YouTube: The Reference Tool

Have you considered using YouTube (or other online video services) as resources? Don't limit yourselves on where you look for answers / help. In our user-generated world, that question about how to get to the next level on a video game, or how to fix a leaky faucet could be answered using videos!

Check out the NYT article here.

Also, check out other video sites:
Video How-to: http://www.instructables.com/ (one of my personal favorites for all things DIY)
Life Explained. On Film: http://www.videojug.com/
Videos, TV, News, Movies: http://www.veoh.com/
Another YouTube: http://www.vimeo.com/
Video How-to: http://www.howcast.com/

What do you think?

Librarian: Best Careers of 2009

The article came out in December in US News and World Report. You can read the full article on their website but here's the gist:

"Forget about that image of librarians as a mousy bookworms. More and more of today's librarians must be clever interrogators, helping the patron to reframe their question more usefully. Librarians then become high-tech information sleuths, helping patrons plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records, often starting with a clever Google search but frequently going well beyond.

Librarianship is an underrated career. Most librarians love helping patrons solve their problems and, in the process, learning new things. […] The job market for special librarians (see below) is good but is sluggish for public and school librarians. Nevertheless, persistent sleuthing—that key attribute of librarians—should enable good candidates to prevail."

Congratulations, fellow librarians! I hope you are all as proud as me in being a part of one of the best professions in the world: high tech information sleuths! :-)

new links to play with

I scanned Information Today for my usual list of links to check out and came up with a few great ones this time around.

Search Engines**
Biznar.com and mednar.com are "innovative business/medical search." Basically they're federated searching for business and medical topics. I do always prefer Medline for medical information, but these are good sources as well. Both of these "beta" engines are by Deepwebtech.com.

I used "wireless electricity" to search biznar.com and it found me the FAST COMPANY article from this month's issue as well as other things like a patent (via google patents) for the "wireless electric swivel head hand lantern". :-) Some items were not free full text, but some were.

Science.gov
While checking out Biznar and Mednar, i came across science.gov which i'm honestly surprised to say i didn't know anything about. it's a partnership between usa.gov and worldwidescience.org.

Worldwidescience.org 

is also a good place to go... it's maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy's
Office of Scientific and Technical Information as the Operating Agent for the WorldWideScience Alliance.

** I'd continue to use my handy dandy librarian filtering skills to weed out a lot of the mess found via these sites, but they're another place to go.

DeepDyve.com

librarians know that most of the information on the web is in the "deep web" (less than 0.02%, according to UC Berkley, is indexed by traditional serach engines). This site claims to have access to the deep web. You have to sign up (which i haven't done yet) but there is a free and paid version... i wonder what the difference is. 

stats.oecd.org
i was hoping stats.oecd.org would be the place to go for stats online. So far so good. it's the statistical database for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). GDPs, the Agricultural Outlook, Health Expeditures, and more. take a few minutes and poke around this site, you may add it to your list of places to go when your customers need numbers.

Course Management Systems
Moodle and the Sakai project are open source CMS options for Academics.

Social Networking
ELGG.org/ allows you to create your own social network. I haven't had a chance to check it out further, but i will be.

Podcasting
I hear raves about Audacity being a great way to get into podcasting.

Semantic Search
http://hakia.com/ claims semantic search (natural language) and "search results from Cedible Sites recommended by Librarians." Even if you don't dig hakia, you may want to check out http://pubmed.hakia.com/ which is their search overtop pubmed, which we all love.

I'd be curious to see what David Lankes has to say about this claim of the whole "librarian" and "credibility" thing in light of his Reference Extract project.

Cool Firefox Extensions
Jureeka is a firefix extension that hyperlinks legal citations in webpages.

Book Price Comparisions
Bookburro is an extension that will price shop books for you. Yay!

SURVEY: What do you need from Refresher Training?

Refresher Training is coming! Help us make sure you get the information and refreshers you need.

Please take this brief (less than 15 mins) survey to help us design training:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=f43oF1AiYcPLUQx_2bCIjCww_3d_3d

Refresher Training will be kicking off in MARCH with a refresher for the Liaisons.

