Family Craft Night with the Royals

Join the members of the Reading Royals Hockey Team for stories, crafts, food, and fun.

Meet the players up close and personal!

Family Craft Night will be held Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 7:00 PM

at the Northeast Branch, 1348 North 11th Street, Reading, PA 19604.

Children under 8 must be accompanied by an adult.

Online Librarian
Carl

Google www.google.com
Founded: Menlo Park California (September 27, 1998)


What THIS SITE IS:
Google is one of many search engines available and because of its overwhelming popularity it has almost become synonymous with the Internet. Two Stanford students began the Google search engine in 1996 as a graduate research project. Soon after Google took off and now, according to Nielsen NetRatings, is used in virtually half of all Internet searches. The Google brand has expanded vigorously and now includes products far beyond a mere search engine, such as email (gmail), directory, online documents & spreadsheets, etc.

Positives: Simple interface; relatively large search results; consistent innovation and development of new and interesting products

Negatives: Search Engine results are not evaluated for quality; popularity and ease of use can obscure search limitations, see Research Beyond Google

Who SHOULD USE THIS SITE:
Those searching for common topics, those beginning an exploratory first search, or those who are looking to take advantage of Google’s specific search features (e.g. advanced search) or products (e.g. gmail). It is important to keep in mind that while Google’s coverage is broad it can lack precision for uncommon or specific topics. And like practically all search engines it does not rank sites by quality nor does it take into account the deep recesses of the invisible web (the topic of the invisible web to be covered in a future article).

Librarian Note: Library professionals will appreciate this site for its ability to quickly generate answers to ready reference questions and to be used to orientate or inform searchers about a novel topic. Other useful tools (calculator, dictionary, etc.) and multimedia search capacities (pictures, videos, etc.) can be helpful as well.

Interesting FEATURE:
One of the most powerful ways to search with Google that is often overlooked is the use of Google Syntax. Searching this way can be done using the Advanced Search or by directly keying what Google calls “search operators" in the search basic window.

For instance, say you want to use the Google Search Engine to find information about prairie dogs but you only want see what the National Geographic web site has to say on the topic.

As an example type prairie dog site:nationalgeographic.com in the basic Google search window.

The results of prairie dog site:nationalgeographic.com would be a search only within the www.nationalgeographic.com website for the subject of prairie dogs. This formula of search term(s) site:web_site_to_be_searched.com can be used for any subject and any site. Also note that these search operators can be used to limit and control searches by site, by format, and a whole assortment of other parameters and functions, see Google Syntax for more options.

Bottom LINE:
Google is simply the best freely available general-purpose search engine on the Web today. (In addition it offers a wide variety of tools, software, and multimedia)

Helpful LINKS:
Instruction/Tutorials/Features
Google Guide
Google Cheat Sheet
Google Products

Extras
20 Great Google Secrets
Official Google Blog
Unofficial Google Forum

Librarians
Google Librarian Central
Google as Ref Desk Tools (Ready Reference)

Any QUESTIONS?
Please feel free to make a comment by clicking on the comments link below or if you prefer to reach me by email.

Online Librarian
Carl

The Internet is the world's largest library. It's just that all the books are on the floor.
~ John Allen Paulos

What THIS IS:
This is to be a series of articles about various online resources. The focus will primarily be on free web sites and basic concepts and tools that accompany Internet reference and research.

Who I AM:
My name is Carl and I am a newly appointed reference librarian at the Reading Public Library main branch. I earned my undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the Pennsylvania State University and my Master of Science in Library Science from the Clarion University of Pennsylvania. My interests include computers and the Internet, art, and philosophy.

Who SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN THESE ARTICLES:
These articles are intended for beginner to intermediate online researchers, information professionals, and Internet users. These articles will be particularly useful for those Internet users who are unfamiliar with the breadth of online reference resources readily available online.

Bottom LINE:
In each Blog article I will be examining the best Internet sites for reference and information seeking. Along the way I will be discussing major concepts and ‘tricks of the trade’ for researching information online.

Any QUESTIONS?
Please feel free to make a comment by clicking on the comments link below or if you prefer to reach me by email.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The release date for the final Harry Potter book was just announced! It look like we'll find out Harry's fate on July 21.
Check back here to find out when you will be able to place a hold on one of our copies.

Fansites:
The Leaky Cauldron
Hogwarts Herald
MuggleNet

J.K.Rowling Official Site - I love this site - Very Myst-like with the graphics and the ambient sounds of cars and barking dogs

MSNBC - Find out the odds on Harry dying in the final book