Treasury of Art

Librarians and teachers should know about Google's Art Project and introduce students to it. The images at the Art Project give viewers a chance to visit some of the major art museums of the world, including the Tate Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Once you click on the name of the museum, you can get a tour of the facility or view individual works of art. Unlike a real-life museum where paintings must often be viewed at a distance and sometimes over the heads of other visitors, this project gives viewers the chance for an intimate encounter with each painting. Areas can be enlarged for better viewing. Individual faces can be studied as well as details of architecture of decor. The Art Project is a treasure not to be missed by anyone who enjoys the beauty and excitement of fine art.

How much are you willing to read?

Most news that we meet online comes in small, manageable bites, but this morning I found an article that requires devoted attention through six long pages. Nonetheless, this article by James Fallows in the Atlantic rewards the effort (and the eyestrain). Fallows reports on the efforts Google is making to revive the news profession. Instead of pooh-poohing print media as many online types tend to do (Remember Steve Jobs saying "Print is dead"?) the folks at Google understand the importance of allowing ordinary citizens to get access to news. To do that requires more than just on-the-spot tweets from major events, it requires dedicated journalists with enough background to understand the background and history of stories. Video clips of David Cameron and Nick Clegg standing side by side at 10 Downing Street do not reveal the tortured history and uncertain future of coalition governments in Britain. So what are we to do as newspaper circulations drop and TV news becomes a series of one-sided blasts from opinionated political junkies? It may not seem that children's librarians need to trouble themselves with this question, but it is the children we serve today who will determine the future of media--of the country--in the future. The more we help them to understand the choices they need to make about which news is worth paying attention to and how to find it, the better they will be able to run the world. Google is working on various models to understand how news will be transmitted in the future; some will probably thrive and others will founder. It is important for those of us who work with information to understand the changes that are coming about and to help our patrons to understand them too. So yes, six pages on a computer screen takes some time to read, and printing it out may mean it will be buried on your desk for weeks, but it's worth setting aside some time to read Fallows article and to follow what Google and other companies are doing to salvage our right to hear the news we need.

What are they searching for?

Librarians have known for a long time that most kids have a hard time finding specific online information. Skill in gaming and using social networks doesn't easily transfer to searching Google. Now the company itself has recognized the problems young children have in searching and is starting to conduct research to make its product easier to use. Choosing a search term that will lead to the correct bit of information can be tricky, as research by librarians over the past 15 years has shown. Many schools have developed training programs to help students learn how to search. It's good to see that the search engine companies themselves now recognize the problems and are looking at user needs. Making the Internet easier for children to search will make it easier for all of us. As so often happens--unsung librarians led the way to new knowledge.