With school back in session and the economy still in its rut, most students are sharing a similar concern.  How on earth are they going to be able to afford those pricey textbooks?  From living in closets to subsisting on ramen noodles, folks are desperate to lessen the pain of textbook buying.  Luckily, they have an ally in the fight.  Have you been to Book.ly?

Book.ly tags itself as “The Better Way to Buy Textbooks”.  They are certainly onto something hot and useful.  Using Book.ly, students can buy, rent, and even sell textbooks without the painful markup  of college bookstores.  In fact, the site currenty estimates that its users are saving about 60% on their book purchases!  That adds up to a VERY healthy savings when you consider how many books the average student purchases in just one school year!

Using Book.ly can hardly be easier.  You simply go to the site and search for either the book title or your school.  In it’s databanks, Book.ly has up-to-date syllabus information from over 1,500 colleges and universities!  Students can actually buy their books before they even have their syllabi in hand.  At the end of the semester, students can then use Book.ly to sell their books back for top dollar.  Talk about a total solution!

Book.ly is barely a year old, but has already attracted a huge fan base.  You can look at the main page to see just how much the students at particular colleges and universities have saved.  The leader board is impressive!  Best of all . . . it is not just for students.  Anyone can use Book.ly and reap its rewards.

Just when it seems like the trend is for coffee shops to be cutting back on free Wi-Fi access, Starbucks delivers a double-shot to the competition.  Just months after announcing that it was making WiFi available for free to all customers, the coffee giant is serving up something innovative.  Guaranteed to tempt your taste for cool exclusives, Starbucks has unveiled its new Digital Network.

The Starbucks Digital Network is a partnership between the coffee chain and Yahoo!.  A hot blend of premium content and lots of freebies, featured providers include such iTunes, the New York Times, USA Today, Women’s Health and more. As long as a patron is inside Starbucks, all of this content is free via laptop, netbook, iPad, and even smartphone.  From free books and news to exclusive music and movie downloads, Starbucks is clearly aiming to bring folks in its doors and keep them there for a bit.

Starbucks is promising that its Digital Network will offer content for all ages.  Nick Jr. Boost has already signed on as one of its family and child-friendly content providers.  It is also working with location-based services like FourSquare and Zagat to create an online hub for neighborhood resources.  Locals and travelers alike will be able to read up on local attractions and eateries while savoring their mochas.  Add in cool features like being able to read the news, enjoy an eBook, watch the latest movie trailers, and download free music and you get a real taste for what Starbucks has in store.

The Starbucks Digital Network is already going live and coming to a Starbucks near you.  More than just a sip of the WiFi / digital revolution, it is a big ol’ gulp of awesome.  We’ll take a venti to go . . . no . . . make that stay a while.

In today’s global society, scheduling meetings can be a real pain.  Technology has managed to make the world smaller thanks to video conferencing, virtual meeting spaces, and VoIP calling.  One thing it has not done is make it that much easier to get people together at one time, across time zones.  Luckily, Tungle.me is trying to change that.

What is Tungle.me?  Well, to quote their own tagline, Tungle.me is “scheduling made easy”.  Need to set up a conference call with colleagues in Caracas, besties in Beijing, and allies in Adelaide?  Don’t get tangled up trying to figure out time differences, let Tungle.me do it for you.  This site litreally makes scheduling meetings with folks far and wide a snap.  It accounts for time differences and brings diverse schedules together for you.  How?  By syncing with most major calendar applications.

An account on Tungle.me is free and easy to set up.  Once you sign up, you simply sync it with your calendar.  Tungle.me is currently compatible with Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple iCal, Entourage (Mac) and Lotus Notes.  It notes times that you are busy and available and displays them as such on your personal Tungle.me calendar page.  The details of your busy times remain comfortingly private.  Whether you are looking to plan or meeting or others are looking to propose one to you, it is simply a matter of choosing several open and available slots.  Tungle.me handles the communication, syncing of participants calendars, and sharing of details.  Talk about a time saver!  There are even Tungle.me apps for iPhone and Blackberry.  So it’s mobile too.

