Computers in Libraries 2008: Widgets, Tools, & Doodads for Library Webmasters

Computers in Libraries 2008: Widgets, Tools, & Doodads for Library Webmasters

This presentation was put on by Darlene Fichter and Frank Cervone, a long-time annual tradition at both the CIL and Internet Librarian conferences.  Below is a list of the technologies and services they mentioned.

Firefox tools: SafeCache (protects privacy by defending against cache-based tracking technologies by not allowing one site to access the other site's cookies), SafeHistory (protects privacy by preventing applications from going in to read your internet history), Foxmarks (synchronizes bookmarks from any computer with your Foxmarks account)--**I love this one**, and FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension - backs up your office and home browsers in terms of extensions)--**I didn't know about this one--awesome possum**

MeeboMe Widget which allows you to connect with people who are or aren't IM users right there on your webpages. 

LinkBunch: lets you put multiple links into one small link - Firefox extension creates a bunch from all your open tabs.

DocSyncer: automatically finds and syncs your document files to Google Docs

Twitter: microblogging with questions or resources found.

Twirl: client for Twitter functionality

polldaddy: fast and simple way to put a poll on your website

VisCheck: a program that simulates the process of human vision - a way of showing what things look like to someone who is color blind (available as either an online service or a client for both Windows and Mac)

Feng GUI: automatic alternative to eye-tracking and you can use it on your webpage.  Creates eye-tracking heatmaps.

Browsershots: creates screenshots in different browsers, open source, online - not a simulation only like the other services; it sends your URL off to actual computers to test it.

Flickr Photo badge: creates a quick slideshow that gives a face to your library

Photoshop Express: photo editing tool that is pretty easy to use

Creating buttons that allow people to bookmark your site, also gives you bookmark button statistics

Google Gadgets: use these on your website; for example, using one of the countdown widgets to count down to some important event

Altavista Babelfish site translator - lets you create a small little translate widget button for your site that lets people pick a flag/language to translate your site into.

ProcessTamer: monitors CPU usage of processes and reduces the priority apps for efficiency's sake

File Hamster: real-time backup and archiving of your files while you work. monitors files or directories and creates incremental backups and stores notes about the changes that have been made.

Syncback Freeware: backup all files anytime with a single click and has a scheduler to automatically back files up a particular time.  Can do incremental backups, do versioning, or allow machine to machine communication via ftp (Free)

MailBigFile.com, MediaFire, Pando, xUpload.com, and YouSendIt are all file drop sites that let you provide access to huge files

reCaptcha: lets you stop spam in comments or message forms on your website; shows two words and one that is a word that was unidentifiable from scanned OCR and one that wasn't.  So, you can help improve accuraccy of OCR scanned books.  Yay!

Anonymouse: Checks if resources are accessible outside your IP range or not.  Anonymouse will tell you if it can get access.

Prism: lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktops, makes application look like it's desktop-based though it's not

Lolinator: will mess with a webpage and replace it with LOL-speak and images (:P)

Places to find more widgets and apps: WidgetBox.com and Google Gadgets

CIL2008