I just watched this helpful video about Google Analytics and website bounce rates. I’m definitely going to think about how I can apply this metric to the content I’ve worked on. Found via Stephen’s Lighthouse.

There is a Campus Edition of Firefox that just came out. It comes bundled with Zotero and a few other add-ons.

I was so excited to read this post on the Library Voice blog about setting up MeeboMe widgets in Pidgin (formerly GAIM), free IM software similar to Trillian. It works great! It took me about five minutes to download and install Pidgin, the Meebo plugin for Pidgin, and set up my IM accounts. I have been using Meebo for all of my instant messaging, but I prefer using an IM client instead of always having to have a couple Firefox windows open for Meebo.

• Tutorial on how to set it up
  
• Pidgin software – free
  
• Meebo widget plugin for Pidgin

I just discovered a Firefox extension for Picnik, a free online photo editor that I like. The extension lets you capture webpages and automatically send them to Picnik for editing. You can capture either the visible page or the entire height of a page. It’s very handy. There is a similar extension for IE.

MSU had an IT conference this week. The keynote session, “Leading Beyond the IT Conundrums for Scholarship 2.0,” by Bradley Wheeler at Indiana University brought up one point that I was particularly taken with regarding (what he called) Commercial Coordination (with closed intellectual property) and Partner Coordination (with open intellectual property). Commercial solutions bundle the software and support where partner solutions (ie, open source software) do not. You can choose to have a commercial support option for open source software – but the key is that they are separate. He suggested that we need to move toward partner coordination and open source solutions.

In one of the questions after his presentation, someone asked how they decided between open source software and commercial products since they use both at Indiana University. I loved his answer. He said that using an open source product or partner coordination really matters the most when it deals with something unique or particularly important to your organization. For example, they are involved in the Sakai project (open source course management software) and the Kuali project (open source administrative software for higher education institutions).

I think this approach is significant for libraries too. This directory of open source software for libraries lists many projects that address needs unique to our organizations and environment.

I use a lot of web-based software since I use at least three computers on a regular basis (home, office, library reference desk). This is a list of the online tools that help me do my job and communicate with the world. These are all free tools – or tools with free versions.

Email

Well, this one is easy. I use Gmail because I love the labels, organization by subject thread, and the integrated chat functionality. I’ve installed the CustomizeGoogle Firefox extension that lets me remove ads. I use Outlook at work.

Calendar

Google again. I use Google Calendar because of its slick interface, management features for multiple calendars, and notification options. And its nice to have my calendar quickly available when I’m logged in to Gmail. I also use my Outlook calendar at work.

Bookmarks

I’ve used del.icio.us for a couple years. There may be prettier social bookmarking tools with more features (like Diigo), but I like that del.icio.us is a straightforward tool.

Feed Reader

It seems like everyone has transitioned to Google Reader, but I have not. I use Bloglines mainly because Bloglines has a feature that lets you create email addresses. I also like that it gives you an exact count of the number of posts you haven’t read yet.

IM

Meebo works great for IM since it lets you log into multiple networks at the same time. We use it for our IM reference service at MSU as well. (I love the Meebo Me widget too.)

Photos

I have two tools that fit in this category. I use Flickr to share photos with friends and family. I love all of its organization features – its social nature is of secondary importance to me. I’ve been using Flickr quite a bit to search for photos with Creative Commons licenses lately, too.

Also, I like the Picnik photo editor. It’s great for a quick fix.

Video

For sharing videos with family and friends, I use Dailymotion. It has RSS feeds, a clean & attractive interface, unobtrusive ads, and it’s easy to use.

Blog

I use WordPress.com. I did try out Blogger, which was fine, but I really like the categories feature and ability to add static pages in WordPress.

Word Processing

When I need to collaborate on a document, I use Google Docs. I’ve also used Zoho Writer a few times.

Database Application

I really like Zoho Creator. I’ve found it very easy to use to set up simple forms to collect data for a couple projects where several people needed to submit information.

Project Management

I’ve used Basecamp for two projects in the last years or so and thought it worked well. I like its integration with Writeboard, a collaborative writing tool, and Campfire (see below).

Group Chat

Campfire is great. Zoho Chat is nice too.

Wiki

In the past, I’ve used PBwiki to set up free wikis. I’ve been disappointed with its WYSIWYG editor, though. So, I might use Wetpaint in the future now that it has the option to create private sites.

I’ve been using Bloglines for over a year now and been happy with it. I have taken a look at a few other feed readers, specifically Google Reader and Rojo. I thought Rojo was nice, but I had no reason to switch. When I originally looked at Google Reader I thought it was visually confusing. Well, with all the hype about the new and improved Google Reader, I imported my blogroll from Bloglines to check it out again. And I like it – a lot. But at this point I don’t intend to switch because I love that you can subscribe to email lists in Bloglines.

I’ve also started using Dailymotion for video sharing. Why not YouTube? Well, the visuals again. Dailymotion has a clean interface and I found it easy to use. YouTube is messy. There are flashing banner ads, and tons and tons of links on every page. Ick. I’m not into the whole social aspect of the site – so it doesn’t matter to me that YouTube has a huge following. I just want to share videos with my family.

I’ve adapted an Amazon.com library catalog lookup greasemonkey user script for use with the Michigan State University Libraries catalog. I’m still working on it, but it will now note when a book on Amazon.com is available to check out, available for use in the library, in the libraries but checked out, on order, or under consideration.

Amazon MSU Libraries Lookup script

Update 9/19/06: I just found out that whoever writes the Patronizing blog already adapted this library lookup script for use with the MSU Libraries. This is why we should all add our scripts to Userscripts.org!

Wow! I love the L2 greasemonkey script. It appears to work great with the MSU Libraries catalog. Read more about the Lib 2.0 library toolbar in this Digital Reference post.

I’ve discovered a couple new chat tools that you can embed on a webpage: Gabbly and MeeboMe. Gabbly lets you embed a chat window on a web page that lets anyone visiting that page at the same time chat together. I would think spam might be a problem with something like this, but maybe not. MeeboMe lets you embed a chat window on your web page so someone can IM you anonymously. It works with Meebo, a web-based IM service that lets you log into all of your IM accounts at once. Is there a widget like MeeboMe for Trillian? Are any libraries using MeeboMe or Gabbly? Are there other chat tools similar to these?

Update: I just found this blog post that mentions another service for embedding chat called Stickam. Here’s another called Chatango.

Update 9/29/06: There is now a list of libraries using MeeboMe and Chatango embedded chat on the Library Success Wiki. Found on the Shifted Librarian blog.