Awesome Library Research Tools

"Try out one of these in-the-works betas sponsored by world-class libraries around the world. From academic libraries like that at MIT or renowned research centers like the Library of Congress, the following beta research tools feature innovative tricks to connect you with the most relevant, valid results on the Internet and in their card catalogs. Melvil Dewey would be proud."

http://www.collegedegree.com/library/college-life/25-awesome-beta

Free Online Videos for Learning

Next Vista for Learning offers education short format videos (teacher and student created) online for free. It site is still rather small and is broken down into three categories Lightbulb (school topics), Global Life, and Seeing Service (i.e. community service)

http://www.nextvista.org/

openlearn

New free learning site:
http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/home.php

"openlearn is online learning that is open to anyone, anywhere in the world using materials taken from Open University courses. And it is completely free to use! Instead of attending classes, you study online in the learningspace, using materials that have been specially designed for distance learning.

openlearn is an opportunity for informal study – in your own time access materials in areas familiar or new to you, without the pressure of keeping to a timetable or sitting exams."

5 weeks to a social library

I participated in this free course aimed at librarians. The session I helped with is in Week 5 and is called "Library 2.0? No, thank you! Obstacle to Creating a Social Library" with Melissa Prescott and Plamen Miltenoff.

Go to: http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/

Description: "Five Weeks to a Social Library is the first free, grassroots, completely online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software and how to use it in their libraries. It was developed to provide a free, comprehensive, and social online learning opportunity for librarians who do not otherwise have access to conferences or continuing education and who would benefit greatly from learning about social software. The course will be taught using a variety of social software tools so that the participants acquire experience using the tools while they are taking part in the class. It will make use of synchronous online communication, with one or two weekly Webcasts and many small group IM chat sessions made available to participants each week. By the end of the course, each student will develop a proposal for implementing a specific social software tool in their library. "

Top 10 Firefox plugins for researchers from the Stingy Scholar

http://stingyscholar.blogspot.com/2007/03/top-10-firefox-add-ons-for-researchers.html

1. Fleck

2. Firefox Showcase

3. StumbleUpon

4. Del.icio.us bookmarks

5. Breadcrumbs

6. Resurrect Pages

7. Answers.com

8. Highlight all

9. Seachbar autosizer

10. Googlepedia

Best Free Software from PC Magazine

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2090787,00.asp
Jan. 31, 2007
By Tony Hoffman
"Most software is expensive and bloated. Yet free software typically does one task and does it with precision and elegance. Among the thousands of free apps available on the Web, how do you find the best, most reliable ones for your needs?"

The software is grouped in the following categories:

• Security
• Productivity
  Utilitizies & PC Management
• Music & Audio
• Vuideo & Graphics
• Firefox Extensions
• Networking & Mobility
• Fun & Games

Helpful warning about malware: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2090951,00.asp

One I wanted to pull out from their list is Zotero

Zotero
www.zotero.org
Zotero stores detailed information about books. An icon appears in the address bar when you view a page with information about a title at Amazon.com or dozens of library catalogs. Click on the icon and full details pop into your Zotero database, where you can add notes and organize items into folders.—

Squirl...social cataloging?

Have a collection of the weird or totally unusual or totally usual? Here is a new tool that will let you catalog every item (just a like a librarian)...

http://squirl.info/