Friday, November 28, 2008
Reminder!
Just a reminder to all of you who aren't quite finished yet: Your challenges are due to be posted by midnight tomorrow. Good luck!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Challenges 22 & 23: Hands-on
Now we get to the really fun stuff! For the last two challenges, we will meet this Sunday, November 23, at the library for an hour long hands-on Technology Petting Zoo, followed by staff game night! For the Technology Petting Zoo, I will have several laptops, digital cameras, MP3 players and USB drives for you to experiment with, and get used to working with so we can better help our patrons.
After our Technology Petting Zoo, we will finish out the night with a staff game night! Why game night? Well, for one, it's a lot of fun (just ask the folk who were there last time). Two, gaming has been in the news an awful lot lately, but there are many misconceptions as to what gaming is and who gamers really are. For example, I imagine that many of you do not consider yourselves gamers, but if you play Solitare or Minesweeper on your computer or go online to play Text Twist and Bookworm, you are a gamer. According to the newest Pew Internet Survey, 97% of American teens play some sort of video game, whether on their computer, cellphone, or gaming console. 97%. 94% of girls are gamers, and 99% of boys. That difference is surprising, because it's a commonly held belief that girls just don't play video games. Maybe that's not so true anymore. According to another study produced by IGN and Ipsos MediaCT, More than 47% of adult gamers said that playing video games was a fun way to interact with their family. They were also 11% more likely to go out and play sports than non-gamers, and twice as likely to go out on dates in a given month than non-gamers.
Gaming has become such a prevalent part of life that many libraries are adding gaming to their programming. Ann Arbor even has their own gaming leaderboard. We have had a gaming program for almost as long as I've been here, and we have at least 30 teens show up consistently every week. Usually, that number is more! Some libraries even have a circulating video game collection.
Gaming in libraries has become such a popular trend, that this Saturday, November 15th is actually National Gaming Day @ your library! It's amazing how far we've come.
Your Tasks: Come to the library on Sunday November 23, from 5-8PM for our Technology Petting Zoo and Game Night! Play! Have fun!
Bonus links: Gaming in the library doesn't have to just be video games. One Australian library, for example, checks out sports equipment as part of their library collection. Another creative use of gaming in the library is this company, who creates miniature golf courses inside libraries for use in special events and fundraisers. Game on!
After our Technology Petting Zoo, we will finish out the night with a staff game night! Why game night? Well, for one, it's a lot of fun (just ask the folk who were there last time). Two, gaming has been in the news an awful lot lately, but there are many misconceptions as to what gaming is and who gamers really are. For example, I imagine that many of you do not consider yourselves gamers, but if you play Solitare or Minesweeper on your computer or go online to play Text Twist and Bookworm, you are a gamer. According to the newest Pew Internet Survey, 97% of American teens play some sort of video game, whether on their computer, cellphone, or gaming console. 97%. 94% of girls are gamers, and 99% of boys. That difference is surprising, because it's a commonly held belief that girls just don't play video games. Maybe that's not so true anymore. According to another study produced by IGN and Ipsos MediaCT, More than 47% of adult gamers said that playing video games was a fun way to interact with their family. They were also 11% more likely to go out and play sports than non-gamers, and twice as likely to go out on dates in a given month than non-gamers.
Gaming has become such a prevalent part of life that many libraries are adding gaming to their programming. Ann Arbor even has their own gaming leaderboard. We have had a gaming program for almost as long as I've been here, and we have at least 30 teens show up consistently every week. Usually, that number is more! Some libraries even have a circulating video game collection.
Gaming in libraries has become such a popular trend, that this Saturday, November 15th is actually National Gaming Day @ your library! It's amazing how far we've come.
Your Tasks: Come to the library on Sunday November 23, from 5-8PM for our Technology Petting Zoo and Game Night! Play! Have fun!
Bonus links: Gaming in the library doesn't have to just be video games. One Australian library, for example, checks out sports equipment as part of their library collection. Another creative use of gaming in the library is this company, who creates miniature golf courses inside libraries for use in special events and fundraisers. Game on!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Challenge 21: Windows Tips and Tricks
Everyone should know by know that your first line of defense in computer troubleshooting is to restart. If a program is giving you issues, close it and try again. If your computer is running slowly/won't print/won't open a program, restart it and try again. Most computer problems seem to magically go away when you restart.
What should you do if the screen seems too big for the monitor?
Sometimes our patrons open up windows that just seem to be too big for the screen. The window requires you to scroll side to side a lot, or even worse, won't let you scroll at all and just cuts off part of the window. What do you do? Well, try changing the screen resolution. Making the screen resolution higher will cause the items on the screen to look smaller (change from 800x600 to 1024x768 for example), and allow everything to fit on the screen as it should. Follow the tutorial here to find out how to change the screen resolution on an XP computer. You may have to close the window and open it again to make the changes take effect.
