Search Engines

If you are like most people, you probably have a favorite search engine that you use all the time. Chances are good that it is Google. There is nothing wrong with that, but once in a while it is worth the trouble to take a look at an alternative.

I have been playing around with Blekko and it has some interesting features, the most notable of which is its use of slash tags in the search query to limit results to desired categories. You could do the same with Google's advanced search feature, but how often do you bother to do that. The tags let you hone your search quickly when needed; if you want a broader search, simply leave them out.

Give it a try.

Book Recommendations from Booklamp

A new site called Booklamp claims to use a sophisticated software to analyze patters in a book's content. It then uses this information to match a book or author you like to other books or authors that you might like. There are many sites that claim to do this and some do it better than others. I tried a few searches and Booklamp seems to work pretty well. But it is new, so we will have to wait and see. Check it out.

Free eBooks

If you are looking for a free way to stock your eReader, have a look at the sites towards the bottom of this page on our site. Many sites offer free downloads. Generally, these are for titles that are no longer under copyright, which means that many of them are older books. This is a great way to add the classics to your collection.

eBook Classes

We will be offering eBook classes in February on the 3rd and the 15th. The class on the third is at 9:30 in the morning; the class on the 15th is at 7 in the evening. Since space is limited, we ask that you please sign up here or call the Reference Desk at 898-7064.

The class covers the process of downloading eBooks from Overdrive. Overdrive is a service sponsored by the NH State Library. Our contributions to this program allow our patrons to access digital content at no cost to them.

If there is sufficient interest in these classes, we will continue them beyond February.

So You Got and E-Book Reader as a Holiday Gift....

A recent post from mashable.com is directed at new Kindle users. It is emtitled So You Got an Amazon Kindle this Holiday Season: Now What? While you cannot use your Kindle to access free content from our Overdrive e-book service -- the two are not compatible -- you can avail yourself of all the free content mentioned at the mashable.com link. There is a lot of it!

And, if you have one of the devices compatible with Overdrive, such as a Nook, you can also use the free content we offer, as well as the free content available elsewhere.

Night Sky

Here is a very interesting website called heavens-above.com. If enter your longitude and latitude or select your location from a map, it will tell you what satellites will pass over your location that day. It also lists other astronomical events, but these do not appear to be sorted for particular locations.

So if you ever wondered what satellites are passing over you, now you know where to look.

Business Databases

I don't do lots of business research (either for myself or for patrons), so when a business question comes up it can take me a while to get back in the groove. Yesterday I was reminded how cool our business databases are when a patron asked me a question about market share. I used Reference USA and Gale's Business Company Resource Center. The two make a good team.

If you are researching a business or an industry, perhaps to assess competition, you can look the business up in Reference USA, determine its SIC code and annual earnings, then jump over to Gale and plug the SIC code in to the search box and see where that company ranks as a portion of the industry's total earnings. That is just one example of an infinite number of applications for this team of powerful databases.

Here is a link to our electronic resources. You will need your card number and PIN to log in.