061reK6S0C0b7V/Welcome-To-Zoho.

Zoho offers much more than a Word-esque program in its on-line arsenal. Zoho Sheet is Excel-like, Zoho Show is like PowerPoint (& fun to say!), & Zoho Planner is like Microsoft Outlook's Calendar feature. For a complete list of all of Zoho's programs, visit Zoho.

Note #1: If you create an account with Zoho to use one program, you have created an account to use all of the applications. Your username & password will be the same for all.

Note #2: Most Zoho applications are free. The few that are not are clearly marked.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a concept co-created by Tim O'Reilly, an Irish software & technology guru. To know more of what the concept is about, visit this link: http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/zeitgeist. (I would try to explain the concept, but, in this case, I find it better to get the goods straight from the source).

What Web 2.0 can do for Internet users, though, is really what I think will be important & exciting to you. Again, rather than explaining, I think it best to see for yourself.

A perfect place to start is to follow this link to get to a list of Web 2.0 award-winning sites. These sites cover a variety of topics which feature the best business, city guides & reviews, social networking, games, classifieds & directories, visual arts, & other sites.

A few of my favorite among these sites are:

http://www.yelp.com/: This site features customer feedback, positive & negative, about local business in towns & cities across the country. So, check this site if out-of-town on business or pleasure to see if that restaurant you have in mind for tonight's dinner is really as good as you've heard.

http://www.minti.com/: This site is a communtity in which parents around the world share ideas & advice about how to raise children.

http://www.zillow.com/: This site can help you discover what the houses you’re interested in should cost and also allows you to browse listings nationwide. There aren't that many houses in Maine listed at the moment, but what this site does, that is really cool, is that is places all the homes for sale on a map, allowing you to quickly determine the distance a home would be from work, etc.

http://www.peertrainer.com/: This site helps you reach weight loss & other health improvement goals by supplying a list of daily meal logs, workout suggestions, and goals. The key element of this site, however, may be the small, on-line support groups an individual can receive support & encouragement from.

http://www.writeboard.com/: Another site similar to Zoho Writer.

http://www.instantbull.com/: This site allows you to compare and track the stock market, access stock message boards and browse stock market blogs.

http://del.icio.us/: Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. Social bookmarking accomplishes a few major tasks: 1) you can bookmark your favorites on a website, not to a specific computer & 2) as a user of Del.icio.us, you will be able to view the top sites on a given subject as bookmarked by "those in the know" for that topic.

These are but a few of the many great Web 2.0 themed sites available that could be of interest or usefulness to you.

If you have any suggestions you'd like to with other library users, or need help finding a good site, respond either to this blog post or email me at playne@bpl.lib.me.us.