Maps and Directions

Besides looking in the 912 section of the library for maps and atlases, you can use the Internet to print of quick directions and maps for those customers looking for driving directions.

Some useful sites for driving directions are Google Maps and Bing Maps. Both offer street views of locations, which are actual photographs, so you can see a relatively current picture of the place and the surrounding area. You can even choose to avoid highways and toll roads when creating your set of driving directions.

Another great free product is Google Earth, which you download and install on your computer. You can explore satellite imagery of the world, from outer space to the ocean floor.

Last, but not least, there are traditional map websites as well, such as InfoPlease World Atlas and Map Library and National Atlas.

PSA from Ask a Librarian

Ask a Librarian - 2009 PSA from Ask aLibrarian on Vimeo.

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Flock

If you're a fan of social networking and have an account with Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc., then you might be interested in a browser called Flock.

Flock is a browser based on Mozilla's Firefox that calls itself "the social networking browser." It allows you to log into all of your accounts at once, surf the web at the same time, and do other cool things. Watch the video below to get an idea of what Flock is.



For more videos, explore Flock's YouTube channel.

Bonus! If you don't know anything about the websites mentioned in the first paragraph, when you download and install Flock it helps you set up accounts with those sites and more. So, whether your a beginner or an expert, Flock would be a fun program to experiment with.