Google is not The Way to Salvation

I passed this church sign while walking around Ottawa:

I'm used to hearing the "Google is not as good as libraries" rhetoric, so it was funny to see another profession facing the same struggle. By the way, Bibles in my library are shelved at 220.5/Bibl - maybe our slogan should be, "find a library, find your way."

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Google Offers Secure Searching

I read last week that Google is now offering an encrypted search option, and was surprised the story didn't get more coverage.

Anyone wanting to use it needs to go to https://www.google.com (note the https:), and it appears it only applies to web searching - not images or the other searches. Read more at:

• Official announcement on Google's blog
• CNET article
• Google's "About SSL Search" page
• Wikipedia article on SSL and how it works

This is good for those library patrons who want extra privacy while searching the internet. However, online privacy increasingly seems to be an illusion (remember, Google will still see and track these searches - this just cuts down on other people monitoring the searches).

via

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New Biography Selection Criteria

My library's ever-shrinking book budget has made me be more discerning when it comes to selection. However, one area that is always difficult for me is biographies.

It seems like every troubled athlete, aging celebrity, recovering musician, reality television personality, unfaithful politician (and their wives), have all signed book deals. I don't pay much attention to pop culture personalities, so it's hard for me to tell if the person is someone significant.

So I was joking with a coworker about a new selection criteria for all of these celebrity memoirs. Since the importance of many of these people is based on social zeitgeist, I thought I could use Google to help me decide. I figure that if a person is important, a Google search for that person's name should return at least one million webpages. If they're above that (arbitrary) threshold, I'll buy their biography - if not, then I'll check again when the paperback comes out.

Granted, not all my ideas are practical, but here's how some current biographies fare with this "hive mind" selection criteria:

• The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, by David Remnick (51,900,000 for "Barack Obama")
• Oprah: A Biography, by Kitty Kelley (21,900,000 for "Oprah")
• Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin, by Hampton Sides (12,300,000 for "Martin Luther King")
• Bowie: A Biography, by Marc Spitz (10,400,000 for "David Bowie")
• Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, by Chelsea Handler (3,450,000 for "Chelsea Handler")
• The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, by Sarah Silverman (2,810,000 for "Sarah Silverman")
• Staying True, by Jenny Sanford (2,280,000 for "Jenny Sanford")
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned, by Michael J. Fox (1,430,000 for "Michael J. Fox")
• Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, by Raquel Welch (1,250,000 for "Raquel Welch")

• This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection, by Carol Burnett (868,000 for "Carol Burnett")
• A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond by Craig Robinson (504,000 for "Craig Robinson")
• When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man by Jerry Weintraub and Rich Cohen, (373,000 for "Jerry Weintraub")
• I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, by Nujood Ali (268,000 for "Nujood Ali")
• The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century, by Alan Brinkley (193,000 for "Henry Luce")
• Killing Willis: From Diff'rent Strokes to the Mean Streets to the Life I Always Wanted, by Todd Bridges and Sarah Tomlinson (141,000 for "Todd Bridges")
• Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds, by Robin Olds, Christina Olds, and Ed Rasimus (122,000 for "Robin Olds")

Obviously, not flawless, but this Google criteria might help tell me who I should pay attention to. And in addition to traditional reviews and ratings, another one of my tactics is to wait until requests for a book reach a certain number before ordering it, but that method only addresses demand after the fact, and leaves out the patrons who didn't think to request it.

Selection is a fine art, but when it comes to biographies, most my crayons are dull.

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Reference Question of the Week – 1/3/10

About 30 minutes before we closed one night, a patron came to the desk and asked:

How do I find a website that starts with "F"?

When I asked him what he meant, he said he was on a website last week that had Armenian Christmas music, but all he could remember was that the web address started with "F" - maybe "fru" or "fron" or maybe not.

Remember that show on Nickelodeon, You Can't Do That On Television, with the teacher who always said, "Where does the school board get them and why do they keep sending them to me?" Yeah.

I was pretty sure that Google's [site:] operator didn't work with wildcards, but I tried searching for "armenian music site:f*" anyway. That did not work, so I searched to find out how wildcards can be used with Google's limiters. A nice forum posting mentioned the [inurl:] operator, which seemed perfect (if you don't already use them, read about operators and other tips for searching Google).

I re-searched for "armenian music inurl:www.f" and that worked - it showed all websites that mentioned Armenian music and have a web address that starts with "www.f".

Of course there are holes in this tactic: the site might not start with "www.", the site might not mention the words "armenian music," the site might not be in English, etc.

I gave him these caveats when I showed him how to use [inurl:], but he was still excited. He tried a few combinations of "armenian" and "christmas" and "music," but he hadn't found the right website before closing time. I actually haven't seen him since, so I'm not sure if he ultimately found it or not. It's kind of a needle in a haystack situation, and it feel like all I did was give him a very small magnet.

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Google and Predictive Searching

Jessamyn links to an interesting article about Google's switch to personalized searching - really, check it out, because it will impact patrons using public computers.

But it also reminded me of how much more prevalent Google's autocomplete feature has seemed lately. I know it's been around for awhile, but I've noticed it more for some reason, and have also been seeing it in Google's ads on Hulu.com (which I oddly could not find to link to), failblog, YouTube* and elsewhere.

