TechBits

Google now showing where to borrow ebooks

This week Google added a new feature to their search results. When you look up a book title on Google, the results will now show a listing of libraries that have the ebook version available to borrow.

The listing shows up in the “quick facts” box either above or next to the search results, depending on whether you’re on a PC or a mobile. The feature is available on both PCs and mobile devices in the US.

I did some experimenting and it appears the information is coming from OverDrive.  Clicking on the link for “Wisconsin Public Library Consortium: South Central Library System – Madiso” brought me directly to the OverDrive page for the book and prompted for a sign in. The local library name at the end of the link will change depending on where you are or if you enter a new location in the “Edit location” window.

One thing I did note is that if you’re searching for a book that also has a movie adaptation, the “quick facts” may default to the movie information, not the book.  Searching for "The Hobbit" originally returned information about the films but adding "book" after the title got me the listing above.

Exploring Chrome Extensions, Week 1: Pocket

This is the first installment in a new series of posts that hopes to explore useful or interesting Chrome browser extensions.

The first extension we are going to look at is called Pocket. Pocket is an interesting way to save websites/articles/other content to be recalled at a later point. If you find content while browsing that you wish to look at again just click the Pocket extension button or right-click the page and choose “Save to Pocket”. This will save the website to your own Pocket queue which is a website (getpocket.com). It is essentially like bookmarking a page but, ideally, for content you are not going to want to access continually. I could find this useful for various articles that I do not have time to read at the moment but would like to at a later point but not fill my bookmarks toolbar/menu in the process. You can access your Pocket queue by right-clicking the Pocket extension button and choose “Open Pocket”.

To get Pocket setup just click the link below while using the Chrome browser. You will need to setup a basic account with Pocket which is just providing a name and an email address.

Pocket

Coding for Fun (Youth and Above) with Scratch

Have you always thought that learning to code is a bit on the dull side? That it’s text-based and a solitary activity for adults only?

MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten Project has slayed that preconception with a drag and drop programming language called Scratch. Scratch was designed for 8 – 16 year olds in mind (but anyone can 'play'); it encourages an interest in coding by emphasizing creativity, collaboration and community by making it pure fun. 

 

The Scratch website offers tutorials, galleries (by category) of peoples' creations and the ability to remix them and re-post.  YouTube offers close to a million short tutorials as well.

Here are three, brief examples of what you can do with Scratch
* "The Scratch Movie" (about a cat buying a sofa at Ikea)
* "4 types of school kids"
* "Interactive Violin"

May the fun begin!

 

 

DATASETS for WI Public Libraries

 

Data helps answer questions and tell stories. As Stephen Few, a data visualization guru, quoted: 

“Numbers have an important story to tell.

  They rely on you to give them a voice.” 

New tools, like Tableau, make it easier to explore data for story insights. There is, however, a data glut with access to data (BIG DATA!) that wasn't available 5 years.

As I've been learning Tableau, I've been collecting datasets that can support library initiatives. I was introduced to some of these datasets at workshops, like WiLsWorld 2017: Making the Most of Demographic Data presented by faculty and staff from the UW-Madison Applied Population Lab. The following is my consolidated list of free datasets (so far), which is also available as a handout: goo.gl/55RLkS. Please let me know of other datasets to add to the list!

American FactFinder: factfinder.census.gov

Includes population, age, business and industry, education, governments, housing, income, origins and language, poverty, race and Hispanic origin, and veteran data.

Census Bureau TIGER/Line Shapefiles: census.gov/cgi-bin/geo/shapefiles/index.php

Shapefiles for U.S. census tracts, voting wards, county subdivisions, school districts, and more.  

Census Bureau Data Tools and Apps: census.gov/data/data-tools.html.  

A list of powerful analysis tools such as OnTheMap, QWI Explorer, and Census Geocoder.

County Health Rankings: countyhealthrankings.org/app/wisconsin/2017/downloads

Vital health factor and outcome measures.

FoodShare WI Data: dhs.wisconsin.gov/foodshare/rsdata.htm

Monthly case counts, recipients, and benefits by county and state.

GetFacts: getfacts.wisc.edu

Census and American Community Survey (ACS) data by state, county, or county subdivision.

Global Libraries Data Atlas: glatlas.org

Data visualization portal for tracking performance and impact metrics of international libraries.

Home Based Private Education-Statistics: dpi.wi.gov/sms/home-based/statistics

Enrollment of WI home schooled students by CESA, grade, district, and county.

