PC Magazine has published a list  of “picks for the top new or under-the-radar  sites of 2007.”  Some are just for fun and others offer valuable information.  The web sites named cover topics on health, reference, entertainment, music, news, reading and more.  To find PC magazines’s list go to http://www.pcmag.com, scroll to RECENT STORIES at the bottom of the page and click on the link for “Top 100 Undiscovered Web sites.”  (One of my favorites :  http://www.verbotomy.com )

If you love books you’ll love this blog.  PAPER CUTS : A BLOG ABOUT BOOKS  is written by Dwight Garner - Senior Editor of the New York Times Book Review.   The blog discusses books and other forms of printed matter.  “Look here for book news and opinion, interviews with writers, regular raids on the Book Review’s archives, and other special features.”   Try it, I think you’ll like it…..http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com .

Everything you’ve always wanted to know about Daylight Saving Time can be found at www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html. It’s history and why we use it is all here as well as interesting trivia about time and links to related sites.

Learn about road conditions BEFORE you start your trip.  Go to http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/trafficinfo .  Road closures, construction delays, and weather-related driving problems are listed by state with links to information for major U.S. Cities and highways.  Check it out !

In the following excerpt from the blog What I Learned Today, written by Nicole C. Engard, she directs our attention to a very interesting article about the strengths and weaknesses of search engines (like Google).

That’s right, CNet, a technology news site is telling users to visit their local librarian instead of using Google for research. In an article titled Most Reliable Search Tool Could Be Your Librarian Elinor Mills tells readers:

“While the Web is good for offering quick results from a broad range of sources, which may or may not be trustworthy, librarians can help people get access to more authoritative information and go deeper with their research.”

As an example of an “untrustworthy” search result, CNet points out:

Using the keywords “Martin Luther King,” the first result on Google and AOL–whose search is powered by Google–and the second result on Microsoft Windows Live search is a Web site created by a white supremacists group that purports to provide “a true historical examination” of the civil rights leader.

Click the article title above or the link at right to read the whole story on CNet’s News.com.

In case you haven’t already noticed, there’s now a second Google search box on the JJML home page. The new search box is actually for Google Book Search. This allows you to search the full text of books to find books that interest you. You can also find out where to buy or borrow them. We’re very excited about this new addition to our website and hope you find it useful. Let us know if it’s a good addition by leaving a comment here in the blog.

For information on Google Book Search, click on this link: How it works.

Many public records are available online for free!  http://publicrecords.onlinsearch.com is a collection of links to U.S. Federal and state real and personal property records, recorded documents, wanted persons records and many more free public records. Links are organized by state and county and are searchable by ZIP code or city.

The libraries of Suffolk County, The Suffolk Cooperative Library System and North Fork Bank have collaborated to create a free online resource featuring digitized versions of historic Suffolk County Newspapers. The collection currently consists of 6 newspapers, including the Corrector, an early Sag Harbor paper, covering the years from 1839-1923. Plans call for 28 other Long Island papers to be added going back as far as 1791. The site has scanned copies of the original papers, all of which are searchable. A test search for the name “Tooker” in the Corrector turned up 146 results! It’s amazing. You can take a look by clicking here: Sag Harbor Historic Newspapers. You can also access it from the Online Reference page of our website. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page.)