Tungle.me is not your typical calendar application.  In fact, it is not meant to be a calendar at all.  Rather it is designed to enhance “your existing calendar, giving it the flexibility and agility you need to easily schedule meetings with anyone, inside or outside your company, no matter what calendar type they’re using”.  Tungle.me puts your calendar on steroids and gets it to do some of the legwork for you.  The iBraryGuy team has tried it out and we were impressed.  Who says the best things in life aren’t free?

Hitting it big in the world of publishing has never been an easy nut to crack.  Authors not only need write great works to publish, but also navigate the hops and hills of the industry.   The advent of ePublishing has changed the game to a large degree.  Thanks to the eReader revolution, getting your works out to the reading audience has never been easier . . . Well, not until now at least.  First mentioned last May, Barnes & Noble’s new ePublishing system not only helps you get your masterpieces to market faster.  It helps you set your prices and share in the profits.  Meet Pubit!

Barnes & Noble touts itself as the world’s number one bookseller.  Its Nook eReader, though not as popular as Amazon’s Kindle, has been a success.  Its eBookstore is flourishing.  There is a lot that is attractive about Barnes & Noble to writers looking to publish and profit from their own eBooks.   Earlier this spring, the bookselling behemoth hinted at a platform that would make publishing electronic books easier than ever – a near instant way to get works in front of the eyes of millions.  Since then, the project had been shrouded in secrecy.  That is, until Barnes & Noble yesterday unveiled “Pubit!” and launched the latest salvo in the ePublishing wars.

Using Pubit! is free and easy.  You simply create your content (book, article, etc.), create a Pubit! account, upload your work, and set your price.  Pubit! will convert your work into the popular ePub format (compatible with more than B&N’s Nook, by the way) and add it to Barnes & Noble’s eBook store.  If you’ve created a winner, you are paid a percentage of the retail price (40%- 65% based on price set) for each sale made. It is just that easy.

Certainly there are other self-publishing sites and platforms available.  But what they lack is the name recognition and audience that Barnes & Noble enjoys.  That is not to say that we can all quit our day jobs and become successful, wealthy writers.  Not even Barnes & Noble can guarantee that!  But the opportunity is out there like never before.  Why publish your work the old fashioned way when you can Pubit! with Barnes & Noble? (Aside from loving the look and feel of a real, paper book of course!).

As if there were not already enough choices for shortening those long URLs, another one has launched.  And if it was not for the company launching it, we would probably not be paying it much attention.  But this is no run-of-the-mail-under-the-radar kind of unveiling.  This is Google’s new URL shortener, Goo.gl and it is not the least bit short on sweet features.

As we said, there are plenty of URL shorteners already on the market.  From the uber popular Bit.ly to the simple, yet customizable Doiop, they are a true godsend to anyone looking to save space and improve the aesthetic of long, complicated, and ugly URLs.  For tweeters especially, these tools are becoming ubiquitous.  To play in the URL shortening game today, a start-up has to bring something big to the table.  What the new Goo.gl brings is the backing of search behemoth Google, its bag of innovations and tricks, and a pretty tall promise to be the “stablest, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the web.”  Can it live up the hype?

Released to the public today, Goo.glis easy to use.  Just like the other URL shorteners, you simply type or paste a long URL into the form and click on the “shorten” button.  Goo.gl will then compress that long link into something much shorter and more easily manageable.  In this respect, it is not much different than its myriad of competitors.  However, this is Google offspring we are talking about.  So you know that the features do not end there.

