Google News Timeline

Do you love a good timeline? I know I do, I am a visual learner and I love to see my information in a graphically organized manner.  This said, I have a great site for other folks like me – Google News Timeline.   This is Google’s blurb about the timeline:  Google News Timeline is a web application that organizes search results chronologically. It allows users to view news and other data sources on a browsable, graphical timeline. Available data sources include recent and historical news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts, sports scores, and information about various types of media, like music albums and movies.

This is so fascinating! Once you get to the site go in and “Add More Queries.” You can select what sources you want to look at, such as every Time Magazine cover since 1924. I ran on search on Soap Operas in the TV Show category  after I saw an entry for All My Children. I had no idea there were so many soaps that had come and gone from TV.  Just clicking on the Artworks category took me to 1507 and Mona Lisa.

This is a whole lot of fun, but I do recommend double-checking the sources to make sure they can be used as a primary source if you plan on using this to help write a paper. — Jill

Blogs, Blogs and More Blogs

I love a good blog.  Some of my favorites are Life Hacker, The Consumerist, Remix Radio, and of course the DCL Blogs.

Today, however, I found a list of official blogs that are very informative…they are the Blogs from the U.S. Government.  Being a librarian I of course started at the Library of Congress Blog, but was then intrigued by the Middle Class Task Force Blog.  Some of these blogs are brand new like the FDA Transparency Blog and the White House Open Government Blog.

There is a whole lot of good and interesting information on these blogs and I could spend hours looking around and becoming more informed.  I hope you too can find something of interest from this list. — Jill

Online Videos

I’m sure if you are like me, you often find yourself looking at YouTube videos. It’s almost impossible not to get links from friends and family these days with the latest craze that is showing up in this online video venue … even my 79 year-old father sends me links to videos!

This weekend I finally checked out a video on Hulu. If you are unfamiliar with Hulu you might have seen their commercial during the Super Bowl with Alec Baldwin as an alien – you probably didn’t even know what the product was! Anyway, I had been meaning to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog for some time now and finally watched it on Hulu. It was better than I expected and I loved it! If you haven’t checked out Hulu you should.  Here is Hulu’s own blurb about what they offer:

“Hulu brings together a large selection of videos from nearly 150 leading content companies, including FOX, NBC Universal, Comedy Central, Lionsgate, MGM, MTV Networks, National Geographic, Paramount, PBS, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. and more. Users can choose from more than 1250 current primetime TV hits such as The Simpsons, 30 Rock, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Office the morning after they air; classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The A-Team, Airwolf and Married…with Children; movies like Revenge of the Nerds and In the Line of Fire; documentaries like Super Size Me, Crawford and I Am Because We Are; and clips from Saturday Night Live, Friends and other popular TV shows and movies.”

There is something for everyone on Hulu, so go find something to watch and have some fun.

[Please do not get yourself in trouble at work for watching videos if it isn't permitted on a company computer!] — Jill

Time/Life Images on Google Image Search

Back in November, Google launched a new photo archive of images from Life Magazine. This collection has photos and etchings prodcued and owned by Life Magazine dating all the way back to the 1750s.

http://images.google.com/hosted/life

You can totally get lost in here! — Jill

On Wikipedia . . .

I promised my next post would be on Wikipedia, which I reneged on to post about some hot blogs.    Here, as promised, is a post about Wikipedia.

I love Wikipedia.  I think most librarians love Wikipedia.  It’s got a zillion different articles on a zillion different things.  Because it is online and freely updated, it will have a complete listing of all of Donald Trump’s children before a print encyclopedia.  Editors of Wikipedia post wonderful photographs and pictures all over the site so most articles have a picture to go with them.  Some of the articles go into lots of details and they are hyperlinked to one another so it’s easy to click from one article to another related article.  Much easier than flipping pages for sure.  Wikipedia is a wonderful source and I have a few words of wisdom for users.

Things Wikipedia is great for:

• Fair-use pictures and photographs.  The editors of Wikipeadia are pretty diligent about making sure all the images are “fair-use.”  That means you can use them without some artist hunting you down for royaly money.  The images have explanations of why Wikipedia thinks it is fair-use.
• Quick reference, especially of fast-changing events.

Things Wikipedia is not so great for:

• Specialized articles and reference.  For example, if you are writing a school paper on dancing and religion, the Encyclopedia of Religion on the second floor of the Main Library is a better option.
• Reference for papers and school projects.  MOST of the time, Wikipedia is correct.  You will occasionally get an article when it has been hit by a prankster (my personal favorite was finding an article on World War II that had been edited to make it politically correct, i.e. calling the nuclear bomb “Obese Gentleman” instead of “Fat Boy”).  To be safe, and to make your teacher happy, double check your information in a print encyclopedia.  If you don’t want to come to the library and use one of ours, call the reference desk (560-0110) and ask how to get access to encyclopedias from home through NCLive and Credo.