If you are having trouble getting a patron computer to send something to the printer, I have had some success with deselecting the printer and selecting it again. For example, go to "file" and "print", which should bring up the print options screen. At the top it will have a place to select the printer to send the file to. Change this to another printer on the list, and then switch it back to the Public Monitor printer. Click "apply" at the bottom, and then "print" to send the file to the printer. This doesn't always work, but it is worth a shot.
I'll be focusing on this later, but here is Windows tutorial on how to connect to a wireless network. When I do the technology petting zoo, you all will get to try this for yourselves. Note: Be careful with patron laptops! Do not change anything that you are not familiar with, and do not hesitate to come find me if you are not comfortable fiddling with someone else's piece of expensive machinery.
And last but not least, Keyboard shortcuts. Some of these may take some getting used to, and may take longer than the manual way until you get used to them, but a lot of these are lifesavers for me. CTRL+C (copy) and CTRL+V (paste) especially. Another of my favorites is CTRL+T, which opens up a new browsing tab in both IE and Firefox.
Your task: Explore these Windows tips and tricks. Were you already familiar with any of these? Do any of these seem especially helpful? Any other things you wish you knew how to do in XP? I'll try to provide answers in the comments here. Also, if you have any tips or tricks for us, please share!
Bonus link:
Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User. This blog post on the NYT has a massive 55 pages of comments where readers share their own tips.
How to communicate with IT. Sometimes it's hard to express your computer problems to myself or Gary, especially over the phone. This article has some pretty good tips on helping us help you.
What should you do if the screen seems too big for the monitor?
Sometimes our patrons open up windows that just seem to be too big for the screen. The window requires you to scroll side to side a lot, or even worse, won't let you scroll at all and just cuts off part of the window. What do you do? Well, try changing the screen resolution. Making the screen resolution higher will cause the items on the screen to look smaller (change from 800x600 to 1024x768 for example), and allow everything to fit on the screen as it should. Follow the tutorial here to find out how to change the screen resolution on an XP computer. You may have to close the window and open it again to make the changes take effect.
If you are having trouble getting a patron computer to send something to the printer, I have had some success with deselecting the printer and selecting it again. For example, go to "file" and "print", which should bring up the print options screen. At the top it will have a place to select the printer to send the file to. Change this to another printer on the list, and then switch it back to the Public Monitor printer. Click "apply" at the bottom, and then "print" to send the file to the printer. This doesn't always work, but it is worth a shot.
I'll be focusing on this later, but here is Windows tutorial on how to connect to a wireless network. When I do the technology petting zoo, you all will get to try this for yourselves. Note: Be careful with patron laptops! Do not change anything that you are not familiar with, and do not hesitate to come find me if you are not comfortable fiddling with someone else's piece of expensive machinery.
And last but not least, Keyboard shortcuts. Some of these may take some getting used to, and may take longer than the manual way until you get used to them, but a lot of these are lifesavers for me. CTRL+C (copy) and CTRL+V (paste) especially. Another of my favorites is CTRL+T, which opens up a new browsing tab in both IE and Firefox.
Your task: Explore these Windows tips and tricks. Were you already familiar with any of these? Do any of these seem especially helpful? Any other things you wish you knew how to do in XP? I'll try to provide answers in the comments here. Also, if you have any tips or tricks for us, please share!
Bonus link:
Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User. This blog post on the NYT has a massive 55 pages of comments where readers share their own tips.
How to communicate with IT. Sometimes it's hard to express your computer problems to myself or Gary, especially over the phone. This article has some pretty good tips on helping us help you.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Challenge 20: Open Source Software
I mentioned open source software in Challenge 15, and this challenge will focus on more open source alternatives to popular software.
Open source software is not just software that has source code available for other developers. Other requirements are that the software must be available for free redistribution, and that derivative works must be allowed and distributed just like the original software. The full list of criteria can be read at the link above.
Have you ever used open source software? Firefox is probably the most well known open source software, but OpenOffice is probably getting pretty close to Firefox's popularity. OpenOffice is an open source alternative to Microsoft Office, and which looks and works very similarly to the Office Suite. GIMP is an open source alternative to Photoshop, and Thunderbird is Mozilla's open source alternative to Outlook and Outlook Express. ClamWin is an open source Anti-virus program, whose only drawback seems to be that it will not catch virus files automatically. You must scan your computer in order to see if any of your files are infected by viruses. There are even two open source ILS systems, Koha and Evergreen.
Your Challenge: Explore Open Source Windows and the OSSwin Project. Are you familiar with any of these programs? Try one out. How close is the open source program to the proprietary one? Would you ever switch to an open source program?
Bonus Link: The Free Software Foundation is a similar movement to Open Source. GNU mainly refers to Linux software, and you can read their philosophy here, and their rebuttal to the open source movement here.
Open source software is not just software that has source code available for other developers. Other requirements are that the software must be available for free redistribution, and that derivative works must be allowed and distributed just like the original software. The full list of criteria can be read at the link above.
