Cool sites for January 2007

I wish I could provide some sites that would warm us all up! Alas, these will have to do. Maybe if you move your fingers quickly enough across the keyboard to type in these URLs, that'll help? Well, never mind: they're live links so one click will do it. :(

LibriVox: Acoustical Liberation of Books in the Public Domain
http://www.librivox.org
LibriVox comes recommended by Kim. LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Their goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. They are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project. Kim says: "Audiofile referred to this site as being good but that sometimes the volunteer [readers] aren’t as good as the professionals. However, in listening to a little of Emma by Jane Austen, I liked it because it was just like a friend reading to me ... They also include the Gutenberg e-text if available and more info about the book." You can volunteer at the site to be a reader!

F.I.N.D. Families of Iowa Network for Disabilities: Empowering Families Through Networking
http://www.askresource.org/find.shtml
Nancy Geiger refers us to this local site. F.I.N.D. has been developed through a grant awarded to Access for Special Kids (ASK) Resource Center by The Administration on Developmental Disabilities, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose of the grant is to support family-to-family communications on behalf of youth/adults with disabilities in Iowa. F.I.N.D. has created a database/directory only accessible to Iowa families who have a family member with a disability. Through the directory families will be able to find other families who share similar experiences and interests, as well as access information to expand their knowledge and leadership qualities. All parents are welcome to join the directory/database by completing a F.I.N.D. Parent Information Form, available at the site.

National Contact Center
http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/call/locating_individuals.htm
The National Contact Center is a resource to help locate people. The site lists federal agencies and private organizations that "assist individuals in locating persons of unknown whereabouts." Provides guidance for finding active, reserve, and retired military personnel, and private individuals (including U.S. citizens living or visiting abroad). From the Federal Citizen Information Center, a service of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). This one might be a good resource for some of our patrons who are searching for friends or relatives. Thanks to Karen J. for passing this along!

December 2006 Sites

This month's sites are geared to help you break away from Google, who, along with Microsoft, wants to Rule the Planet. We must thwart this evil intention. Here are some good Google alternatives to play with:

Gigablast.com goes beyond Google. Besides Web pages, the site also indexes PDF, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, PostScript, and Excel documents.

Kartoo.com displays search results graphically instead of alphanumerically. Findings look like clusters of cities on a map. When you put the cursor over one of the listings, a thumbnail image of the Web page pops up.

Wisenut.com groups search items into categories, "helping you refine your search or expand it into areas not initially intended through your original search.

SingingFish.com searches for audio and video files, making finding songs, movie trailers, and audio and video blogs a snap.

Source for this month's sites: The Week, December 1, 2006, p. 36

November 2006 Sites

NationMaster
NationMaster's goal is to be the "Web's one-stop resource for country
statistics on everything." What sets it apart are its numerous reliable
sources and the visual presentation of statistics. Statistical results
comparing countries are strikingly presented using colored bar graphs, pie
charts, and geographical maps.

And, companion site StateMaster
StateMaster is a unique statistical database which allows you to research
and compare a multitude of different data on US states. They have compiled
information from various primary sources such as the US Census Bureau, the
FBI, and the National Center for Educational Statistics. More than just a
mere collection of various data, StateMaster goes beyond the numbers to
provide you with visualization technology like pie charts, maps, graphs
and scatterplots. They also have thousands of map and flag images, state
profiles, and correlations.

The Federal Citizen Information Center's National Contact Center This site lists federal agencies and private organizations that "assist
individuals in locating persons of unknown whereabouts." It provides
guidance for finding active, reserve, and retired military personnel, AND
private individuals (including U.S. citizens living or visiting abroad).
Check this out! It might be a way of helping patrons looking for people
when we can't help using the more traditional directories, online or in
print! Thanks to Karen Johnson for passing along this great site.

Jo