YourDraft.com is a very interesting site where you can work on draft versions of documents with others.  The site is very aware of users wanting anonymity and the ability to create documents that can’t be easily read by the webmaster.  Nicely, this means that you don’t have to use an email address, if you don’t want to, plus each document is encrypted in a way that makes it only possible for you and those you choose to read it. 

Depending on which URL you send out to others, you control whether they can edit the document or just read it.  There is also a nice clock feature so that you can see when the document was last edited. 

This is a very simple and well-thought-out service that libraries and others will be interested in taking a look at.

Our library website has won two Webbie Awards from the Wisconsin Library Association’s Media and Technology Section.  The awards are given annually for excellence in Wisconsin library web site design. 

The awards were Best Site for Kids and Best of the Best. 

I am so honored to have our site receive these.  All kudos go to our amazing, amazing web designer, Jody.  He was willing to try Drupal with us, work through seemingly endless requests for little tweaks, forgive us when we hadn’t practiced as much as we should have, and be there for all of our concerns and questions.  It took us a good year of working together to create our new site, and now it is our job as a library to maintain it and create the content that it needs to make it continue to shine. 

This site was a huge departure from the previous site.  We had to train many staff who had never posted online before.  And it was a controversial change for some.  Though I am pleased to say that the three patrons who complained have all returned to tell me that they now like it or have at least “come to peace” with it.    Those first few days and weeks of any change can be very bumpy.  I recommend lots and lots of laughter to get through them.

How To Mend It is the place to go when you have broken something.  They have a database telling you how to repair all sorts of things.  If your question is not answered, you can also post a question and receive a specific answer to your problem.  The site can be browsed with an enormous collection of categories, or you can see the most recent or unanswered questions. 

Couchville is a site that lists the TV channels and programs in a handy-dandy online guide.  You can jump to the channel you want, jump to the time you are interested in, and then find out episode and series information with a couple of clicks.  Nicely, you can also see the upcoming airings of a program.

A great site to point to on your library’s homepage when you want to highlight your mystery collection.  Even better, use it in October around Halloween with its vivid blood dotted logo. 

This site is very interactive, fun-spirited and offers lots of information for Agatha Christie fans.  Don’t forget to maybe point folks to your DVD collection of Christie mysteries as well.  Get those PBS films moving!

I know, I know, I post a lot of music sites.  But music sites are doing exciting things!  This site is one of the most addictive I have seen due to its live scrolling of music.   You can do a search, but it is just as much fun (maybe more) to watch songs scroll by and grab the ones that interest you.  Plus you can try out music you have never heard of with little to no time invested.  Just click on a song as it marches past, and then you can move it to the player and enjoy.  You will get such an eclectic collection of music in the podcrawler flow that it makes it hard to turn away.  Beware!

I had never seen Very Short List before.  What a great idea.  They email you one choice thing each day.  It could be music, an interesting article, website, online video, almost anything at all.  You sign up and get that email each day, 5 days a week.  What makes a site like this work is the taste of the people selecting the links.  And this one works for that very reason, impeccable taste.  Set aside a little time and take a leisurely tour through their archives filled with all sorts of things worthy of your time. 

Mango Beta has now launched.  It offers online language classes for many languages done in a very friendly style.  The languages include Spanish, Russian, French, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Greek, and English.  You have to register to use the site, but registration is as simple as your first name and email address.  Your log in is your email address, so don’t use a wild fake one you won’t remember! 

The slides they show are very easy to use and you have the option to go as slowly as you like without rewinding.  Just click on Replay to hear the entire slide again or you can click on individual words to hear their pronunciation again and again.  Even better, there are text bubbles that appear and coach you on how to use the interface so there is little chance of being lost. 

At the beginning of the web, there were many foreign language sites around.  But they slowly disappeared.  This is one of the few I have seen that does it this nicely and with so many 2.0 bells and whistles.  Does anyone else have favorite foreign language sites?

HyperIGo is a site I clicked into with little enthusiasm and ended up spending quite some time and getting very excited by the concept! 

Here is my HyperIGo site with very little changed from the original.  This way you can take a look, though you won’t be able to edit it.  You can add bookmarks and they appear as images of the actual site.  Much friendlier than all words for newbies.  Also, you can make things easier larger or smaller, sort in different ways, and create your own categories.  Very friendly and easy to use.

I can especially see it being used with patrons if you need a nice graphical interface for them on public machines.  Librarians with almost no technological skills could manage this sort of interface.  Hy

Tooting my own horn here.  Melissa Rethlefsen wrote an article for Library Journal on libraries using Del.icio.us for bookmarking websites.  And I got quoted!  Amazing!  I really believe in using programs like Del.icio.us at libraries, because it is so very helpful for both patrons and librarians.  So it is an honor to be included in an article about something I am so passionate about.  Thanks Melissa!