Challenge 16: Photoshop.com

Trick or Treat! In lieu of candy, have another challenge. You'll thank me later.

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular photo editing suites on the market. The retail price for the current version runs from $699-$999 and just upgrading from an older version will cost you at least $200. So imagine if Adobe were to make an abbreviated version of Photoshop, and make it available online for free! Imagine all the fantastic things you could do with your family photos! Go ahead and imagine. I'll wait.

Now go see it in action. Many of the features that non-professional photographers use most are available there, from removing red-eye, to sharpening the focus. There are even how-to videos under the help menu to walk you through every step of using Photoshop.com. Of course, what they're trying to do is make you want the full version of Photoshop. Or to purchase more storage space (the free account provides 2GB of space). Or to purchase the "Plus" subscription, which includes more storage space (40GB for the low plan) and extra features, but also requires you to purchase Photoshop Elements, which is a $150 program, and is another $70 per year for the subscription. But if you store your photos on some other site (Flickr for instance) and don't really need a ton of fancy effects or album templates, the free account will probably work out just fine for you.

Your Challenge: Check out Photoshop.com. Do you find it easy to use? Did you try the how-to videos? Are there any features that you wish were there? (If you don't want to sign up for a free account, click the "Test Drive" link down in the bottom right hand corner. They have provided some pretty cool pictures for you to play with on their test drive account.)



Bonus Link: The internet meme timeline. An internet meme is something that spreads from person to person over the internet, like viral videos, or online quizzes, and becomes ingrained in internet culture. Some of these you might have heard of, others I don't even remember. Some were innovative, some were bizarre, and some were just plain awesome. Enjoy!

Challenge 15: Browser Wars

Web Browsers.

Even after the great Internet Explorer security scare a few years back, Internet Explorer still holds 72% of the market share in web browers. Why? Well, for starters, it is the browser that comes pre-installed on all Windows computers, and many people learned to use the internet with IE. People are comfortable with IE. But there are many other free web browsers available for use. Are you familiar with any of them?

Mozilla Firefox is IE's biggest competitor online. Built from the frame of Netscape, Firefox is a free, open source program. Open Source means that the software's source code is freely available for other programmers to tweak or build off of, allowing software to do more than what the original programmers made it to do. Add-ons also allow for extra functionality.

Firefox links of interest:
Become an Efficient Researcher: Top Twenty Firefox Add-ons that Make Firefox the Researcher’s Browser of Choice

Flock is a browser that demonstrates taking the Firefox source and making it do something the original programmers did not forsee! Flock is a browser that works hand in hand with popular social networking sites to keep you connected at all times. A "people" sidebar displays Twitter "tweets", Facebook status messages, and Myspace status messages without ever having to leave what you're doing and go to the sites. Flock also has shortcuts for blogging, RSS, and other handy social networking tools.

Google's "Chrome" is the newest of the browser pack, and already it has been getting rave reviews. Right now, the biggest complaint I have heard is the lack of add-ons, but they're working on getting that feature soon.

Chrome Links of Interest:
CNET's Chrome 101 podcast - a 12 Minute introduction to Google's new browser.

Do I need Chrome when I’m happy with Firefox? Or if you're still insistent on using Firefox, but must look like you're using Chrome, check out "Turning Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone".

Safari is a predominantly Apple browser, which is now available for Windows. iTunes as well as Quicktime are both pushing users to download and try Safari.

Once upon a time you had to pay for Opera, but now they've made the software available for free. Lifehacker has an article about their newest release here.

Bonus Links:
Internet Explorer has worked to make a better browser in recent years. They've beefed up security, added tabbed browsing and added add-on capabilities. Here is Lifehacker's article: 7 IE add-ons that don't suck.

The LibX add-on is a library extension for both IE and Firefox. I don't know anything about programming extensions, but this would be fun to have for our library.

Lifehacker posted a list of cool features found in the most popular browsers.

Lifehacker's Browser Speed Tests.

Your Task: Browse the links above. I'm not going to require you to download a new browser if you don't want to (though Firefox is available on the circulation computers if you would like to try it), but read about what is available. Respond in your blog. Did you try any alternate browsers? Did you like one so much you switched over? What features impressed you the most?

Challenge 14: Nelsoncopublib.org

Does this website look familiar?

It should, it's a site we use everyday. We've looked at a lot of things that you can access just by going through our website, but with the new redesign, do you know how to find all of your favorite features of the old site? What about the features you didn't even know were there?

