A Visit to the Library

I have long enjoyed libraries. Part of the joy of summer vacations was when the library’s bookmobile came to the playground of my elementary school and I could choose the books I wanted to read. I was amazed when I learned that you could phone the public library to ask the librarian a question which you needed answered… and she would tell you what you needed to know. The librarians were so smart! My favorite volunteer activities at both my elementary school and my high school were helping in the school libraries. And while in college, one of my jobs was working in the college library. Not as a volunteer that time, though!

So what brought back these good memories? A web site! LibrarySpot.com (http://www.libraryspot.com/) is a virtual library with posted sites that have been selected and reviewed by an editorial team. You can search for books, read full-text articles, and inquire about interlibrary loans as you access more than 5,000 libraries around the world. You can use law libraries, medical libraries, national libraries, presidential libraries, public libraries, and state libraries.

The Reference Desk lists sites for “business and government information, encyclopedias, dictionaries, calculators, maps, phone books, quotations, statistics and more.” From here you can research companies, look up definitions, find map directions, and even download income tax forms. You can find acronyms, almanacs, associations, experts, biographies, businesses, calculators, calendars, countries, current events, dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, genealogy, government, grammar/style, historical documents, how to information, images, legal information, maps, medical, music, people, public records, quotations, states, statistics, thesauri, time, white pages, yellow pages, and ZIP codes.

In the Reading Room you can read more than 50,000 book reviews, 3,500 newspapers, and journals. You can look for books, headlines, journals, literary criticism, newspapers, newswires, magazines, podcasts, poetry, and speeches. The Librarian’s Shelf has information of interest to the professional librarian, including publications, associations, and relevant issues.

You Asked for It, Do You Know, and Lists provide answers to questions that librarians have helped us answer for years… "Why the sky is blue?" to "What famous men started out their career as newspaper delivery boys?" Find Answers—which takes you to You Asked for It—lists oft-asked questions such as “Where can I translate phrases and sites?” The answer, by the way, is Alta Vista World. Do You Know—or Did You Know, depending on where you access it on the site—lists more questions. Wanting to check the timeliness of the information provided, I followed the query, “What is the world population?” The answer, according to the CIA World Factbook as of July 2007, is 6,602,224,175. In Lists I found the top 100 children’s books that the New York Library’s patrons love, including one of my favorites, Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Exhibits highlight online exhibits from libraries and organizations around the world. I enjoyed touring a variety of virtual exhibits, including photographs of some baseball players from many decades ago. Articles provide access to additional sites. Do you know that “the bottom edge of a book, on which it rests when shelved in an upright position” is called the tail? I learned that while looking through the In the Spotlight archive.

Must-See sites include Infoplease where I found this 2008 chart (based on data from 2005-2007) of the top fifteen Internet-using countries:

Top 15 Countries in Internet Usage, 2008
Internet users (thousands)

1. European Union ... 247,000
2. U.S. .................. 208,000
3. China ................ 162,000
4. Japan ................. 87,540
5. India .................. 60,000
6. Brazil ................. 42,600
7. Germany ............ 38,600
8. South Korea ........ 34,120
9. UK .................... 33,534
10. France ............. 31,295
11. Italy ................ 28,855
12. Russia ............. 25,689
13. Canada ............ 22,000
14. Mexico ............ 22,000
15. Spain .............. 18,578

The only negative I found was that the ads can be annoying. But—just as in a bricks-and-mortar library—I enjoyed exploring. I learned some new things. And I spent more time there than I should have!

Image Location: http://flickr.com/photos/64893794@N00/2214748543/
Image License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Schoolr... a handy reference tool

I’m checking out a variety of Web 2.0 tools this summer. This week I found one that is a useful reference tool. It’s called schoolr (http://www.schoolr.com).

From this one web site you can perform searches in…
Google,
Wikipedia,
Dictionary,
Thesaurus,
Acronym,
Urban Dictionary,
Encyclopedia, and
Book Summary.
It will translate text between a variety of languages.
It can convert a wide variety of units.

The “r” in schoolr stands for research. The site’s blog indicates that schoolr was launched in December 2006 by a university student in Canada and that it is available in both English and French. The author of the site states that he is receptive to adding other useful reference tools to the site.

Schoolr is a handy one-stop reference utility.

