C-SPAN Author Interviews -- Webcasts Online

C-SPAN has 800+ author interviews online. The webcasts of the popular series "BookNotes" cover the years 1988-2004. Browse the database and discover all sorts of good finds. Programs run about an hour. Enjoy!

Typing Tutorial

A Los Angeles Unified School District teacher librarian recommended this free, online touch typing tutorial by Sense-Lang. There are games, teacher tools, and tutorials. It is available in 17 languages. This should be useful for new students who are English Language Learners.

Sense-Lang also includes a typing tutorial especially for older adults called Skillful Seniors.

READ Image Generator by ALA Graphics

The end of a school year or beginning of summer vacation is a good time to remind book lovers of this cool tool. American Library Association Graphics makes it easy for members and friends to create their own, mini READ Posters. Simply download your photo (or anyone's photo), select one of four READ backgrounds, then add text if you wish.

How could you use it? Invite all teachers, students, and staff to get their own very special mini-READ poster? I'm sure students of all ages will come up with lots of creative ideas.

Google's New Look: Redesign of Google Search

Bloomsberg Businessweek (BW) reporter Helen Walters wrote an article on "How Google Got its New Look". Included in the magazine article is a full-page spread on design changes that were made and why. It would make a good poster for any web-design lab or classroom.

I love reading the BW print version over lunch out on the deck, then go online only if there is something special worth sharing. This is worth sharing. Also, the online version includes a short video on how Google evaluates their search page and feedback on its design/redesign.

ElderGadget - News and Reviews of Products with "Elder-Friendly" Features

The San Francisco Chronicle carried an article about how the Apple iPad was popular with seniors. Chronicle staff reporter Ryan Kim wrote "IPAD Appears to be Clicking With Seniors".

The article also referenced ElderGadget, a useful website that carries news and reviews of products that have "elder-friendly" features. See http://www.eldergadget.com/ Product categories reviewed by ElderGadget include about a hundred products beyond computer and other technology products. Check it out.

[Note: Remember to refer to the California School Library Association's online tutorial "Discovering Assistive Technology" because the tutorial's links are updated as new user-friendly products become available.]

All My Faves: Visual Way to Find Favorite Sites

Do you have a list of favorite websites that you visit regularly or keep track of in your "favorites", "bookmarks", or "delicious"? Well, here is a cool site that is a very visual way to display best sites for everything under the sun. All My Faves (subtitled: Why Search?) is a list of lists, displayed by logos.

Along the left side is a list of topics such as:
Topics of the Day (Mother's Day)
e-mail
video
maps
search
news
weather
(plus about 50 more categories)

Across the page next to each topic are no words, just the logo or icon for top sites. For example, after "e-mail" is the logo for Yahoo! mail -- Gmail -- MSN Hotmail -- AOL -- and many more