What Google Did Next

The Netspeed 2009 conference once again included a popular session on Google. Two librarians from Vancouver Public Library have presented this updated session for the last couple of years and it always proves to be one of the most well attended sessions.

What makes this session so interesting is that they show some of the new, innovative applications that Google-employed staff have created, that you may not have heard about yet. And even if you have heard of them, they show you how to use them in ways that you might not have thought of.

What I find so interesting about the content that is presented at these sessions is that they are largely the product of the Google staff's own imaginations and interests. Apparently Google sets aside a certain percentage of time each week to allow their staff to work on projects that are purely of interest to them. An interesting concept ... what if all organizations did that? Imagine what the results might be.

Here are a few of the new(er) Google applications that were highlighted in this year's session:

Google Labs (http://www.googlelabs.com/) - here you can find newly developed Google applications and programs.

Google 411 (www.google.ca/goog411) - an information service; provides free long distance calling to businesses all over North America using this service.

Google Flu Trends (www.google.org/flutrends) - uses search data to detemine flu activity around the world.

Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/) - provides maps and satellite images, and includes features such as 3-D buildings and a fly-to feature.

Google Ocean (http://earth.google.com/ocean) - a subset of Google Earth that covers oceanic geography.

Google Books (http://books.google.com/books) - providing free digital content; 5 to 6 million books have been scanned so far into this service. Up to 33% of a book's content can be published by Google (at this time, anyway).

Google Squared (www.google.com/squared) - a search tool that builds a table of facts about whatever you are searching for. Try searching "Canadian prime ministers" or "British explorers" to see how it works.

Google Street View (http://maps.google.ca/streetview) - highly controversial; Google Street View is now in 14 countries, and provides views of streets as you would see them if you were driving down them.

Google Sightseeing (http://googlesightseeing.com/) - using Google Street View, these are prefabricated tours of various cities, regions, and topics (including some of the funniest images caught by Google Street View cameras)

Google In Quotes (http://labs.google.com/inquotes/) - find out what your favorite (or least favorite) celebrity has said about any topic.

Google Audio Indexing (http://labs.google.com/gaudi) - video and audio indexed by Google, which allows you to search for video or audio clips containing specific phrases.

Twilight Trend

The Twilight franchise has become incredibly popular with teens and adults alike.  Why not jump on the band wagon?  Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Put up vampire and werewolf displays around your library to promote your collection.
• Try hosting a Twlight movie screening.  Serve popcorn and encourage participants to dress up.  
• Hold a Twilight art contest and display the submissions around the library. 

Kerby

Food for Fines

Fines can be a barrier for some patrons.  Why not host a "Food for Fines" event at your library?  Patrons who bring in a donation for the local food bank would receive a waiver on their fines and your local food bank would receive much needed donations.  What a great way to support your local food bank as well as encourage some of your patrons to come into the library again!

Children's author Robert Munsch could read at your library!!

ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation just launched their annual Munsch at Home Contest that could mean Robert Munsch right in your library!


The contest, which runs until December 11th, gives Canadian families the opportunity to write a creative story together in hopes of winning a private home visit from Robert Munsch.  The winning family will also get to choose a local library, school or literacy group to receive a public reading by Mr. Munsch.  Promote the contest to families in your library and you could receive your very own story-telling from Robert Munsch!


The Munsch at Home contest runs in celebration of Family Literacy Day, an annual initiative developed by ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation and Honda Canada to celebrate parents and children reading and learning together and to encourage Canadians to spend at least 15 minutes enjoying a learning activity every day.  Thousands of Canadians across the country participate in this initiative with their families, and in their communities every year.  Last year, more than 119 000 Canadians read together to break the Guinness World Record for "Most Children Reading With An Adult, Multiple Locations."


For more information and promotional materials, please visit http://www.FamilyLiteracyDay.ca. 

Great video from Vancouver Public Library

Below is a very entertaining instructional video for VPL about the prevention of repetitive strain injuries in the library work place. The actors are VPL employees and even the sound track is original music by a staff member.  Can you spot your bad habits?  
Click the link to watch the video.

http://vimeo.com/6516147

Do you Tweet?

I'm sure you have all noticed our Twitter feed on the right hand side of this blog - what do you think?  Consulting Services has been tweeting to promote library services to your patrons.  We'll tweet about new services, databases, new books, library events, unique collections etc. - all you have to do is tell your patrons about it!

Even though Consulting Services is tweeting on your library's behalf, you can tweet too!  Using Twitter is a great way to let your patrons know what's new at your library.  Let me share a few Twitter tips that I picked up at Netspeed 2009.

If you're a seasoned twit, these tips won't be new to you, but if you've only recently become a twit, read on! :)

Retweet: Taking a Twitter message someone else posted and rebroadcasting that message to your followers.  For example, to retweet something that we tweeted, type: RT @ABlibrarians Can't think what to read next? Novelist can help!  Access Novelist with your library card: http://bit.ly/3tGrGB .
The "RT" lets readers know that this is a retweet and the "@ABlibrarians" gives us credit for it.

Hashtags:  Hashtags help to organize and "tag" information on Twitter - think of them as adding subject terms to a database.  Hashtags make it easier to follow a specific topic, event or geographical location, for example.
Create a hashtag by adding a hash symbol (#) to the front of an appropriate keyword in your Twitter update (for example #libraries).
Twitter updates that contain a valid hashtag are indexed on Hashtags.org, and have RSS feeds available.  This allows you to subscribe to a certain hashtag and receive updates whenever it is mentioned.  So, if you subscribed to  #libraries you could follow what people were saying about libraries on Twitter.  Neat huh?

Okay, there's more to learn about Twitter and how it can help to promote you library, but I think that's enough for today.  Visit www.twitter.com, sign up for an account (if you haven't already) and practice retweeting and using hashtags.