Free and Fabulous:

Below is a list of free resources re-posted from the Librarian in Black website. This list exemplifies the growing number of resources which can be used to support research and used for research without a huge investment.

1. Free Software for Public & Staff Computers

• Operating System (instead of Windows) – Ubuntu
• Email/Calendar (instead of Outlook) – Google Calendar & Gmail
• Web Browser (instead of IE) – Firefox, Google Chrome
• Financial Software (instead of Quicken) – GNU Cash
• Productivity Software (instead of Office) – Open Office
  • - word processing (like Word), spreadsheets (like Excel), presentations (like PowerPoint), databases (like Access), desktop publishing (like Publisher), and calculator (like, errr…, a calculator)
• Image Editing (instead of PhotoShop) – GIMP
• Typing Software – GNUTypist or TypeFaster Typing Tutor
• CD writing – Brasero or InfraRecorder

2. Free Security Software Suite

• Antivirus – AVG Antivirus
• Firewall – PC Tools Firewall Plus
• Ad-Busting – AdAware
• Anti-Spyware – SpyBot Search & Destroy, SpywareGuard, SpywareBlaster (use all three; they do different things)

3. Free Staff Scheduling Software

• Droster
• AceShift (limited to <20>
• or even Open Office’s “Calc”

4. Free Team Meeting Tools

• Voice – Skype, Google Voice
• Video – Skype, Sightspeed, Tokbox
• IM – AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, & others
• Meeting Space/Chat – Today’s Meet
• Meeting Scheduling – When Is Good, Doodle
• Webcasts – Vyew

5. Free Tech Support Tools

• Embedded chat (pop it in your intranet header) – Meebo Me chat widget
• Voice or video chat (another way to contact tech support) – Skype, Ekiga, Sightspeed, or Tokbox
• Screencasts on the fly (for tech support to help you!) – Jing
• Discussion board (create a staff board re: common tech issues) – Google Groups
• Remote Support (tech support folks can log in & control/see your computer) – LogMeIn.com, TightVNC

6. Free Audio & Video Tools

• Voice/Video Chat – Skype or Ekiga
• Audio Recording/Editing – Audacity
• Video Editing – Avidemux, DVDx, Lumiera, Kino
• Video Hosting – YouTube, blip.tv, Vimeo
• Audio Hosting – OurMedia, PodBean

7. Free eLearning Tools

• Screencasting – Screencast-o-matic, Jing, Wink, Camstudio, Screencast.com
• Online Learning Environment – Moodle
• Conference Calls – FreeConferenceCall.com
• Webcasts – Ustream.tv
• Class Websites – WordPress, Blogger, PBworks, Pageflakes

8. Free “Contact Us” Tools to Communicate with Customers

• Email – Gmail, Yahoo Mail
• Instant Messaging – AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk
• Chat Widgets – Meebo Me, Plugoo
• VOIP/audio – Skype‏
• Video – some IM clients (AIM video chat, Skype)‏
• Text Messaging – AIM TXT
• Social Networks – Facebook Chat
• Microblogging – Twitter – “ask us a question with @…”

9. Free Social Network & Extended Web Presence Tools

• CheckUsernames.com: check multiple networks
• Open ID and ClaimID: claim and log into multiple networks
• HootSuite, Twitter Counter, Twitalyzer: Twitter stats
• Ping.fm, Hellotxt.com, and AtomKeep: simultaneous updates
• Twitter/Facebook: can use internal settings/apps to update both simultaneously
• Filtrbox and MyBUZZmonitor: what people say

10. Free Website Management Tools

• Website recommender – del.icio.us, Evernote
• ILS – Koha or Evergreen
• Content Management System – Drupal
• Flickr slideshow – Pictobrowser
• RSS Feed and Blog Post Statistics – PostRank
• Tag Clouds – TagCrowd, Wordle
• Web Forms – Google Forms
• CSS-picker – Typetester
• Copyright-Free, Open Source, and CC-licensed Photos – OpenPhoto, Stock.xchng, Image*After, Wikipeda Commons, Flickr Image Search
• Survey Tools -Zoomerang, SurveyMonkey
• Polls – PollDaddy
• Website Statistics – Google Analytics, OneStatFree, StatCounter
• Translation Tool – Google Translate
• Events Calendar – Google Calendar
• Website Hosting – Blogger, WordPress, Bravenet, Google Sites, Bryght.com

11. Free eBooks (need to cut your eBook budget? that’s ok – there are a lot of free eBooks out there.)

• Project Gutenberg
• AudioBooksForFree
• Escholarship
• Google Books
• ManyBooks
• Memoware
• Online Books Page
• Oxford Text Archive
• and hundreds more sites too!

12. Free Articles

• ArticlesBase.com
• FindArticles.com
• + open access e-journals
• + free access through individual publication’s websites

13. Miscellaneous Other Free Stuff

• RSS aggregator – Google Reader
• Book Jackets – Book City Jackets
• File Converters – Zamzar
• Charts – LucidChart, Lovely Charts, Gliffy
• Text to Voice – Text2Speech, Google Voice
• Citation Keeper – Zotero
• Movies Online – Hulu, YouTube
• File Drop Sites – SendUIt, DropBox, YouSendIt