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This year’s CNET Webware 100 Finalists in the Search and Reference category include search engines trying inventive ways to present results.
Famous people
Two of the tools present results about famous people in creative ways. Compare results for Frida Kahlo using Hakia and Evri versus a standard search engine like Google, Yahoo!, Live, or Ask.
Of the two, I preferred Hakia, but if you use it, stick with the main All Results tab because the results under the other tabs (e.g. credible sites, news, images) aren’t as relevant because they match on either half of the name (Frida or Kahlo) instead of the whole name. There’s a third site, Mahalo, for contemporary people in the news which is more focused on gossip/rumor.
Visual search
For those of you who appreciate creative visual design, check out Searchme which returns results in a colorful stack of web pages that you can flip through like a photo album.
Maybe you don’t worry about whose photo you might be stealing, whose creative flair you might be hijacking, when you right click and save an image from the web onto your computer or portable storage device – but you should.
If you do your best to be careful about such things (and kudos to you for being a more ethically enlightened digital scholar), here are two sites that can help you find images from people who want to share their creative images. For educational use, check the box to search for images you can modify or edit.
Creative Commons Search
and FlickrCC – Results appear as a collage of 36 thumbnails
Other strategies for finding images include adding “library of congress” to your search to see if they have an online exhibit about your topic that includes images in the public domain (most likely for American historical topics) , or adding words like historic photograph, archive, exhibit, or digital collection to your search to find online exhibits by other institutions like libraries (e.g. NYPL’s Digital Gallery) or historical societies.
Similarly, if there is a government agency (e.g. NASA) likely to have photos about your topic, add that agency name to your search or limit your advanced Google Image search to the gov domain (note: this will only capture some state government results, not all).
Read the site’s Terms of Use or Permissions section to be certain your image use complies with their guidelines. Here are examples of such pages from NASA and the NYPL.
In the final run-up to AP tests, remember that the library has AP study guides you can borrow. You’ll find these books on the shelf near the CD case (why not borrow some background music for your study time while you’re here?). Since these books have been donated through the generosity of fellow Dragons, the checkout system is informal: simply grab a piece of scrap paper from the container on the circulation desk and write the following details on it: the date, your name, your English teacher’s name and block, and the title of the book(s) you’re borrowing. Then give the paper to Ms. Sellors and voila! you’re one step closer to improving your level of preparation for AP testing. Please return the book promptly once you finish using it.
On a related note, if you’ve purchased a study guide for your personal use this spring, please consider donating it to the library when you finish so that fellow Dragons may benefit from using it next year!
Expand your definition on what makes a book – stop by the library to see art books created by Ms. Mosley’s Art II students. Challenged to think about books in a fresh and creative way, students applied their originality to book construction, media, story, and creativity. You may notice the influence of sumi-e and scroll paintings, as well as accordion books. You are welcome to handle these books, but please be gentle!
Chris won the MW Library’s Voices of Civil Rights Poetry Challenge with his original collection of poetry and photographs inspired by the 1968 Washington, DC riots. Khalila was the subject of his photographs, so you’ll see her face as you read his poems. You can check out his limited edition book, Fire; Set from the MW Library.