For instance, we have many of our policies posted online on our website for patrons to read. Just look under the "About us" and "Services" section on the website for those.

What about the Bookmobile Schedule? (Hint: click on the "Bookmobile" quick link, or go to the "Branches" menu.)

Can you find the Novelist, Ancestry and Heritage Quest links that were once directly on the front page? (There's two ways, actually. All three can be found on the databases page, and Ancestry and Heritage Quest can be accessed through the Genealogy page.)

Take a look at the Subject Guides, found under the Research Menu. Do you see popular research topics on there? You should. Need online sources on inventors, Native Americans, or going to college? Check here first!

Your Task: Explore our website! Especially take a look at the Quick Links, as well as the subject guides we have available. Is there anything you did not know was on our website? What is the most helpful resource you found?

Bonus Link: The University of Michigan has installed a "Book ATM". For $10, the machine will print and bind any digitized out of print book in their collection. If you've ever seen the prices in college bookstores, this is awesome.

Challenge 13: DIY

Ten more challenges to go! Can you believe it?

These challenges are all about teaching you how to do new things. Online tutorials have been made even more helpful by Web 2.0, and have the potential to be quite handy when answering reference questions for patrons.

Instructables is a Do It Yourself website that provides user-submitted instructions from everything from replacing a dryer belt to building a whiskey still. Have you ever had a patron come up and ask about canning? Making Soap? With Halloween coming up and all the books checked out, could you find a patron instructions on how to carve a Halloween Pumpkin? Not only does Instructables provide the instructions, but often the walk-throughs have lots and lots of pictures to help you along the way. SoYouWanna.com is another similar site, but there are more ads and less pictures, so I would check out Instructables first, and then move on to SoYouWanna.com if you can't find what you're looking for there.

Lifehacker is a blog that posts “tips on getting things done”. Many of these are computer-related, but occasionally there are real life tips as well. For example, here are all the posts tagged “health” on Lifehacker. I've been telling people about this article for days now.

Your Challenge:

Explore some of the sites above. Can you see these being useful in answering patron questions? Would you recommend one of these sites to a patron? What is your favorite thing you found?

Bonus:

Feeling overwhelmed yet? Maybe it's time for another silly video about the internet.

Your Goals: Online!

Challenge 12: Goals 2.0

Everyone has goals. Whether it's things you want to get done around the house or just habits you want to break, you don't have to wait until New Years to make your resolutions, and now you don't have to do it alone! There are plenty of online communities to help you keep track of and achieve your goals!

43 Things is a website that allows users to create goal lists online. If you click on any of your goals, you can see lists of people who also have the same goal and "How I did it" stories from people who have achieved this goal. People who are currently working on a goal can post entries showing their progress (or lack thereof) and ask advice from other members if they get stuck on their goals. When you have completed a goal, users tell how long it took to complete and whether they thought it was worth completing or not. By browsing through other people's lists with the same goals, you can estimate how easy or difficult a goal will be, and decide if you really want to attempt it! To take a goal off your list, just mark it "I give up!" You can always go back to it later.

Noomii is a similar goal website, but is set up more for people who already have a friend to partner with. Called "life coaching", the site has you pair with a partner to keep you focused and to help you see solutions you might not have noticed. Noomii has you rate your life in categories such as "career", "health", "money" and "fun", and describe what life would be like if you rated each category a 10. After you decide what you are unhappy about in your life, you invite a friend through the site and get to achieving those goals!

If you are interested in money management and are comfortable check this Lifehacker post to see five personal finance websites that often include features to help you see where your money is going a budget for future goals. (So far, none of these sites work with my bank, but your mileage may vary.)

Your Challenge: Explore the goal websites above. Can you see the use for sites like these, or would you rather deal with your goals privately? Can you think of a time when you might show one of these sites to a patron?

Bonus Link:

If one of your goals is to learn Spanish, French, or German, check out Busuu. This site has the regular language learning vocabulary lessons and such, but also allows you to chat with other people in the community who are native speakers of the language you are learning! In return, someone who hopes to learn English may chat with you for practice!

IDK, my BFF Jill?

Challenge 11: Internet Slang



So, the smiley face emoticon just celebrated its 25th birthday, and with the prevalence of text messaging and microblogging, online denizens are just looking to get their point across in as few keystrokes as possible. Especially things they communicate often. But with its mix of letters, numbers, abbreviations and acronyms, how is anyone supposed to make sense of chatspeak?