Sign in with your Gmail / iGoogle account information, and Goo.glbecomes your own URL shortening space.  It keeps track of all of the shortened URLs you create, complete with the original link, date created, and even the number of clicks it has spawned.  Sure, you are probably thinking that other shorteners do this too.  But let’s be honest.  None of them integrate with your Google presence.  If you are already using Gmail, Google Docs, or any of the growing suite of Google applications, this is just another feather in your cap.  Not to mention, there is already talk of Google integrating its new shortener with the power of its Analytics programs.  To be sure, ste standalone Goo.gl site is probably just the tip of the iceberg here.  You can bet that the competition is already be taking notice!

In the months ahead, it will be interesting to see what comes of Google’s latest offering.  In our opinion, it is already a more auspicious debut than that of Google Wave or even Buzz.  Give Goo.gl a try and let us know what you think!

An interesting post on Facebook‘s official blog this morning touted  “A New Chapter in Reading with Friends“.  Being librarians and avid readers, our interest was immediately piqued.  The news that followed, was interesting to say the least.  The Facebook has expanded its instant personalization offerings in a new partnership with Scribd.  And so, the world’s largest social network meets the world’s largest social publisher.  For readers and publishers, this could be a marriage made in heaven.

Before we talk about Scribd, which the iBraryGuy team loves, let’s talk about what is happening with Facebook.  Starting today, if you visit Scribd while logged into Facebook, you will get personalized reading recommendations based on what your friends are sharing and your own Facebook likes.   Should you come across something that grabs you, you will be able to click the Like button and share it with your friends. This interaction between Facebook and Scribd is designed to personalize your reading experience.  Pretty cool!

But some of you may not be familiar with Scribd.  You really should be.  Scribd is hot!  As we mentioned above, it is the world’s largest social publishing and reading site. Their vision is “to liberate the written word, to connect people and organizations with the information and ideas that matter most to them.”  Using Scribd, you can turn virtually any file (PDF, Word, PPT) into a web document and share it through such connected sites such as Facebook , Twitter and even Google.   From books to presentations, Scribd users are sharing almost 60,000 items daily!  There’s a lot to read and, thanks to this partnership with Facebook, it just got easier to find!

Facebook’s instant personalization initiative has been embraced by some and villified by others.  Whether it is just an example of how the Web can bring you more of what truly interests you or a more insidious strike against our individual and collective privacy remains to be seen.  What we can say is that as a program, Facebook is pressing ahead with it.  This particular area of instant personalization is one that interests us as librarians and Scribd users.  Frankly, we are excited by the possibilities!  The motto behind the initiative is that “the web is better with friends”.  We are hoping it is better with friends who like to read and write as mucha s we do!

Volunteering for a cause is not always as easy as it seems.  Between our over-packed schedules and underfunded incomes, giving of your time and money to charity can be a daunting task.  The fact that we are busy or that our budgets are tight, however, does not alleviate need.  With a little innovation and big idea, The Extraordinaries is here to save the day!

Have you ever heard of “micro-volunteering”?  The old adage is that every little bit helps.  Micro-volunteering is all about giving that very little bit of your time and talents to help someone out.  The Extraordinariesis a site designed to make giving that little bit even easier.  It is an online micro-volunteering network where people use their professional skills to solve nonprofits’ challenges in 10 minutes, or less. The opportunities listed are short, simple, and fun.  Best of all, you can volunteer wherever and whenever you have the time.   It doesn’t get much easier!

Here is how it works:  Non-profts sign up with The Extraordinaries and post challenges to the network.  Volunteers also sign up (it’s free!) and, when they have time, are able to peruse the challenges.  You simply pick a challenge that interests you and then post your response online.  Again, it should take you – the volunteer – about 10 minutes or less.  It may not seem like you are doing much.  But that little bit you do can lead to a whole world of good.  The Extraordinaries even offers an online Employee Volunteer Program (EVP) for corporations and other organizations that want to promote volunteerism among their busy staff.  Now that is cool!

The Extraordinariesis a for-profit social enterprise headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Their backing comes from leading social entrepreneurship organizations and a team of investors. Their site makes volunteering easy and fun.  Won’t you join the iBraryGuy team and turn your spare time into action for good?