Have you ever used open source software? Firefox is probably the most well known open source software, but OpenOffice is probably getting pretty close to Firefox's popularity. OpenOffice is an open source alternative to Microsoft Office, and which looks and works very similarly to the Office Suite. GIMP is an open source alternative to Photoshop, and Thunderbird is Mozilla's open source alternative to Outlook and Outlook Express. ClamWin is an open source Anti-virus program, whose only drawback seems to be that it will not catch virus files automatically. You must scan your computer in order to see if any of your files are infected by viruses. There are even two open source ILS systems, Koha and Evergreen.
Your Challenge: Explore Open Source Windows and the OSSwin Project. Are you familiar with any of these programs? Try one out. How close is the open source program to the proprietary one? Would you ever switch to an open source program?
Bonus Link: The Free Software Foundation is a similar movement to Open Source. GNU mainly refers to Linux software, and you can read their philosophy here, and their rebuttal to the open source movement here.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Keeping Up in the Information Age
Challenge 19: Organizational Homepages
There is a lot of information available on the internet. Sometimes, we get so spread out over email sites, RSS readers, social networking sites, and our own bookmarks that it's difficult to keep track of everything. Organizational Homepages are here to help.
Each organizational homepage is a little different. Some are linked up with your email, so if you log out of your email you will also be logged out of your homepage. If you have more than one email and login and out frequently, these might not be our best bet. Some are completely stand-alone. You can even find an organizational homepage that is more visually intensive, in case you prefer that to text.
Helpful tours:
Netvibes (Pageflakes does not have a tour, but works similarly to Netvibes.)
iGoogle
My Yahoo
Symbaloo
Your Task: Explore the sites above. You can take the tour instead of creating an account on each site, but do create an account on one of them. (If you have a Yahoo or Google account, you already have a My Yahoo and iGoogle page!) How do you think this could be helpful? Were you already using one of these services? What are the drawbacks you see?
Bonus Link: Being Wired or Being Tired: 10 Ways to Cope with Information Overload.
There is a lot of information available on the internet. Sometimes, we get so spread out over email sites, RSS readers, social networking sites, and our own bookmarks that it's difficult to keep track of everything. Organizational Homepages are here to help.
Each organizational homepage is a little different. Some are linked up with your email, so if you log out of your email you will also be logged out of your homepage. If you have more than one email and login and out frequently, these might not be our best bet. Some are completely stand-alone. You can even find an organizational homepage that is more visually intensive, in case you prefer that to text.
Helpful tours:
Netvibes (Pageflakes does not have a tour, but works similarly to Netvibes.)
iGoogle
My Yahoo
Symbaloo
Your Task: Explore the sites above. You can take the tour instead of creating an account on each site, but do create an account on one of them. (If you have a Yahoo or Google account, you already have a My Yahoo and iGoogle page!) How do you think this could be helpful? Were you already using one of these services? What are the drawbacks you see?
Bonus Link: Being Wired or Being Tired: 10 Ways to Cope with Information Overload.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Challenge 18: The Web 2.0 Awards
We covered the Web 2.0 Awards last time, but I think there is enough new material to make this worth checking out again! The site profiles the top three in a number of categories, and lists a few more as honorable mentions. Sites are judged by usability, usefulness, how much of a social aspect it includes, design and content quality. Some interesting categories I saw: Genealogy, Questions and Advice (logging on to one of those would be an interesting way of doing reference outreach), and Books.
Your Challenge: Explore the rest of the Web 2.0 Awards. Did you find anything useful? Anything that you would recommend to a patron?
Your Challenge: Explore the rest of the Web 2.0 Awards. Did you find anything useful? Anything that you would recommend to a patron?
Monday, November 3, 2008
Challenge 17: Overdrive!
One of our newest features at the library is the ability to download media from Overdrive through the Kentucky Libraries Unbound Consortium. With a library card, our patrons can download audiobooks, ebooks, and even some music and video, 24 hours a day from the convenience of their own homes. Overdrive provides a quick-start guide to help walk patrons through their first visit to the site, as well as a list of commonly asked questions about the service, and a list of devices patrons can use with the Overdrive files.
Like items in the library, most Overdrive files can only be checked out by one person at a time. (There are always available audiobooks, but the majority of items are only available until they are checked out. But never fear! Patrons can put overdrive files on hold, just like they can on regular library items. They even offer a wish list, in case you don't want to check it out right away, but want to remember it for later.
Your Challenge: Explore the Kentucky Libraries Unbound Overdrive site. You may want to take the guided tour first. Try downloading something. Could you answer simple questions that patrons may have about the new service?
Like items in the library, most Overdrive files can only be checked out by one person at a time. (There are always available audiobooks, but the majority of items are only available until they are checked out. But never fear! Patrons can put overdrive files on hold, just like they can on regular library items. They even offer a wish list, in case you don't want to check it out right away, but want to remember it for later.
Your Challenge: Explore the Kentucky Libraries Unbound Overdrive site. You may want to take the guided tour first. Try downloading something. Could you answer simple questions that patrons may have about the new service?
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