Well, to be honest, it takes practice. You get used to seeing something in conversation, and eventually, LOL (laugh out loud) becomes a part of your everyday online language. When you come across something you don't recognize, try looking it up at the Internet Slang Dictionary. There is a search box there on the front page for inquiries, but you can also browse the dictionary by first letter. While you're exploring the dictionary, don't be discouraged! You probably aren't going to see a lot of these very often (in fact, I'm sure you will probably never see "mgiwjsdchmw", which apparently stands "My girlfriend is watching Jeff so don't call her my wife"), and once you get used to the patterns sometimes you can look at something and figure out what it is on your own. (IMHO, context is your friend!) Wikipedia also has an awesome article on how Leetspeak works (also called L33tspeak, this often substitutes numbers and symbols for letters), as well as a list of commonly used emoticons to help when you get stuck on something.

Your Challenge: Explore the Internet slang dictionary, as well as the other links above. Are there any of these you use on a regular basis? Do you know anyone who does use any of these a lot?

Bonus Video:

Challenge 10: Online Databases

So we have some pretty handy databases on our own website. But how familiar are you with other databases on the web? This challenge is going to focus on two of them, the Internet Movie Database and AllMusic.

The Internet Movie Database (or IMDB for short) is an online database that focuses on the television and movie industry, providing listings and information on actors and actresses, shows, movies, producers, directors, etc. Changes cannot be made directly to a listing-- they must be submitted and approved by the IMDB's editors. Movie listings provide details, links to trailers and official websites, as well as user ratings and comments. If it is available, the IMDB provides links to buy the movie online. Cast or crew listings provide biographical details, as well as extensive lists of movies/shows that a person has worked on, awards they have been nominated for or won, and user comments.

AllMusic is a similar Music database site, that lends itself more to browsing, instead of searching. They do have a search function, but the coolest part of Allmusic is the ability to browse by genre. Click "Pop/Rock" on the first page, and see a list of all the sub-genres they have listed. Each sub-genre page gives you a description of the music (apparently C-86 is "influenced in equal measure by the jangly guitar pop of the Smiths, the three-chord naivete of the Ramones, and the nostalgic sweetness of the girl group era.") a list of top artists and albums in the genre, and related styles. Many songs and albums have links to listen and/or buy.

Your Challenge: Explore these online databases. Can you see yourself using these to answer patron questions? Do you prefer the IMDB's search, or the AllMusic database's browse? (Even better, compare the IMDB's search to AllMovie's browse. AllMovie is part of the Allmusic network, and set up similarly.)

Bonus link!Midomi is a very handy little music tool that you may have seen some people use on their cell phones. Ever spent all morning humming a song and can't for the life of you remember what it is? Midomi let's you hum a song, and then tries to identify it for you. On cell phones, it's handy for when you catch the last part of a song on the radio, and want to know what it is. Just hold your phone up to the speaker, and Midomi does all the work.

Challenge 9: Vault

Hello everyone! I'm running a little late today, but here you go. Before I get started, if you've already looked at Challenge 8, go back and answer some questions for me. It seems I forgot to actually give you a challenge. Have you ever come across a website that required registration? Would you use Bugmenot, or just register? Why or why not? Would you recommend the Retailmenot site to a friend? (The subject of online shopping may never come up with patrons, but I'll bet you have a few friends who might want to know how to get coupon codes for free.)

Challenge 9: Vault

We’ve had the Vault Databases on our website for a while now. Have you taken a look at them?

Vault is a pretty handy career toolkit, providing everything from resume advice to "A day in the life of an Alaskan fisherman". In order to access it, our patrons must go to our databases page, and click on the Vault Online Career Library link. Patrons need to know the password in order to login, and our website directs them to ask someone on staff for the password. Do you know the password? (Hint: I’m sending it out to the staff mailing list again today.)

There, patrons can do several things. Vault provides company profiles, industry profiles, forums, as well as downloadable PDF versions of all their Vault Guides. In order to access these, you fill out a short form (first name, last name and email) and indicate whether you would like to be put on Vault's mailing list. You don't have to check yes in order to download the guides. An email link will be sent to your inbox, and clicking on this link will begin downloading your guide.