When looking to learn a new language, the choices for how to go about doing so seem endless.  From immersion classes to software to books, the language education business is big and booming.  If you want something simple, effective, and online, why not give LiveMocha a try?

LiveMocha is a web-based system that puts a neat spin on learning a language.  When you join, you are connected with native speakers around the world.  It is not just about being taught or teaching a new language.  No.  LiveMocha builds a community of speakers and learners who support each other in practicing new language skills.  And in joining LiveMocha, you actually DO get the chance to learn AND teach.  You are encouraged to give back to the community.

LiveMocha’s combination of online learning and community participation has won it numerous accolades, including being named one of Time Magazine’s Top 50 sites.  Currently, over 25 languages are offered and over 6 million people are participating.  Some course are free, while others are very affordable.

As our patrons and our world become icreasingly more diverse, language skills are becoming a premium.  It is never too late to start learning a new language or brush up on the ones you know.  LiveMocha makes it fun and economical.  What is not to love about that?  “Awesome” in any language describes LiveMocha!

America’s rapidly growing cultural diversity has having wide-ranging effects.  From our laws to our language to our elections, the “great American melting pot” is getting bigger ever day.  As wonderful as it may be, this increasingly complex weaving of the American fabric is also presenting new challenges as we seek to best cover all of our rich and diverse cultures.  This is particularly the case in our schools where we are striving to take the messages of education to a body of students that is more diverse than ever.

To this delicate end, the University of Arizona is on to something hot.  Its College of Education and libraries have teamed up to create Worlds of Words (WOW) – one of the largest collections of international children’s books in the nation.  An almost unparalleled collection of culturally authentic resources, WOW is an invaluable tool for educators looking to reach out to diverse learners in a context and at a level they will understand.

The collection is easily searchable by title, region, age and genre.  There is also a list of recent additions.  Every Wednesday, a new selection from WOW is featured on the site and educators are invited to discuss and comment on it.  WOW additionally offers to excellent online journals: WOW Stories, featuring vignettes written by educators about children’s experiences reading and responding to literature, and WOW Review, which contains reviews of selected books with an eye towards their cultural authenticity.

Worlds of Words is an amazing resource in a nation (and a world) who cultural diversification requires a rethinking of its approach to education.  It is freely available to the public and a true boon to educators and librarians who work with children and adolescents.  Check out their site today and do not miss their blog WOW Currents for the latest news and updates on this fascinating collaboration.

Whomever it was that said the best things in life are free certainly had today’s featured site in mind.  Read Print, a simple, yet elegant site for reading enthusiasts, puts the best price ever on thousands of online books, poems, and stories.  Yes, the VERY BEST price.  Materials on Read Print are 100%, absolutely, positively, and undeniably FREE!

Intrigued?  The iBraryGuy team was, so we checked it out.  Suffice it to say that we are impressed.  Read Print alreadys boasts an amazing library of over 8,000 books by more than 3,500 authors.  Fiction and non-fiction, plays and poetry, short stories and even essays, this online library has it all.  Neatly accessible through both clicks and search, Read Print’s library is well organized and simply laid out.  Their lists of top books and authors are very helpful, as are the links to search by title and author.  Read Print even has an online search for quotations from the authors and works in its library.  What else can we say, except “sweeeeeet!”

The one caveat to using Read Print is that you have to read the books online, through your browser.  You cannot download them to an e-reader, for example.  However, the enhanced online “reading mode” makes this far less cumbersome than one might expect.  For those using netbooks, iPads, or other portable devices, this is particularly handy.  We read some of Poe’s works on Read Print with little trouble at all.

To get anything for free these days (Have you seen the global economy?) is a rare treat.  To get something high quality for free is even more difficult.  It is a joy to see a site bucking that trend when it comes to literature.  Read Print’s offerings are well-presented, easy to read, and free of errors.  It’s almost asking too much.  It is why Read Print earns our praise and is our site of the day!