I hope this helps as you use Wikipedia.  Remember, it’s always good to have more than one source for factual information.  Mistakes and typos do happen. — Jennifer

Internet Explorer 8

The latest version of Internet Explorer came out last Friday and I’ve spent some time looking at it.

There are some excellent new features in IE8, and some questionable ones. Like every upgrade to a browser there will be things you like and things you don’t like.

Some of the things I like; Zoom – allows you to zoom in on a web site without changing the font size. I like this a lot, especially as I get older and it feels like text keeps getting smaller! Another thing I like are the add-ons. Firefox has had this option for a while, and now you can add-on functionality in IE8.  My best example is Foxmarks…this is a service that you add-on to your browser so that all of your bookmarks are synchronized on all of your computers.  Accelerators are a new option in IE8 that I also like. One of the accelerators is the mapping feature. Highlight an address on a web site and a little box appears that you can click on – you can select a mapping tool and it will automatically take you to a map using that tool.  I changed mine to Google Maps and liked this function.

IE8 boosts new safety features which are readily available from your toolbar. You can conduct what is called “InPrivate Browsing” where no trail will be left behind (no cookies, no browsing history), however, some functionality is lost with this option.

One more feature I would like to mention is the Compatibility View. When Microsoft moved from IE6 to IE7 webmasters around the world cringed because the design of our web pages no longer looked the same.  With IE8 if a page doesn’t look right (alignment is funky, or text seems off) you can select the Compatibility View option and the page will look as the web designer planned for it to look.

When you go to download IE8, there are lots of explanations of the newest features. If you are going to download, spend some time looking before you make the leap to the new version. If you are still using IE7, I highly recommend downloading IE8. If you are still using IE6, you can completely avoid IE7 and move right on over to IE8…but if you really want the best browser, I still recommend Firefox.  — Jill

Must Read Blog List

The website Blogtrepreneur has posted a list of 100 must read blogs by women.  It’s a fun list with everything from politics, fashion, romance novels, food excersize, and more.  Some of my personal favorite blogs are on that list including The Pioneer Woman (a woman from LA marries a rancher in Texas and blogs about her life with FABULOUS pictures); Smart Bitches.  Trashy Books (Candy and Sarah blog about romance novels, sexism, feminism, and more–be warned, it’s a bit racy) and Go Fug Yourself (Heather and Jessica believe celebrities have no excuse to be poorly dressed).

Check the list out.

–Jennifer

Gettin’ wiki with it

If you’ve read the posts on blogs and RSS aggregators, perhaps you are now wondering what the difference between a blog and a wiki is.  Hopefully, this blog post will help you out.

A blog is like a diary or a journal.  It’s updates on a regular basis (or not so regular basis) and each update gets its own entry, but the older content doesn’t change.  Imagine a journal/diary hosted online and you’ve got the idea.

For a wiki, imagine a document being edited by more than one person.  Each time someone edits the document, the document changes.  The old content is gone and replaced by the new content.

For example, I’m writing a recipe for macaroni and cheese.  I’ve posted it online in wiki.  You see my recipe and think What kind of crazy person puts canned tomatoes in her mac & cheese?!  She must be from outer space. Disgusted, you edit the recipe and remove the canned tomatoes.  You add in broccoli and ham, which is how your mother always made mac & cheese.   Now the recipe online is yours with the ham and broccoli.  My friend Sarah sees the new mac & cheese recipe and wonders about your sanity for including broccoli and ham.  According to Sarah, everyone knows that mac & cheese should be made with hot dogs and you should put Saltine cracker crumbs on top.  She edits the recipe and now her recipe with hot dogs and crackers is online.  Canned tomatoes are gone.  Broccoli and ham are gone.  It is like those versions never existed and Sarah’s is the only recipe there.  Bill is a bit of a food snob.  He sees the recipe and appalled at the hot dogs.  And the cheddar cheese.  Bill makes his mac & cheese with goat cheese and thyme.  He edits the recipe and now his is the official version.  Carol is a prankster.  She replaces Bill’s recipe with a mac & cheese recipe involving cat pee and oreos.  Carol’s is now official until I look back at my recipe and think yuck and return it to the version with tomatoes and cheddar cheese.

This is essential how Wikipedia or any other wiki works.  You can see the disadvantages in the example above, but there are some big advantages too.  A mistake in the World Book Encyclopedia won’t be fixed until the next edition is out.  A mistake on Wikipedia is fixed as soon as a person who recognizes the mistake can fix it.  Perhaps an expert on Marie Antoinette’s fashion wrote the Maria Antoinette article.  When an expert on the politics of the French Revolution happens upons the article, that expert doesn’t delete the old information, but fleshes it out with their expertise.  As this happens repeatedly, you can get a really well rounded article on Maria Antoinette.  Or you can get Carol the prankster with her cat pee and Oreos article.