All Questions can be directed to Julie

Need help this holiday? We've got the resources for you!

This is the resource list we posted on MySpace and Facebook for the Winter Holidays:

What are the main December holidays?
For an overview of major December holidays, see “Web Holidays,” at:
http://www.web-holidays.com/

An expansive list of Winter Holidays can be seen on Wikipedia (please note that information found there should be backed up with other, reliable sources):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_winter_festivals

Holidays Around the World is from World Book Online, at:
http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Students?content_spotlight/holidays

Where is Santa now?
NORAD offers a “Countdown to Track Santa” – counting the days, hours, minutes, seconds until Santa’s big event, found at:
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html

What’s the “real story” about Santa (and other pertinent questions)?
How Stuff Works is a site that gives a basic overview of the “story of Santa,” as well as ideas about the reindeer and more:
http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/santa-claus-stories-ga1.htm

The Smithsonian has information concerning Santa Claus:
http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/smithsonian/show_search_santa.do

Stories about the holidays:
The National Public Radio’s site has a tremendous amount of stories about the holidays, at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96539922&ps=bb2

Holiday Food
For traditional Christmas Dinners and Holiday planning, check out EHow's info at:
http://www.ehow.com/christmas/christmasdinner.html

For vegetarian/vegan alternatives, you might like to try the Veggie Table, online at:
http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/christmas.html

The Food Network, offers a variety of dessert choices and special holiday treats:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/holidays-and-parties/christmas-dessert-menu/pictures/index.html

For Kosher recipes, see Kosher Cooking, at:
http://www.koshercooking.com/

Just in case! Emergency and Health-Related Sites
To learn CPR --
http://health.howstuffworks.com/cpr2.htm

TIP: Hum the Bee Gee's song “Stayin Alive” for the right rhythm:
http://www.webmd.com/heart/news/20081017/cpr-gives-stayin-alive-new-life

Dealing with Family and Holiday Stress
Check out the Mayo Clinic's 12 tips for coping:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress/MH00030

Another helpful resource is the Family Guide's Guide to Managing Holiday Stress: http://family.samhsa.gov/be/holidaystress.aspx

The pressure to spend can be minimized with some budget planning from Mint.edu. Check out:
http://blog.mint.com/blog/moneyhack/ten-tips-for-smarter-holiday-budget-planning/

Want to send greetings to our military?
“Letters to Santa” offers a list of organizations and ways to send support, letters, and gifts to our military and their families:
http://www.operationlettertosanta.com/Pages/support-our-troops.htm

If you would like to send an emailed letter of “thanks” to the troops, an easy way to do this is through “America Supports You,” online at:
http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/americasupportsyou/Message.aspx?SectionID=5

Or, you can specify which branch of the military service you’d like to connect with, though the U.S. Armed Forces News Service’s site, at:
http://www.usafns.com/email.shtml

Holiday Fun and Games
Print out some coloring book pages through the Coloring Page site, at:
http://coloring-page.net/christmas.html

Kaboose has a wide variety of crafts and games:
http://crafts.kaboose.com/holidays/christmas/christmas-crafts.html

A list of online puzzles and games with seasonal themes, from the “Gingerbread Man,” to “Ring the Bells” is found through A Kid’s Heart, online at:
http://www.akidsheart.com/holidays/christms/chgames.htm

Here’s a list of games you can play together:
http://www.partygameideas.com/christmas-games/

If You Plan to Travel
On the road:
Highway conditions can be viewed anytime through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s site at:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/Trafficinfo/

In the air:
The Federal Aviation Administration can tell you what the status of flights and airport delays are. For up to the minute information, see:
http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp

Weather predictions can be found through the Original Farmer’s Almanac:
http://www.almanac.com/

and Weather.com is another helpful resource. It offers hour-by-hour options. Just put in your zip code or location:
http://www.weather.com

Have a question about something else? Get answers fast at AskUsNow!
http://www.askusnow.info
We're available 24/7, even on Christmas!

Happy Holidays,
Your friends at Maryland AskUsNow!