Magic Tricks & Maintenance

Helping the Public Learn Technology

Nebraska Library Commission
Big Talk for Small Libraries
Jessamyn West

Handouts & Files

• Slides - PDF , Keynote format, PowerPoint format

Links to cited sources

• Without a Net: Librarians Bridging the Digital Divide - book I wrote with companion website.
• Pew Research Center's reports on Internet & Technology
• Non users would need help getting online graphic from Pew Home Broadband report
• Broadband Adoption and Use in America & NY Times summary [pdf]
• Competing media messages image
• Jakob Nielsen's Three Stages of the Digital Divide
• Pew Internet & American Life Project August 2010 report about adoption slowdown
• IRS Advancing E-file Study
• Phil Agre - How to help someone use a computer

The How

• Four things to do
  • simple lessons and tasks with success as a primary objective
  • open-ended questions and discussions
  • repear, review, remind
  • problem solving approach - yours and theirs
• Four things you think you shouldn't do (but you should)
  • write down passwords
  • give concrete suggestions
  • ignore/say no sometimes
  • make the computer as much like the user's own computer as possible
• Four things to avoid
  • "sucks" and other negative language
  • grabbing the mouse and other body language
  • overgeeking
  • getting too preachy
• Four phrases to remember
  • "If I am using words that you don't understand I am not doing my job as well as I could be."
  • "We might be able to change that in the program's default settings"
  • "This is a poorly designed website."
  • "I don't know but let's find out."

Credits

• Kimball Library strategic plan
• Houdini and Mrs. Benninghofen image (from slides) from Library of Congress
• Background image of Chimney Rock from Wikimedia Commons