One very handy thing that Vault provides on their site are the Vault Occupational Surveys. These are anonymous surveys filled out by real people in specific fields. Not sure how accurate an employer's description of their work environment and employeee benefits are? These are real employees doing everything from software development to teaching High School Science. The only drawback to these is you cannot search by company, only by industry and then by job title. (You can go into the company profiles and see similar surveys there, but they aren't quite the same.)

Your challenge: Go to the Vault website and explore. Browse what they offer, download a guide to see how it works, and see if you can't find your dream job (or what you wanted to be when you were a kid) in the database. Is it nearly as cool as you thought it would be? Would you show this to patrons who were looking for a job? Is it just as helpful for teens as for adults?

Challenge 8: Website hints

Here's a good one for your personal use:

Retailmenot is a website that collects coupon codes for online retailers, saving you money when you shop online. Users submit codes for websites, accompanied with a description. The site allows you to mark codes that no longer work, and the "success rate" meter below each code tells you how likely a code is to work for you. You can search sites by categories and tags, or by the site's internet address. Not all sites are available, and retailers can request to be removed from the database. However, many sites are listed here, even if they only list the retailers' "official" coupon codes. Worth a look.

Bonus link:

There was a time when many websites (especially newspapers) required users to register before reading the site. The front page would provide headlines, but actually reading the article would require you to provide your name, age, email address or even your zip code. These were "needed" in order to provide the site (and their advertisers) with information about the sites users. The people who created Retailmenot also created Bugmenot, which provides "public" accounts to help users bypass this compulsory registration. Many sites have moved away from compulsory registration (in fact, I browsed through several sites I remember having compulsory registration, and I couldn't get any of them to ask me to register anymore), but Bugmenot will help if you do run across one of these sites.

Your Challenge:
In your blog, answer some questions for me.

Have you ever come across a website that required registration? Would you use Bugmenot, or just register? Why or why not? Would you recommend the Retailmenot site to a friend? (The subject of online shopping may never come up with patrons, but I'll bet you have a few friends who might want to know how to get coupon codes for free.)

Challenge 7: Dear Reader

Haven't checked out our new Dear Reader features yet? This challenge is your chance to see it all first-hand. Dear Reader does several things for our patrons. If they click on the "What's New" button from the front page, this takes them to the central Dear Reader page. Here we can see all of the services that Dear Reade provides, and in some cases, easy links to have this information sent directly to you whenever it is updated.

The first set of links are the newsletters. Newsletters are updated once a month, and alert patrons to new items in specific genres and formats. Most newsletters include a picture of the book and a written description, to help entice patrons into checking them out. Newsletters can be viewed online, sent to a patron's RSS reader, or sent directly to their inbox by e-mail. All three of these options are available right next to each newsletter's title on the main Dear Reader page. Genres include New and Bestselling Fiction, New and Bestselling Non Fiction, as well as Horror, Romance, Home & Garden, and Christian Fiction. Formats include Large Print, Children's Picturebooks and Chapterbooks, and New Movies. The Movies newsletter is one of our personal newsletters, and is put together entirely by someone on staff. Other custom newsletters that we provide are Graphic Novels, History, Children's Nonfiction, and the Kentucky Standard's New Book List.

Just below the newsletters is the Dear Reader "Authors on the Web" index. Couldn't find your favorite author's website in the last challenge? Try it here. Be careful, though, some of these aren't necessarily the Author's webpage, and fansites may not always be accurate. Other sites for older authors are out of date. That said, as long as you're not looking for a website on Dante Alighieri (greatdante.net hasn't been updated since 2005), you will probably have some luck checking here.

Below that are handy awards and bestsellers lists for both Adults and Youth. Have a patron who will only read Oprah books? How about Sci-fi? Mystery? Need a list of the recent Caldecott Award Winners? These awards lists give them the best of the best in the genre of their choice. The only drawback I see with these is they don't go back very far. Each list shows only the most recent winners, so anyone who is looking for something a bit older will need to go to each individual award's website to find the complete list of winners.

But perhaps one of the handiest features of Dear Reader is their online book clubs, which send patrons small excerpts from a book in a genre of their choice, Monday through Friday. By the end of the week patrons will know whether or not they are interested in coming into the library and checking out the book in order to finish it. This is handy for patrons who would not usually pick up a book by an author they don't already read, allowing them to find new authors while still staying within their preferred genre. Patrons can sign up for as many book clubs as they want by clicking on the "Read Books in Your Email" button at the bottom left hand corner of our website. Each email comes clearly marked with the genre and the section number, to help in case you fall behind and need to get caught up with the week's reading. If you don't like the book they've chosen, just delete the rest of the emails for the week, and try again next week! All this, and you didn't even have to change out of your pajamas. Book clubs come in similar topics as the newsletters, and both the newsletters and book clubs link back to our library website, in order to make it easy for patrons to place holds on items they have seen through Dear Reader.

