I needed to make a simple online form that could be easily linked to online and I could easily share with others. I have used SurveyMonkey and a couple of other products before, however this time I don't think they were going to work for me. As I mentioned I wanted something that I could easily share with others. Enter Google Docs yet again. I must have been snoozing in September 2008 when they added the ability to create, share, and store online forms, because I had no idea they did that too.

If you already have a Google Docs account it is very easy to create a form. Just click New and highlight form. It is a simple form, but it can serve many purposes. Janetta at Fusion Finds has created a very nice Camtasia video on how to use Google Forms. She published 2 screencasts on using this tool. The first one shows you how to create a form. The second screencast shows how to share the form, access the data, and edit the form (sometimes you have to hit the refresh button if it doesn't start right away).

If you are looking quick and simple form you can share that will also import the data into a spreadsheet, you might check out Google Docs Forms.

Labels: Google, Social Software, Technology

My sister, Danielle and her husband, Ryan in two days will be starting the first leg of the dream trip. They each are taking a 6 months leave absence from their jobs to travel the world. Everything they have must be able to be carried on their backs, there is not a lot of room for extras. However, when you are visiting 30 different places you have a lot of paperwork such as reservations, train tickets, airplane tickets, etc. It is always a good idea to have a photocopy back up of all this paperwork.
In the past Ryan used to just put the photocopied documents in a separate bag, but this trip is a little different. In his blog, Ryan discusses the need to keep backup paperwork for the trip, but also the need to conserve space. According to Ryan, if he were to copy every reservation, airline ticket, insurance document and carry them, it would be like carrying a huge textbook in his backpack. Not only does it add more weight but it takes up precious space. The solution, Google Docs. He was able to store all of his important documents in Word, Excel and PDF. Ryan says, "The last (PDF) is the most useful format in that on most computers these days you can print or save to PDF format. So when completing a reservation on a website, just save the receipt/booking page to PDF and you will be able to open it on pretty much any computer in the world."

So whether you travel for work or for fun this might be a nice way to keep the backups safe and available.

Labels: Google, Social Software, Technology, web2.0

(courtesy of Library Stuff)

Don't let Google and the Pennypinchers Get You Down: Defending (or Redefining) Libraries and Librarianship in the Age of Technology. (free online) by Bill Crowley in Proceedings Beyond 20/20 Envisioning the Future: 2007 British Columbia Library Conference, Burnaby (Canada).

Abstract
What are libraries really about? If libraries and librarians cannot compete with information technology giants like Google, how can they remain relevant to their communities of users? Crowley explores ways to understand how the general public and students view libraries. Bluntly stated, there is no longer any way that librarians and trustees can convince residents of local communities and members of college and university campuses that libraries are their primary information source. Given this reality, Crowley introduces the concept of lifecycle librarianship, offering a useful way of considering library roles and securing the necessary human and financial resources to carry them through. This presentation will encourage realistic and original thinking about the future of libraries and professional librarianship by redefining their primary roles from information suppliers to education providers and self-learning facilitators.

Wow. I am left speachless, it is very interesting and now I have to sit back for a while and chew on those thoughts and see it from the medical library perspective.

Labels: Google

Dean Giustini emailed me the other day about how an interview he had done had made it into Google's annual report, yet failed to provide a citation for where the interview came from. I have been swamped recently at work but thankfully David Rothman published a post on it.

The quote is within the Founders' Letter from Sergey Brin and Larry Page in the beginning of the annual report where they illustrate how Google has affected users lives. There are 22 quotes, each with the name of the person who said it, however there is accompanying reference information. It appears that some of the 22 quotes come from letters to Google, however some do not. Using Google, I found not only Joshua Schwimmer's quote lifted from Dean's interview but others as well.

Examples:

• Jo Guldi's quote was originally posted 3/14/2007 on her blog how Google Books helped with her dissertation.
• Quincy Smith, President CBS Interactive, his quote is from a November 22, 2006 press release stating how YouTube users are "clearly being entertained by the CBS programming they're watching."
• Arun Shivar quote was from an interview for an article 11/10/2006 on ITVIDYA.com where farmers are using Google Earth in their fight for land compensation rights.
• Adrian Sannier quote was taken from multiple sentences within his blog post 10/16/2006 regarding ASU and Google.
• Cosmo Buono quote was taken from an interview by Jefferson Graham for an article 10/30/2006 in the USA Today regarding Google ad sales.
  

All of these quotations should have included the name of the person the quote was being attributed but it also it should have included where that quote originated from, especially if it was from something other than direct communications to Google. Sloppy Google, very sloppy.

Labels: Google

The UBC Physio Info-blog has a very quick online tutorial entitled Mastering Google for Health Information. This 12 minute tutorial can run either run it in a browser window or download it to your machine.
View it see if you learn anything new. One quick thing that I learned was that I can use google as measurement converter, for example lbs to kgs.
Once you watch it tell them what you think. Was it helpful? Too long? Too short? They want to know your thoughts.

Labels: Google