If you are having trouble seeing this newsletter, read it online here:
http://www.google.com/librariancenter/newsletter/0612.html

December 2006

*In This Issue:*

Letter from the Editor
<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#1>
*Features:*
  Q&A with Google Scholar's founding
engineer<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#2>
  Meet the Scholar
team<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#3>
  Video: Scholar overview at ALA
2006<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#4>
  Add Scholar to your site
<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#5>

*Updates and Releases:*
  A new way to browse books
online<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#6>
  More books in more
languages<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#7>
  Create your own search
engine<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#8>
  Explore Africa with Google
Earth<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#9>
  Share and edit with Google Docs &
Spreadsheets<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#10>
  On alert for bloggers<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#11>
  Connect with literacy activists around the
world<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/email_nl/0612em.html#12>
   *Harvard University Opens
Immigration Collection*
 Harvard University's Open Collections Program has launched " Immigration to
the United States, 1789-1930 <http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration>," a
web-based collection of approximately 1,800 books and pamphlets, 6,000
photographs, 200 maps, and 13,000 pages from manuscript and archival
collections selected from Harvard's library, archives and museums. The
collection is available to Internet users everywhere. By incorporating
diaries, biographies and other writings capturing diverse experiences, the
collected material provides a window into the lives of ordinary immigrants.
In addition to thousands of items now accessible, the collection includes
contextual information on immigration and quantitative data.
More information <http://hul.harvard.edu/news/2006_1121.html>
Harvard digital collections overview<http://digitalcollections.harvard.edu/>
Receive regular updates on digital collections at
Harvard<http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/subscribe.html>

  Welcome to the sixth issue of the Google Librarian Newsletter

We think a lot about Google's role in connecting people to scholarly and
academic information, both on the web and in libraries. For us, a core
imperative is increasing searchability – helping people discover more of the
world's information. Therefore, in this issue we focus on Google Scholar –
our effort to empower people to "stand on the shoulders of giants,"
benefiting from the work of intellectual forbears and peers. We've included
a Q&A with Anurag Acharya, Google Scholar's founding engineer, as well as
introductions to other members of the team.

In our Updates and Releases section, we give you the latest news on a wide
range of tools and resources to find, manage and share information: Google
Book Search, Google Co-op, Google Earth, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google
Alerts, Google Reader and more.

We hope you find this newsletter useful. As always, we encourage you to ask
questions and tell us what you think
<http://www.google.com/support/librariancenter/bin/request.py>.

Thanks for reading,

Jodi Healy
Manager, Library Partnerships Team

  Q&A with Anurag Acharya, Google Scholar founding engineer

What is the Library Search program? How can my library participate in
Library Links if we don't use a link resolver? How does Google come up with
the "cited by" number in Google Scholar results? Read answers to these and
other pertinent questions in a wide-ranging
interview<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/articles/0612_01.html>with
Anurag Acharya.

  Meet the Google Scholar Team

Curious about the people behind Google Scholar? Follow this
link<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/articles/0612_02.html>for
personal introductions from Alex Verstak (a software engineer who has
worked on Scholar since its inception and developed the Library Links
program), Robert Tansley (who researches and develops systems to index and
archive digital content), and Christian DiCarlo (who develops content
partnerships so we can make more scholarly literature searchable online).

  Video: Book Search and Scholar overview at ALA 2006

How did Google Scholar get its start? At this year's ALA annual conference,
our own Ben Bunnell gave a talk on the history of Google Book Search and
Google Scholar, including examples of how librarians are using them. Now you
can watch his presentation at the Google Librarian
Center<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/librarian_movies.html>,
and in Google Video<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8762514765927564293>
.

  Add Scholar to your Site

You can add the power of Google Scholar to your library's website. Check out
how schools like the University of North Carolina - Chapel
Hill<http://www.lib.unc.edu/>and Drexel
University<http://www.library.drexel.edu/resources/tutorials/googlescholar.html>have
implemented the Scholar search box on their sites. To add it to yours,
follow the simple instructions on this
page<https://services.google.com/inquiry/scholar_email?hl=en>.

And don't forget – we have a
poster<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/downloads/Scholar_17x22.pdf>and
flyer <http://www.google.com/librariancenter/downloads/Scholar_85x11.pdf>with
tips to help your patrons get the most out of Google Scholar.

  A new way to browse books online

As part of our quest to bring the world of books to Internet users, we've
made improvements to the way we display books in Google Book
Search<http://books.google.com/>so browsing is easier and more
intuitive. Along the way, we revised our
"About this book" page to give you more relevant information, including
lists of keywords, selected pages, books and articles that cite the book,
lists of similar books, and more. For details on all the new features, check
out the official announcement on the Google blog: A new way to browse
books<http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/new-way-to-browse-books.html>.
If you're not yet familiar with Google Book Search, check out the fourth
Librarian Newsletter<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/newsletter/0606.html>,
which focused on Book Search, or watch Ben Bunnell's talk on the history of
Google Book Search and Google Scholar, including examples of how librarians
are using them. It's available at the Google Librarian
Center<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/librarian_movies.html>and
in Google
Video<http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-8762514765927564293&h...>
.

