February 2006 Newsletter
Google Librarian
A printable version of this newsletter is available at
http://www.googlelibrarian.com/newsletter3.html
Google Librarian News & Notes:
This month the Google Librarian Blog got a makeover. The blog, which
was formerly hosted by Blogger, has now been fully integrated into the
Google Librarian website and you can now check out the blog without
having to leave the site. We hope to use this as a tool for
communicating with our members on more than just a monthly basis. It
will feature news and commentary by Google Librarian staff, and
members. So if you're interested in joining the Google Librarian Blog
team, sign-up here. We'd love to have you.
Google Book of the Month:
How to Do Everything with Google
By Fritz Schneider, Nancy Blachman, & Eric Fredricksen
ISBN: 0072231742
"How to Do Everything With Google" is a great introduction and
overview of Google's services, tools, and search techniques. It was
developed by three individuals, two of which actually work for Google
- Fritz Schneider and Eric Fredricksen. Nancy Blachman is the other
author, who is a Stanford graduate, published author of several books,
and regularly gives workshops on Google.
The book was published in 2004, and since that time Google has been
developing new services and tools, and some rules of search have
changed ever so slightly. Therefore, there are some newer revelations
that are not covered in this book. Nonetheless, this is a great
introduction to Google for both librarians and your patrons. It teaches
you practical applications of many of the services, and teaches you how
to interpret your search results.
Hopefully another book will come along like this one with all the
latest updates, but for now, this one still should be a part of your
collection. It's a great resource!
MEMBER CONTRIBUTIONS:
Google Print as a Reference Source
By Eugene McCormick, Cleveland Public Library
The other day at work a patron came in asking about mortgage notes. I
searched the catalog and found a number of books on the subject. That
was the good news. The bad news was that they all had been checked out.
Running out of options I decided to check Google Print to find any kind
of information that may be out there. This was a great move. I found a
book that had a whole chapter dedicated to the subject. Not only that
but we owned a copy of it.
The patron I was assisting was very pleased. Although he had wanted a
whole book dedicated to the subject he was very pleased that he had
information that he could take home that day. Not only that he saw the
advantage of being able to see the bullet points of the subject and if
it was something he wanted to pursue he could wait the week it would
take to get the other items on mortgage notes from interlibrary loan.
So the next time you are stumped and cannot find material on a subject
in your collection Google Print is an excellent resource that you have
at all times. Its easy to use and can be used anywhere. Think of it as
another catalog that you have at your disposal. Another advantage is
that it uses keywords that will search the entire book instead of just
what was tagged when cataloged.
This Month at Google:
The Googlers have had yet again another busy month.
Gmail for Your Domain: - The Gmail Team announced that they will be
testing out "Gmail for your domain." What is Gmail for your domain?
Gmail for your domain allows you to offer Gmail-hosted e-mail accounts
with YOUR domain extension. So potentially, you could be
jsm...@yourlibrary.com and have the added benefit of Gmail as your
e-mail service provider.
Gmail for your domain is not yet available, but the Gmail Team is
taking applications for organizations interested in helping out with
the Beta test of this program. If your library is interested in
participating, you can fill out the short questionnaire at
https://www.google.com/hosted/Home.
Google Acquires Measure Map: - On Valentine's Day, Google announced
their acquisition of Measure Map. Measure Map gives bloggers the same
kind of power that webmasters get through Google Analytics. Find out
how many times your blog is visited, who's visiting, who's linking,
and much more! Interested? Sign-up for an invitation at
http://www.measuremap.com.
Google Scholar Expands Library Search Project: (From the Official
Google Blog, by Christian DiCarlo, Content Partnerships Team, Google
Scholar ) - Recently I've been working with libraries on something
we're excited to announce for Google Scholar users. Libraries are
fantastic repositories of scholarship, and we want to make them as
visible and accessible as possible. We've just expanded our Library
Search program in Google Scholar to help people around the world find
works of their interest in local libraries. That program now includes
links to libraries in Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Portugal, Sweden, and
Switzerland.
If for example you're a student in Sweden searching Google Scholar for
[chemistry], you can click the "Library Search (Sweden)" link
underneath the book titled "Principles of polymer chemistry" to see the
list of Swedish libraries that hold the book. Then just pay a visit to
one of those libraries to reserve it. If you're outside Sweden, you
can activate the Swedish library catalog links from the "Library Links"
box in the "Scholar preferences" by searching for Sweden.
If you are a library patron and can't find the books from your library,
ask your local library to participate in this program. If you are a
librarian and would like to work with us to help users find scholarly
literature in your library, please contact us. (e-mail:
scholar...@google.com)
We'd like to thank our union catalog partners for helping to make this
happen. Here's hoping researchers worldwide will use it to find and
build on the amazing collections in the world's libraries.
Froogle Personalized Search: - At the start of the month, Google
announced that they had integrated Personalized Search into Froogle.
You can manage your history of Froogle searches and the products that
you look at, just like you have been able to with Web Search, Image
Search, and News. To use the personalized search you just needed to log
into your Google Account.
Google Talk Now in Gmail! - When you log into your Gmail account, you
should now see a "Quick Contacts" list on the left-hand side of
your screen. These are contacts from your address book. For those users
on your list that have Gmail or Google Talk, you will now see a series
of green, red, orange, and grey symbols next to their names, indicating
whether they are available, idle, unavailable, or not yet signed up for
Talk. To start a conversation, simply click on a name in your contact
list. The instant message block will anchor itself at the bottom right
corner of your Gmail screen. Alternately, you can also "pop-out"
the block so that it shows up on your desktop toolbar. If you wish to
save your conversations, simply check off the option, and your chats
will be saved under "chats" in your Gmail account. How cool is
that?
Google Desktop v3: - Google released the third version of their popular
Desktop application this month. The newest version allows you to search
and retrieve your documents anywhere, anytime. You can send play
Tic-Tac-Toe with a friend using the Sidebar, or send interesting items
directly to your friend's sidebar for sharing.
Feedback & Suggestions
We want your feedback and suggestions in regards to this newsletter! If
you have any comments, please email us at googli...@gmail.com.
Additionally, we'd like to include a member input and comments in
future editions of this newsletter. If you have something you'd like to
submit, please contact us.