Homeless Student Enrollment by Public School District: dpi.wi.gov/homeless/data

Enrollment of homeless students by WI school district.

Impact Survey results: impactsurvey.org

Library patron technology survey results.

Kids Count Data Center: datacenter.kidscount.org/data#WI

Data and trend analysis that tracks the well-being of children in the United States.  

Madison Neighborhood Indicators: madison.apl.wisc.edu/profile.php

Madison demographic, housing, public safety, health, economic vitality, and transportation indicators.

Open Enrollment Data and Reports: dpi.wi.gov/open-enrollment/data

Open enrollment data on pupil and aid transfer in and out of each WI school district.  

Pew Research Center Datasets: pewinternet.org/datasets

Raw data from Pew Research.

Project Outcome: projectoutcome.org

Outcome data from library surveys throughout the United States.

Public Library Survey: imls.gov/research-evaluation/data-collection/public-libraries-survey/explore-pls-data

Annual survey results since 1988 on the state of public libraries in the United States.

USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (WI): nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Wisconsin  

Agricultural statistics that includes a Quick Stats searchable database that can be limited by geographic areas.

WI Department of Administration (DOA) Demographic Services Center: doa.state.wi.us/Divisions/Intergovernmental-Relations/Demographic-Services-Center

Population estimates and projections for all WI towns, villages and cities.  

WI Department of Health Services Data & Statistics: dhs.wisconsin.gov/stats/index.htm

Vital WI health statistics by topic.

WI Food Security Project: foodsecurity.wisc.edu

Data and charts about the food security infrastructure in Wisconsin.

WI Geospatial Data: sco.wisc.edu/find-data.html

A list of resources for downloading commonly-requested WI geospatial datasets including boundary maps.

WI Information System for Education WISEdash: wisedash.dpi.wi.gov/Dashboard/portalHome.jsp

Multi-year education data about WI schools.  

WI Information System for Education WISEdash data resources: dpi.wi.gov/wisedash/help/data-resources

Data sources about students, schools (staff, programs, finance), performance reports, and types of schools.  

WI Public Library Service Data: dpi.wi.gov/pld/data-reports/service-data

Annual public library statistics at the state, county, system, and library levels.

WI School District Performance Report (SDPR): apps2.dpi.wi.gov/sdpr/spr.action

Annual school report with multiple indicators and comparisons to districts in the same athletic conferences.  

WI School Nutrition Program Statistics:  dpi.wi.gov/school-nutrition/program-statistics

Participation in nutritional programs including WI school free/reduced eligibility data.

WI State Legislature Open GIS Data: data-ltsb.opendata.arcgis.com

Open GIS datasets including WI legislative district collections and election data.

WI WORKnet Data Table Menu: worknet.wisconsin.gov/worknet/datablelist.aspx?menuselection=da

WI economic data on employment and unemployment, wages, occupations and industries.

Checking links

As we're preparing to move to our redesigned website, we've been checking some content to make sure it looks tidy and functional.  One of the tools we've been using is Firefox's LinkChecker add-on.  When installed, it allows you to right-click a webpage and "Check Page Links."  If it thinks the link is a good one, it is highlighted green. Broken links are highlighted red. It's not a perfect tool, but it has helped us cover a lot of content and find problems with our links.

When I find links that are flagged as problems, I hover over the link to display the destination in the status bar. It's a quick way to check where the link will take you. (It's also a handy way to check where links in your email and on social media might be sending you and save yourself from phishing attempts!)  If you don't see this in your browser when you hover over a link, you may need to change a setting to show your browser's status bar.

Annotated screenshots are the best!

You may love it or hate it but the bottom line is that writing documentation is necessary for most projects. One of my colleagues is excellent at reinforcing that my future self will thank my past self for writing great documentation. Annotated screenshots have become a staple in all the documentation I write.

My tool of choice is a software product called Snagit. Snagit is made by TechSmith (Jing, Camtasia, Relay) and quite frankly I can't live without it. Snagit isn't free but libraries get a substantial discount because they consider us "educational customers"  I can't post the price we paid but it's really good. To get a quote from TechSmith go here.

Below is an example of an annotated screenshot I made for a training a while ago. If I were to write these steps out it would be painful. (Please click on the picture to get a full size view of it)

*note that this might me an extreme example but I wanted to showcase what is possible when using Snagit.

Snagit can do MUCH more that just screenshots here is their "promo" video which explains all the things you can do with the software.

Snagit Screen Capture Software & Screen Recorder | TechSmith