Libraries are turning to blogging more and more, as the medium of connecting with users becomes mainstream. What is one of the benefits of blogging for your library? Your presence in Google, and other search engines. The more content that you write the more likely a patron will be able to find you in Google. Whether its hawking library services or programming, or giving tutorials that will help users, the more you update your blog the better the chance you will reach an audience. And when you get a new person to your site, it will be easier to convert them to a patron. So if your library doesn’t blog yet, what are you waiting for?

The Associated Press took a glimpse into the process behind Google’s digital book project. The article states that 28 libraries are now working with Google scanning rare books that will be searchable through books.google.com. Google’s much heralded partnership with the University of Michigan has yielded 1 Million total books that have been put in the database with 5 Million more to go. Preservation Librarians will find the article interesting as it gives you a glimpse of how workers take great care in keeping the books safe during the process with special temperatures (brrr) so the books are not damages. Do yourself a favor and read the informative article by clicking the link above.

One of the most frequent questions I seem to receive from people just passing by the library is information on bus routes. As you may or may not be aware, our friends at Google have taken it upon themselves to make looking up bus route information as easy as using their user-friendly search engine. While not all major metro areas are up yet, including Cleveland where I reside, Google Transit is growing by leaps and bounds with over 40 United States countries and also international databases in 8 countries throughout 4 continents.

While your city may not be represented (like Cleveland who boasts that they have the number #1 transit system in the country), it’s probably a good idea as an information specialist to verse yourself in Google Transit. You know that one day your Transit Authority will be added to Google’s listing and you will want to know how to answer the question that you have been asked countless times ie “Do you have the bus route for (insert your local route here)”.

The other day I was helping a patron who was looking for yellow pages for New York City. While our library had access to most major cities directories in the past, due to rising costs,  the advent of the internet, the wear and tear that the paper directories sustained, and the enormous amount of space that the collection needed we stopped receiving the paper directories.

The patron was a bit upset that we did not carry the print copies anymore but I told him about the wonders of Google Street View. At first the man was rather skeptical saying that computers were worthless and could not be used for this type of search.  After I convinced him that I would be able to find the information he gave me the query he was looking for. After a tough search, honestly the gentleman wouldn’t have found what he was looking for in a traditional directory because he had the wrong address wasn’t 100% sure what the business actually did, we found the exact building he was looking for and the man left a happy customer. The man luckily knew the area and was able to virtually “walk around” to find the area. Needless to say the man doesn’t think search engines are “worthless” anymore and was enthralled by the power of the almighty Google.

The moral of the story here is that while a lot of the products that Google roll out have a definite “fun factor” they also have some academic uses that you may not think of when asked for a question.

Check out the video from Google at the 2006 ALA Convention.