So I got curious about what the Google zeitgeist would say about library-related phrases - here's what I found:

(a band)

(a children's book)

(They just check out? They get weeded? They become overdue?)

And I had to try this too:

(I think most of these are Family Guy references.)

Update 1/11/10: Using Google suggestions, check out the difference between what girlfriends and boyfriends are thinking.

*The one at 2:39 is my favorite. Actually, a lot of them are probably song lyrics, but how often do you come across a Dead Milkmen reference?

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Library Events Calendar Roundup

An important function of the library is communicating our upcoming events to the community. There are lots of ways to do this, one of which is by having an online calendar.

Of course, there are also lots of software for online calendars and for patrons to reserve meeting rooms. My library just switched calendars, and so did the Blue Hill (ME) Public Library. Since we each evaluated a number of different calendar options, Rich Boulet and I combined our notes, in the hopes of saving other libraries a bit of legwork when looking at calendars.

There are more calendars than what is listed here (in no particular order), and our pro/con notes reflect the needs, requirements and situations of our individual libraries. If you have questions about how we made our decisions, you can contact me through my contact form, and Rich through Blue Hill Library's staff page.

Library Insight     (Rich, Brian)

• See Groton (MA) Public Library for example
• Patrons can submit room requests online
• Comes with 1200 images
• Marquee of upcoming available for index page
• SIP2 compliant
• Will not disclose how many clients use product, but says they are "in 20 states"
• $695/year plus $600 setup fee
• Contact: Steve Bolduc / 978-808-1089
• More info: http://libraryinsight.com/products/rmInsight.htm

Google Calendar     (Rich)

• See Lewiston Public Library for example
• Free
• Patrons cannot submit room requests, but can browse room availability
• More info: http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/about.html

Evanced     (Rich, Brian)

• See Chelmsford (MA) Public Library and Blue Hill (ME) Public Library (calendar, room reservation) for examples
• Looks like most comprehensive product available
• Used by Maine State Library, Web Junction and many public libraries
• Allows user-initiated requests for room reservation
• Allows attendee registration and cancellation
• Somewhat pricey relative to others in market, but unlimited in number of listed events, and no module pricing (except credit card processing is extra)
• Allows some design customization, to make it look like your website
• Most powerful calendar search options
• Locally-hosted installation requires Microsoft IIS 4.0 or higher and has more up-front costs, plus 18%/year maintenance fees
• Remotely hosted solution carries ongoing subscription costs
• Seamless integration between web calendar and room reservation software allows users to click off on room policy
• Calendar allows events to be downloaded to Outlook
• Offers customizable rss feeds based n search criteria
• Can be used to track program stats
• Contact: Claudia Hackworth / 317-352-2188 x109
• More info & demos: http://evancedsolutions.com/demo.asp

Calandarix     (Rich)

• See Rockport (ME) Public Library for example
• Very attractive and very affordable web calendar
• Does not apparently allow patron-initiated requesting of rooms
• Compatible with Apache or IIS
• No remote hosting option, requires local install
• Cost: Advanced edition is $50 for non-profits; also comes in a
  free basic version
• More info: http://www.calendarix.com

Eventkeeper     (Rich, Brian)

• See Hingham (MA) Public Library for example
• Seems to do everything that Evanced does, but in a very different style
• Pricing is generally less than Evanced, but is somewhat variable based on modules and number of events
• Can customize and brand calendar for additional one-time fee, integrate it more with the look and feel of the rest of your web site
• Also "EK Feed" can can be rss feed marquee of upcoming events for library's homepage
• Only available as remotely hosted product, no local installation
• Currently have 1200 customers
• Exceptional customer support
• Can be used to track program statistics
• No maintenance fees (other than annual hosting)
• Eventkeeper: $275/year; EK Rooms: $250/year; EK Feed (marquee)
• Contact: Jim Stewart / 508-942-4209
• More info: http://www.eventkeeper.com

Meeting Room Manager     (Rich)

• See UCLA for example
• Ruled out for BHPL because requires login
• More info: http://www.netsimplicity.com/room-scheduling-software/ (login info provided on the page)

ConnectDaily     (Brian)

• See San Bruno (CA) Library for example
• Reasonably priced
• Remotely hosted with varying contract lengths
• Allows a great deal of design customization, to integrate with the look of your website
• Serves as both a calendar and meeting room reservation system
• A limitation is that it is designed as an "in-house" product (example, a school would use it for the teachers to reserve meeting rooms). It does have a public room reservation form, but take a little work to customize to be easy enough for the public to use
• Allows for multiple calendars (Childrens, Adult, Teen, etc) all to be fed up into one master calendar
• Events available in rss and iCal formats
• More info: http://www.mhsoftware.com/connectdaily.htm

Calcium     (Brian)

• See Cuyahoga Community College (OH) Eastern Campus Library or list for examples
• Just events calendar (not room reservation)
• Fairly basic and very stable, handles all aspects of an events calendar well
• Easy to use
• Limited design customization to match your website
• Has three pricing options: free calendar (includes ads); locally-installed version (one-time price); remotely-hosted option (monthly fee)
• More info: http://www.brownbearsw.com/products.html

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