Marsco Information & Research

Swissmiss linked to a great tool, copyscape.com.  If you are worried that some of your web content may have been copied elsewhere, put the url in and copyscape will tell you!

LibrarianInBlack has written about Thomas Ford Memorial Library using WordPress for indexing obituaries and creating a local history archive. Great idea, as blogging software is either freeor cheap and generally user friendly for the less techy-minded amongst us.

Phil Bradley has written about Web 2.0 for libraries in the latest CILIP Update.

Just found out, thanks to blogher, that there is an online conference at Tech Soup on the use of social networking applications in non-profit organisations. It's home is the US so may be some time differences, but get on over there if you want to know more.

So glad this kind of thing is online then more of us can take part.

Often you hear that you can find a program to do just about anything on your computer for free, which is possibly true, but how good is the quality? Where do you go to find freeware? Is it really free? Lifehacker have posted about a great directory of freeware so now we know where our first port of call should be. Scroll right down to the bottom and there are some useful 'how to's as well.

Zoho Chat markets itself as a 'way to make group decisions faster' but you could use it for anything.  It is all web-based so you don't need to download any chat software that your IT people might not like.  It could also be a way of engaging with your clients/users.  I seem to meet lots of people who need to communicate with several colleagues at once but are based in different sites/towns/counties…  Maybe applications like this could help.  Of course you could use MSN Messenger or something similar but many companies and organisations frown on the use of these.

Via I Want To.

I've had this bookmarked for a few weeks now, meaning to post about it here. Gabbly is a web application that allows you to chat to someone over the web, about a particular website. If you ever need to guide someone through a website, or want to do some surfing with other people, Gabbly could be the tool for you. When I was a public librarian my colleagues and I were based in different libraries throughout Leeds and trying to help someone with a website when you can't see what they're doing is very hard.

This may also be useful for parents just getting into using the net who keep calling up for your help! (Mine are past that now…)

Via Lifehacker.

Great post at the Performancing blog about using a blog to help manage an online community.  Great idea!  Manage a 'real' community too, if you have a club or society or group you can post news and meeting details, members can comment and discuss issues, everything is kept in the archives, photos can be shown - endless!

It's great, it's something you hear a lot about, but what is it? Find out here (via Tame the Web). Bit techy but a good start.

Also via Tame the Web, a great new blog, Tech Essence, easily explaining new technologies that libraries and librarians can use.