More books in more languages

Over the past few months we've welcomed three new partners to the Google
Books Library Project <http://books.google.com/googlebooks/library.html> in
an effort to make their extraordinary collections more accessible and
discoverable by people everywhere. Read more about these partnerships by
following the links here.

   - University of Virginia Joins the Library
Project<http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2006/11/university-of-virginia-joins-l...>
   - University of Wisconsin-Madison and Google Make Rich Historical
   Collection Available
Online<http://www.google.com/press/annc/uniwisconsin_books.html>
   - Madrid's Complutense University Opens its Books to the
World<http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2006/09/madrids-complutense-university...>

  Create your own search engine
   <http://www.google.com/librariancenter/downloads/Custom_Search_85x11.pdf>Custom
Search Engine Guide<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/downloads/Custom_Search_85x11.pdf>
Ever wished you could make a search engine customized for your information
needs? Now you can. Using Google Co-op's Custom Search Engine
<http://www.google.com/coop/cse/overview> tool, you can create and launch
your own search engine on any topic you like, searching the websites you
specify (such as your library's website). A few examples:

   - Genealogy Blog Finder <http://blogfinder.genealogue.com/> (
via<http://ricklibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/10/genealogy-blog-search-custo...>librarian
blogger Rick Roche) – Searches content in more than 150 genealogy
   blogs, covering everything from regional and international resources to
   genealogy-related videos and podcasts.
   - Curious Cat Science and Engineering
Search<http://curiouscat.com/search/>– Searches a combination of lay
and official sites for science and
   engineering information.
   - Mrs. Gray's Research Site for
Kids<http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=009322589025648193163%3Axvlyfpfjkv0>–
Searches a collection of child-safe sites.

 In addition to choosing which sites to search, you can customize the look
and feel of your search engine to match your site, invite trusted colleagues
to become co-editors, and tag web pages to help users refine their searches.
To learn more, visit the Google Co-op <http://www.google.com/coop/> website,
or download the Custom Search Engine guide
<http://www.google.com/librariancenter/downloads/Custom_Search_85x11.pdf>.

  Explore Africa with Google Earth

 <http://www.google.com/educators/gaw.html>How much do your students know
about Africa? Test them or challenge yourself with an interactive Google
Earth quiz from My Wonderful World, a National Geographic-led campaign for
geographic literacy. After you take the interactive quiz, check out the  new
layers that we've added to Google Earth, including "Spotlight on Africa"
(which overlays the flags of 53 African countries and links to handy facts
about each), "Tracks4Africa" (user-submitted photos, snippets, and pointers
to interesting places around Africa), and the Rumsey historical map
collection (which includes a map of Africa from 1787). You can toggle these
historical maps on and off to compare how cartographers depicted Africa (and
other continents) in the 18th century, and how we know them today. Access
the National Geographic quiz and read more about the featured content on the
Google Educators Site <http://www.google.com/educators/gaw.html>.

  Share and edit with Google Docs & Spreadsheets

We launched Google Docs &
Spreadsheets<https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=...>,
an online word processor and spreadsheet editor that lets you to create,
store and collaborate on documents and spreadsheets in real time. If you or
your patrons know how to use any word processing or spreadsheet editing
program, you can easily use Google Docs & Spreadsheets. It's great for your
library users, since they can work on writing and research without having to
save files to a disk; all of their work is stored safely online, and can be
accessed from any computer with an Internet connection. It's as simple as
checking email.
Google Docs & Spreadsheets is free and supports all standard formats – DOC,
XLS, OpenOffice and more – so you can upload and edit documents and
spreadsheets you've created using other programs. And in response to users'
requests, we recently updated the spell check
feature<http://google-d-s.blogspot.com/2006/11/new-features-are-up.html>so
you can check your documents in more than 30 languages.
If you'd like to let your patrons know about Google Docs & Spreadsheets,
here's a quick online tour <http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html>.

On alert for bloggers

If you struggle to stay updated with blogs and other online news sources,
here are two ways to make it easier:

   - Blog Alerts <http://www.google.com/alerts>: Sign up to receive
   emails when topics that interest you appear in Google Blog Search results.
   With a "comprehensive" alert, you'll receive results from multiple sources –
   News, Web and Blogs – in a single email.
   - Google Reader <http://www.google.com/reader> – now even easier to
   use: Recently
updated<http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2006/09/something-looks-different.html>with
a new user interface, Google Reader lets you read syndicated content
   from any source in one spot, and you access it from any computer or your
   mobile device.

Want to try Google Reader? Here's a brief online
tour<http://www.google.com/help/reader/tour.html>– and if you'd like
tips from a fellow librarian, check out this Google
Reader tutorial <http://ycdl2.yukoncollege.yk.ca/googlereader/> by Yukon
College librarian Laurie Prange. If you're already familiar with Google
Reader, you might be interested in these useful
add-ons<http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2006/11/tools-to-improve-your-reader...>
.

Connect with literacy activists around the world

To contribute to a global initiative to support literacy, we created The
Literacy Project <http://www.google.com/literacy/> website. You'll find
tools to help you gather information and connect with people working on
literacy projects, including maps for locating literacy organizations in
Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America.

  Sign up to receive this newsletter
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