There are a seemingly illimitable number of books to recommend so as are there online resources and Web sites.

Recently the Muskogee Public Library (MPL) finished its year-long offering of free computer classes. Following are some of the Web sites and online resources mentioned and covered within those classes.

The last public class held explored Google Maps (maps.google.com). You can think of Google Maps as a free, online version of a Road Atlas map for the world. With Google Maps one can search for landmarks (ex. Whitehouse), addresses, and geographic locations (ex. city, state). One of the most addictive aspects of Google Maps is the street view. After locating a geographic location, many times one can then choose street view and a real world image is displayed of that area. This feature is helpful when planning a trip in locating and knowing what landmarks to look for beforehand.

Delicious (delicious.com) is an online bookmarking resource MPL started using this year (delicious.com/tags/muskogeepl). Bookmarking a Web site is the act of storing an address of a Web site on a computer for use later. When a person bookmarks MPL’s Web site (www.eok.lib.ok.us) that address is stored on the computer the person was using. With the Web site Delicious addresses are kept online. The advantage is the bookmarks can be accessed from any computer on the Internet as opposed to only the computer the bookmark was created on. With Delicious bookmarks can be kept private or shared publicly depending on the settings you choose.

In keeping with providing accurate information the Muskogee Public Library subscribes to and makes available a number of online databases. The Newsbank database (www.eok.lib.ok.us/mpldb.html) contains articles from the Muskogee Phoenix from 2004 through present day. Via MPL’s Newsbank subscription articles from the Tulsa World spanning the last 10 years are available. MPL also subscribes to The Daily Oklahoman archives which include all articles that have appeared in that paper from 1901 through present day. Historical information can be discovered via these databases as well as highly requested obituary, wedding, and birth information.

OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) is another tool that is often mentioned during MPL classes. OpenOffice is a free productivity suite that can be downloaded. OpenOffice is made up of the following programs: Word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database. Microsoft’s Office and Works suite are widely used, but as a free alternative OpenOffice is a great option.

Online resources mentioned are a sample of the information presented during computer classes this year at the library. Computer classes will resume in January 2010.

For more information about classes and/or how to use the mentioned online resources, call 682-6657, or visit www.eok.lib.ok.us. Questions and comments can be sent to muskpublib@eok.lib.ok.us.