Google Docs & Spreadsheets

This is a great resource for libraries who are too concerned with network security to offer patrons MS Word on the library's public internet computers for fear of viruses arriving on the patron's discs or flash drives. Google has a reasonable facsimile of Word and a reasonable facsimile of Excel, that can even be saved as Word docs or Excel spreadsheets. The patron then saves the document to their account with the service. They can open it from any computer by logging in. They can share the document with others who may be readers or collaborators, or they can publish it to the internet with its own url.

I have posted a few Word documents here on this blog as links by converting them to Google docs (and then tweaking the formatting a bit) and publishing them to the web so that they work as links. We used a Google doc to collaborate for the old TPZ.

My favorite use of this service, however, has been as a tool for the Discount School Supply orders I do for the Wild Rumpus. I have a wiki page where the rumpus members can discuss supplies (what's the best kind of tacky glue sticks? etc.), but when they are ready to place the order they go to the Google spreadsheet, where I have the format and formulas set up, and then they enter their order. Of course, the collaborative nature of the public spreadsheet is such that one staffer may see what someone else is ordering and think "hmm, I could use those for a craft, too," and then place her order. They might think "what on Earth do you do with that?" and post said question to the wiki page. So I saw the blog, the wiki, and the Google Docs & Spreadsheets complementing each other from the time Janis proposed the blog. I am glad that the staff has picked up on these so well. They truly like all of these tools and are using them daily, unprompted.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets also present an economical alternative to those who do not wish to pay Microsoft for their MS Office suite. Now that's jammin' econo!