Google

Back when I was at PLA, I found out that Google has a special page for librarians and I just now got around to checking it out. Included are a newsletter that you can subscribe to and a page that offers free teaching tools. The first item on the tool page is a poster that offers tips for searching Google. It has some good ideas and might be useful to our customers. There's a handout size version that could be distributed when teaching someone how to use the Internet or could even be hung by the computers, if we deemed that appropriate.

And for those who have seen it, take a look at Google Earth. It's an extremely cool program that you can download. Here's a little description from Google:

Want to know more about a specific location? Dive right in -- Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.
-Fly from space to your neighborhood. Type in an address and zoom right in.
-Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
-Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings.
-Save and share your searches and favorites. Even add your own annotations.

I think this would be a really neat program to have on our patron computers. It's great for driving directions (you can "fly" along your route), locating properties (if you're house hunting you can visualize the whole area), exploring (you can see downtown Baghdad, the Forbidden City in China, the Grand Canyon), and more. Besides being a useful tool, I think it would a fun thing for our kids and teens to play with.