Again, I’m going to rely on the lovely folks at Common Craft for a video.

Wikis can be set up so that only invited guests can edit the content or open so that anyone can edit the content.  They are a wonderful way to include ideas and information from a wide variety of people and keep all the information in one centralized location.  Durham County Library uses a wiki to keep track of our strategic plan.  While we were developing the strategic plan, we used the wiki a place to hold all the wonderful ideas staff and the public had about making Durham County Library better.  Now, the wiki is used to keep track of our progress.  All the strategic planning goals and objectives are on the wiki, along with the names of staff members responsible for making sure the plan gets done and not just ignored.  Everyone in the world can see our progress (you can too–check out www.dclstrategicplan.pbwiki.com).  The wiki allows Durham County Library to be transparent and open with its governance, which is always nice in governmental agencies.

There are downsides to a wiki–mostly pranksters.  If your wiki is completly open, you open yourself up to the widest possible cache of ideas.  You also open yourself up to the pranksters who put false, obnoxious, or otherwise unwanted and irrelevent information on your wiki.  I’ll talk a little more about this in my next posting, which will be on Wikipedia specifically.

In the meantime, try out some wikis.  Go to Wikipedia.org or check out Durham County Library’s wiki.  Rochester, New York has a great wiki with information on what’s happening in Rochester at Rocwiki.  And, if you like romance novels, a romance wiki is in development.  These different wikis will give you a sense of what a wiki can do and when they are useful.

–Jennifer

Google Desktop Library Gadget

I am happy to announce that you can now add the Durham County Library to your Google Desktop.

First of all you need to download Google Desktop if you are not already using it. http://desktop.google.com/

Once you have installed Google Desktop you can install the Library Gadget http://desktop.google.com/plugins/i/librarygadget_5879.html?hl=en

Once that is installed you will see the options window. (Image on right)

Find NC and Durham County Library and select it. In the top type in your name, your library card number and your PIN number. Click on Add Account and OK.

You should now see on your Google Desktop Toobar a person sitting in a chair reading a book with the number of items you currently have checked out.

Mouse over the gadget and you will see a navigation bar. Select the down arrow and click on Checked Out. You will see a list of what you have checked out. If you have a yellow symbol with an exclamation mark, it means something needs renewing, and you can renew it from the Checked Out window.

Another fun thing you can do with Google and the Durham County Library. — Jill

Foreclosures

Are you trying to prevent the  foreclosure of your home, and not sure where to go for help?   Here are some legitimate sources of help:

Immediate Help By Phone:

You can always call the Homeowner’s Help Hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to speak to a counselor:

888-995-4673

Local HUD approved Housing Counseling Agencies:

CCCS OF DURHAM – TRIANGLE FAMILY SERVICES

919-821-0790
800-283-6904
Email: lbarber@tfsnc.org
www.tfsnc.org

201 West Main Street
Suite 202G
Durham, North Carolina 27701

- Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Counseling
- Homebuyer Education Programs
- Loss Mitigation
- Marketing and Outreach Initiatives
- Money Debt Management
- Mortgage Delinquency and Default Resolution Counseling
- Postpurchase Counseling
- Prepurchase Counseling
- Renters Assistance
- Services for Homeless
- Spanish

DURHAM AFFORDABLE HOUSING COALITION

919-688-0082
Email: anita@dahc.org
www.dahc.org

400 W Main St., Ste. 408
Durham, North Carolina 27701-3232

- Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Counseling
- Homebuyer Education Programs
- Loss Mitigation
- Marketing and Outreach Initiatives
- Mortgage Delinquency and Default Resolution Counseling
- Postpurchase Counseling
- Predatory Lending
- Prepurchase Counseling
- Renters Assistance
- Spanish

MON VALLEY INITIATIVE NC MINORITY SUPPORT CENTER

919-530-1684
Email: kknox@ncmsc.org
www.ncmsc.org

123 West Main St
P.O. Box 2086
Durham, North Carolina 27702

- Fair Housing Assistance
- Homebuyer Education Programs
- Loss Mitigation
- Marketing and Outreach Initiatives
- Money Debt Management
- Mortgage Delinquency and Default Resolution Counseling
- Postpurchase Counseling
- Predatory Lending

Websites:

NC Foreclosure Help

This website from the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks offers advice on what you can do to prevent foreclosure in North Carolina as well as places to complain if you have been mistreated by a lender, broker or loan officer.

Federal Reserve Board: Resources for Consumers

Links to HUD programs, legitimate credit counseling agencies, advice, and how to handle your taxes if you have lost your home.

If You Are a Victim of a Foreclosure Scam

Call the North Carolina Attorney’s General Hotline:

1-877-5-NO-SCAM

If You Need to Find an Attorney

NC Lawyer Referral Service:

1-800-662-7660