Academic Links for Students

Some outstanding academic web sites for students are listed by David Colker in "Pay Attention, Students: Link, Look and Learn" in the August 2006 LATimes.com (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-technopolis24aug24,1,3751833.column?ctrack=1&cset=true). Check the whole list... It covers many areas!


ACADEMIC ALL STARS

http://www.ipl.org
The Internet Public Library site was begun by the University of Michigan. It provides links in many academic fields. Other schools have since joined Michigan in this well-done project.

http://www.sparknotes.com
This Barnes and Noble site features study guides for novels and nonfiction in addition to free reference guides for biology, mathematics, physics, and other topics.

http://www.howstuffworks.com
Check this site to find out how simple (pencils) and complex (atomic clocks) items work.

http://www.ask.com
Find answers to questions such as "When was Benjamin Franklin born?"

http://www.google.com
You've got to list a good search engine!


ANATOMY

http://www.anatomyatlases.org
The "Atlas of Human Anatomy" has excellent images of various parts of the human body.

http://www.bartleby.com/107
This 1918 version of Gray's "Anatomy of the Human Body" is still helpful.

http://www.innerbody.com
Identify body parts and learn about their functions in this interactive site.


ARCHEOLOGY

http://archnet.asu.edu
Links to museums and other resources from Arizona State University.


ART HISTORY

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's timeline of art history from 20,000 BC to 2001.

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
Links to art periods, artists, and museums.

http://artchive.com
View images of works by prominent artists. It's a bit challenging to navigate this site, but it's worth the effort.


BIOLOGY

http://www.biology.arizona.edu
Links from University of Arizona.

http://www.mnstate.edu/weibust/internetresbiostu.htm
Links from Minnesota State University.


CENSUS

http://Factfinder.census.gov
Official US population numbers, by ZIP code, from the federal Census Bureau.


CHEMISTRY

http://www.chemicalelements.com
Periodic tables of elements... originally begun as part of a student's science project.

http://www.chemdex.org
Links--more than 7,000--from the University of Sheffield in England.

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/index.shtml
Quizzes, glossaries and tutorials from Frostburg State University in Maryland.


CONVERSION TOOLS

http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/conversions.html
Metric conversions of distance, area, weight, speed, temperature and more. Also converts fractions to decimals.

http://www.xe.com/ucc/full.shtmlConverts world currencies.


LANGUAGES

http://translation.langenberg.com
Translates words and phrases in 13 languages.

http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/
Conjugates verbs in many languages.

http://www.ethnologue.com
Information on nearly 7,000 languages.


LITERATURE

http://www.gutenberg.net
Collection of 18,000 public-domain books, including all works by Shakespeare, "Moby Dick," and many religious texts. Selections can be downloaded to be read either on the computer or on paper.

http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=3
World literature links from UC Santa Barbara.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com
Cliffs Notes study guides to many books can be read on the website for free. There is a fee to download a PDF version.


MATHEMATICS

http://www.algebrahelp.com
Algebra practice problems.

http://www.mathplayground.com/flashcards.html
An online version of flash cards.


MUSIC

http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources
Links from Indiana University.

http://www.carolinaclassical.com/links.html
Links organized by era.

http://www.classical.net/music
Links, CD reviews, and recommendations.


PHILOSOPHY

http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy contains short essays on nearly 1,000 names and concepts.

http://www.epistemelinks.com/index.aspx
Links organized according to philosophers, eras and topics.

http://www.philosophypages.com/dy
Dictionary of names and terms.


PHYSICS

http://www.aip.org/history
Interactive exhibits from the American Institute of Physics on discoveries in the field.

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/index.pl
An interactive site from the University of Colorado at Boulder demonstrates physics principles.


POLITICAL SCIENCE

http://thomas.loc.gov
The Library of Congress site includes the daily Congressional Record and updates on pending legislation.

http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/official.htm
Links to government web sites worldwide.


PSYCHOLOGY

http://allpsych.com
A glossary of basic terms.

http://www.psychology.org
Links to publications and resources.


REFERENCE

http://dictionary.reference.com
Enter a word to learn its definition.

http://www.encyclopedia.com
Brief entries from the Columbia Encyclopedia.

http://www.infoplease.com
Almanac of statistics and information on politics, business, sports, weather, and entertainment.


WORLD FACTS

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook
The CIA's public directory of countries which includes information such as population, government type, terrain, agriculture, health systems, languages, and broadcast stations.