Your Challenge: Sometime this weekend, sign up for a Dear Reader book club. Just for one week. Tell us what your book was, and how you liked getting a book preview sent directly to your email. Do you want to go out and find your book now? Feel free to unsubscribe after you've completed your task.

Bonus Link: DailyLit is avery similar concept to the Dear Reader book clubs. For older books, DailyLit will e-mail you the entire book, in sections, for free. Have you ever wanted to read War and Peace? DailyLit can send it to you over the course of 663 days. A little less imposing is Oscar Wilde's Picture Of Dorian Gray, which will only take you 96 days. DailyLit also provides this service for newer books, but at a price. DailyLit will send you a few sections as a preview, but readers must pay to continue the book after their preview is over. Prices vary depending on the book.

Challenge 6: Author Websites

Have you ever looked to see if your favorite author has a website? What about checking an author's website to see if they've got a new book coming out? If you've never visited an author's website, you're missing out on lots of handy information and cool extras.

What authors have websites? Well, children's authors, bestselling authors, and authors you've never heard of all have websites. Some are simple and informative, and some are fancy. Some are just rediculous.

Nora Roberts helps you keep track of her numerous series here. Jasper Fforde has separate sites for each of his series. Scott Westerfeld blogs. Neil Gaiman is posting video readings of his newest book on his website, so by the end of this week you will be able to go and watch a reading of the entire Graveyard Book for free. Daniel Handler doesn't have a website, but he should.

How do you find out if an author has a website? Well, you could always try a search engine. The Author Yellow Pages are very helpful, but they don't have every author. (As an example, the Douglas Adams webpage is not listed.) Google and Yahoo both have author categories in their directories.

Your Challenge: Pick an author. Could be your favorite, or it could be someone you have to look up constantly for patrons. Do they have a website? Post about it in your blog. How did you find them? Is it easy to use, or confusing? Does it take forever to load? Are there any extra-cool special features? Would you go back for information? Would you send a patron?

Challenge 4 & 5: New ways to get the same old content

Challenge 4: Pandora Radio

Pandora is a creative way to find new music online. Need music to listen to while you work? Have an internet connection? Perfect. Pandora allows you to create “stations” by artist sound-alikes, or song sound-alikes. Want to hear music that sounds like David Bowie? Type in David Bowie in the search box, and Pandora will create your very own station with artists and songs that are similar to David Bowie. They'll start you out with an actual David Bowie song (you don't get to pick which one, sorry) and if you like that track, they'll pick another similar one. Don't like a track they play? Click the thumbs down button, and they'll not only stop playing that song on your station, but they'll attempt to figure out what is different about that track and stay away from other tracks that are similar. The longer you listen to the station and rate the tracks, the more tailored the music is to your personal tastes. Pretty awesome.

If you want to get deeper into the hows and whys of what they've picked, click on “About this Music” and then on “Song”, and you can see how the Music Genome Project has the song categorized. Like your radio station and want to share? Click on “Share”! You can even browse shared stations.

Bonus Link: Internet Radio has been in some trouble lately, due to the way the music industry's current royalty rates work. Read the PC Magazine article about it here. However, things are looking up, as the Webcaster Settlement Act 2008 has passed in the House, and is moving on to the senate. Read about it here.

Your Challenge: Create a Pandora station. You don't have to have an account to create a station and listen to it-- only if you want to save it for later. What station did you create? Did you agree with Pandora's choices? If not, did it get better as you listened? Would you continue listening to Pandora?

Challenge 5: Playaways

So we've had Playaways in circulation for several months now, have you tried one? These pre-loaded mp3 players allow for patrons to listen to audiobooks on the go, doing dishes, working in the garden, anything that needs a hands-free and wireless experience. Playaway provides a PDF tutorial for using the devices here.

Your challenge: Take one home and try it out! Post about it in your blog. What did you take? Would you rather listen to your audiobook on the computer? Could you listen to an audiobook and do something else at the same time?

Challenge 3: Online Research

Welcome to challenge three! Only twenty more before you get that awesome prize!

