Google Librarian Newsletter: Collaborating with Google Docs & Spreadsheets
Google Librarian Newsletter
| March 2007 | |||
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| Letter from the editor | |||
Welcome to the seventh issue of the Google Librarian Newsletter Since we last published an official issue of this newsletter, we've made some big changes to bring you more up-to-date, timely information. The biggest change has been the transformation of our Librarian Center from a relatively static website to an interactive weblog: Google Librarian Central. You told us that a blog would open up more channels for communication and collaboration, and we have to say – you were spot-on. We've been bringing you a steady stream of news and updates from around Google, and we're thrilled that, in turn, you've been leaving comments and asking questions. Thank you. In the same spirit of collaboration, we're focusing in this newsletter on a tool we've been using more and more to collaborate with one another on group projects: Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Chris Case, a guest writer, has lent his expertise to give you a complete introduction to the tool. He's a teacher, but he believes anyone working with students can benefit from getting to know Docs & Spreadsheets. This tool lets you create any kind of document (or a spreadsheet) and invite people to collaborate on it, with each revision saved in your online account for easy review. In our "Features" section, you can read about real-world applications for this kind of collaborative software (sometimes called "cloud computing"), and get tips from Chris on using Docs & Spreadsheets both for your own projects and for library instruction. The next section, "Best of the Blog," brings you product updates, how-tos, and news relevant to the library community – the cream of the crop from Google Librarian Central. You'll find everything from a post on using the new features in Google Groups to create an online community for your library to step-by-step instructions for importing citations from Google Scholar. Finally, the "Your Two Cents" section features stories from people using Google tools in unique or novel ways. The debut story had us in stitches – we hope it has the same effect on you! As always, we encourage you to drop us a line if you have comments, questions, or feedback to share. Thanks for reading, |
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| Features | |||
Google Docs & Spreadsheets: Collaborating in the classroom or library Middle-school teacher Chris Case describes how Google Docs & Spreadsheets has transformed his classroom
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and offers tips to help you get the most out of it. (If you're a school
librarian, feel free to pass this along to your teacher colleagues.) |
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| Best of the Blog | |||
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In January, engineer Griff Hazen blogged about the latest updates to Google Groups, which now allows you to:
Learn more about Google Groups by taking a tour or start your group now by visiting http://groups.google.com . Read the full post |
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Did you know that Google Book Search now includes maps of the places mentioned in books? Software engineer Chiu-Ki shared a few of her favorite examples, including:
Read the full post |
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Import citations from Google Scholar Looking for an easy way to keep track of what you find in Google Scholar? Manager Ben Bunnell wrote about the citation import feature, which lets you to save citations automatically to your bibliography manager. To find it, go to Google Scholar, click on the Scholar Preferences link to the right of the Scholar search box, scroll to the bottom of the Scholar Preferences page, and in the "Bibliography Manager" section, click the radio button next to "Show link to import citations into" and choose the citation manager format you prefer: BibTeX, EndNote, RefMan, etc. Then click the "Save Preferences" button.
Read the full post |
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Start your Custom Search Engines In our last newsletter, we told you about how you can use Google Coop to create your own customized search engine, and pointed you to our Custom Search Engine Starter Guide (PDF), available for download from the Teaching Tools page at Librarian Central. In February, marketing manager Jen Hyman followed up with a post about some of the best librarian and teacher search engines we've come across. If you haven't taken the plunge, we think these examples might inspire you:
It's free, and there's no limit to the number of search engines you can create. Read the full post |
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Google Book Search by the numbers After we announced
earlier this month that the Bavarian State Library had become the 13th
library to join Google Book Search as a partner, manager Ben Bunnell
gathered the latest numbers to demonstrate how far the project has come since its launch:
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Resource update: Google for Educators Cristin Frodella, manager of K-12 programs, recently gave us the scoop on updates to the Google for Educators website, which now offers new tools, classroom activities , classroom posters, and a Google for Educators discussion group . Read the full post |
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| Releases & Announcements | |||
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The Google Search Tips poster is one of our most popular downloads -- so popular, in fact, that we've received multiple requests for bookmark and table tent versions. Now they're here, along with a new poster designed to help you teach your patrons the surprising things they can do using the single search box at Google.com (note: these are PDF files): Check out the rest of our Teaching Tools at Google Librarian Central. |
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Many of you have asked us whether Google is hiring librarians. Of
course, some of us are librarians (like manager Ben Bunnell). But every
once in a while an opportunity opens up specifically for librarians.
Ben recently blogged about just such an opening:
"As the Google Book Search project grows and
more libraries
sign on to participate, the need for good, comprehensive collection
analysis becomes ever more pressing. We're looking for a stellar
collections person who will thrive in the controlled chaos that is
Google, someone who will not only dive deeply into the collections
we've scanned to date, but help us as we develop new library
relationships with the goal of digitizing the world's books. Read the full post |
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| Your Two Cents | |||
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You never know what you'll need to know
When people share their stories about how Google has made a difference
in their lives, we're happy because we know we're doing our jobs. But
it also gives us the opportunity to learn about the vast breadth of
information you can find on Google. Like, oh, say, how to find a
Russian tortoise. Wrote Jim Lyness: If you have a story like this, we'd love to hear it. Tell us about your experience, or post a video about it (and be sure to tag it "Google testimonial" so we can find it!). |
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