Project for Public Spaces has dedicated their April newsletter to libraries.  Get inspired to become the new commons for your community by several libraries who have extended the missions of their libraries beyond books.  Learn from libraries across the country how you can make your library great.  I found the entire newsletter to be inspiring.  The culture of public spaces directly impacts libraries and how our communities view us.  The question is whether we are up to the challenge to change ourselves as much as our communities would like us to.

A wonderful website to help celebrate National Jazz Appreciation Month.  Join in the discussion on the new discussion board, explore an interactive Duke Ellington class, discover jazz greats, find out what happened on this day in jazz history, and check out the calendar of jazz events for the month. 

Sky-Map is a visual site that offers access to information on astronomy, astrophysics and space objects.  You can click on the sky and work your way down to specific information on that section’s features.  Or you can view photographs, read articles, learn about classification, view the collection, or join in the forum discussions. 

How-To-Study is a site that offers free information on studying techniques, strategies, and tips.  You can choose from categories like taking notes, learning styles, listening, test anxiety, and taking tests.  Additionally, you can submit your own study tips for possible publication on the site.  The information is straight-forward and filled with common sense. 

If you have a Google Account, you can now turn on a new feature, Google Web History.  You can choose to download the toolbar, or you can just view your searches without a download.  This service offers a unique glimpse at what you do online, as well as a scary look at how much can be found about what you do online!

View the searches you did in the past, and see what you busy days and times are.  Click on Trends and you will find your top queries, the top sites you visit (Mine is Wikipedia, which really surprises me!), and the top clicks.

Beware, this is even more addictive than doing a vanity search on Google.  Feed your own self-obsession and log on now!

Fisssh is another interesting new search engine.  It does not only a search of the web, but also returns results from Wikipedia, Del.icio.us, blogs, videos, podcasts and more.  The results are presented in a newspaper like fashion with the top results from various sources on the same page.  You can also limit the search to specific areas like news, blogs, videos, podcasts, jobs, and shopping. 

Travelistic offers online videos from travelers.  The videos can be searched by destination or keyword, browsed by using the map interface, or you can take a look at the most popular places as well.  Join the community and you can contribute your own travel videos to the site. 

QueryCat is a search engine that searches a database of frequently asked questions (FAQs).  Put a question into the search box, and you will receive links either to the answer of that question or to related questions.  You can also search by keyword and get a broader list of related FAQs to look at. 

This is an interesting search engine because of its focus on questions only.  It returns very different results from other search engines and could find a niche, especially among reference librarians.

The American Association of University Women has a very nice map that offers information on the pay gap between college-educated women and men.  You can view the national figures or see what is happening in your state.  It is particularly frustrating to see that even college-educated women make $16,000 less each year than their male counterparts. 

Also remember that today is Equal Pay Day, so it’s the perfect day to examine what is happening with women’s pay in this country. 

Tim O’Reilly, one of the most successful and respected bloggers around, has called for a Blogging Code of Conduct.  I won’t post the entire draft code here, but I will list the main points:

1. We take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog.

2. We won’t say anything online that we wouldn’t say in person.

3. We connect privately before we respond publicly.

4. When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.

5. We do not allow anonymous comments.

6. We ignore the trolls. (Trolls are people who post nasty comments just to get a reaction.)

I am intrigued that most of them are more about how bloggers should handle input than what they should concentrate on posting.

Should there be a Library Blogging Code of Conduct?  How about these:

1. Stay away from corporate influences when reviewing products and materials.

2. Open Comments on library blogs to encourage conversation.

3. Post content that will appeal to all of your community, focusing on under-represented clientèle.

4. Discuss topics with passion and interest so that the library profession benefits from your input.

5. Attempt to blend technology with books, keeping reading and information at the forefront of your blog.

6. We ignore those librarians who do not yet understand the technology and are dismissive of its impact.