So the last challenge focused on websites that can help prove a rumor true or false. But what about academic research? Can you use the internet to write a school paper?

First off, let me start by saying that I do not advocate writing a paper with just internet sources. However, just like there are a multitude of print sources that you can use in research, there are many electronic sources that can provide more depth to your research, and the internet can hold far more information than just our reference section, or any library’s reference section for that matter. How many times have you had a patron come in looking for something we just don’t have any information on? Or the entire seventh grade is writing papers on inventors and we only have one book? What if they were assigned the inventor of the ballpoint pen, and all we have is a tiny paragraph of information for them?

Many teachers do not allow their students to use online sources in their research. This is probably to ward off twenty papers written (or copied and pasted) entirely from wikipedia. But I think that teachers do students a great disservice when they block out internet sources entirely. In a perfect world, students would be given instruction on how to evaluate web sites so they could responsibly use online sources. In the meantime, could you help a patron find reliable web sources?

Web Based Internet Evaluation - The University at Albany has an excellent interactive tutorial on evaluating webpages. The focus of the site is on research for college papers, but many of these rules apply to all research, whether for fifth graders or twenty-five year olds.

Evaluating Internet Sources and Sites - The Purdue University Library provides a less interactive but shorter tutorial. This is a good site to go back and refresh your memory later.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly or Why it's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources - This one is my favorite, and your challenge for today. On this page, they provide a link to a good website, a not so great website, and a website you should never, ever use for research. Read through the tutorials above and then do the same thing for a topic of your choice. Pick a topic, do a websearch and see what comes up. Evaluate the results, and post in your blog a link to a good website for researching your topic, an okay website (remember, the information here isn't necessarily incorrect, just not appropriate for use in a research paper), and an absolutely awful website. The worse the better! Make sure to explain why each site is what you say it is.

Bonus link:

In late 2005, Scientific Journal Nature, did a study comparing Wikipedia and The Encyclopedia Britannica. Comparing science articles, the Journal discovered that while Wikipedia had an average of four errors per article, the Encyclopedia Britannica had an average of three. NPR has an interview with a Nature reporter here.

Challenge 2: Combating Truthiness with the Internet

Challenge 2

Truthiness (noun) :
1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005)
2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society, January 2006)
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/06words.htm)

So. We all know everything you see on the internet is correct, right? Well, some people certainly think so, which is why silly email forwards circulate about how Bill Gates is going to give you $1,000 for each person you send the email to or how George W. Bush waved at Stevie Wonder to get his attention. Do you know where to go to check the facts when something on the internet just doesn't sound right?

If it's a regular run of the mill e-mail forward, Snopes.com is your best bet. They cover all sorts of urban legends, old and new, and have an extensive community where people research those that haven't quite made the main website yet. They break these into categories like "politics", "frauds and scams", and "inboxer rebellion", but there is also a search window to find specific myths and a list of the 25 most searched urban legends on the site. (As of this typing, the top three were Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, and burundanga business cards.) Articles are marked with the date it was last updated, as well as a list of resources used to prove or debunk the myth.

Speaking of politics, what better time to know about the websites that can help our patrons make informed decisions on election day? There are several websites that separate the fact from fiction in ways that are easy to understand and easy to verify.

Politifact.com is a website run by the St. Petersburg Times, and details political claims by all parties, giving them labels like "true", "barely true", "half true" and "pants-on-fire". Users can search by politician, political party, or ruling. Also handy is the "flip-o-meter", which lists issues that candidates have changed their stances on. The writer, researcher and editor are all listed on each article, as well as sources used.

Factcheck.org is another nonpartisan website (provided by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania) that covers political claims by politicians. This site checks entire ads (and now the debates), so these articles are not nearly as short as the Politifact site, but articles are still written clearly and show readers exactly what was said in a specific ad and whether or not it is correct. Author and Sources are included with each article.

GoogleLabs "In Quotes" compares politicians stances on issues side by side. Users can select two politicians, up to four issues, and see direct quotes from each candidate. Quotes are accompanied by a source article, where users can read more.

This PBS.com article discusses nonpartisan fact check sites, and their partisan counterparts.

Your challenge: Browse these fact check sites. Which ones do you find most helpful? Would you recommend these to patrons? Is there anything about any of these sites you do not like?


Bonus Link:
File this under video games doing awesome things: X-box Live is allowing users to register to vote without ever leaving their television.