Good for skimming and for referencing. The book targets information professionals and provides examples of how each tool can be used by "cybrarians" to be more productive or to promote library services. For me, though--I'm always on the look out for free online tools that I can recommend to library patrons who are looking for accessible alternatives to paid software.

Obviously, the content is temporal; several of the sources have already died (RIP Google Reader) or have been bought out by bigger companies. Maybe it'd be better to check out the book's companion site: http://cybrariansweb.com/ ( )

I wasn't really the audience for this book - someone new to Web 2.0 and open-source software might get more out of it. I did write down a half-dozen resources to check out later.

Peltier-Davis has compiled a very good list of web resources for library professional development, productivity, teaching, and marketing. However, I was frustrated that she didn't talk much about privacy, advertising, and legal issues. These are so huge when talking about free or premium web resources! I'm not crazy about recommending free resources to patrons that are advertising-driven, make private information public, or continually solicit them to sign up for a premium account. I also don't want to get sued for lending Netflix discs in a public library (a controversy she mentions in passing without making it absolutely clear that THIS IS ILLEGAL).

There were also some big omissions - Wordpress.org (she discusses the commercial hosting website but not the open-source CMS), Duck Duck Go, Goodreads, the Internet Public Library, and Orkut are a few that come to mind.

Overall, not a bad book at all, just didn't wow me.

ETA: One of the resources suggested, the iLibrarian blog (http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/), is attached to a content farm that refers students to accredited online college programs. It's not a BAD content farm - the blog is pretty okay and the schools mostly aren't diploma mills - but the site certainly isn't upfront about its purpose. When librarians don't check their sources, it makes me sad. ( )

As I was reading this book, I kept getting the odd feeling that it should be online. It's a disconnect to read a print directory of online resources for "cybrarians", who's focus is online materials . It's similar to learning to sing opera by reading a book. The guide is useful and informative, but unfortunately I would imagine the day it went into print it started to be out of date. Her website does have current information, which seems to make this book unnecessary. Whatever format, the information is helpful, although most likely more so to those just beginning to use web resources. ( )

A basic directory of free, online web tools that unfortunately is already becoming outdated. Years ago, I co-authored similar guide books to web resources, and they do serve a brief short-cut window for novice users. Key is that they need to be recent and timely-needed resources; most of these have been around, are well known. A better source for this type information can be found online at sites like Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers site http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ or the author's website. This printed resource may be useful for a few non-techie librarians and educators. lj ( )

I love handy websites and was quite excited to recieve this book. Unfortunately the list was not as handy as I had hoped. I was already aware of a lot of the websites mentioned and there were less "tools" than I would have liked. I'm afraid this book is not really ahead of its time and I can see it becoming quickly outdated. I would not recommend adding this to a librarian's arsenal of resources, but instead bookmark the web counterpart and check it every once in awhile. ( )