Category: events

rock and roll library tours

Posted on by jessamyn

The High Strung [myspace] is on a National Rock & Roll Library Tour this Summer. How do I know? I read about it on Flickr. In other mashup-type news, Bloodhag [myspace] has come out with … a book. Who else is touring libraries this Summer? Jetpack UK [myspace] and Harry and the Potters [myspace].

Marylaine has a nice write-up about the power of these shows to do a little image improvement for the public library.

Two quotes that echo 100% of the surveyed results:

“Before it was just ole ladies and now it’s young people. It’s a lot of fun.”

“Yes it did, it made me think that if librarians could make a library not very much a library, basically anyone could do anything,” said one ten-year old.

The High Strung enjoyed the library tour as well. Not surprisingly, they say, librarians are better at organizing and promoting rock shows than most rock promoters. And have better pay etiquette. Of course, on a regular tour, they don’t have to stick around for a Q&A after every show.

Library Camp East, 2006 – join me!

Posted on by jessamyn

Newest on my “list of librarians on IM who I bug a lot” is John Blyberg (I know, I am slow on the uptake) who I haven’t met and in fact had never seen until this past conference. This will all change at Library Camp East, coming in on the tail end of the Virgo Month of Leisure, on Septemebr 25th in Darien Connecticut. It’s an unconference which means that anti-authoritarian — and broke — dorks like me will probably appreciate it. I’m just hoping I can carpool with both Meredith and Casey. Here’s the wiki. sign up and I’ll see you there.

OSLC: Unique Events, PT Barnum and Muffin Stumps

Posted on by jessamyn

This was presented by Jim Mann. I have no idea why the “ten things” talk was so popular and this one was so sparsely attended. It was a program on upgrading public PCs to make them live longer. “All you need is a screwdriver and a credit card” the problem is mostly about the philosophy and somewhat about the budget.

Unique events are the ones that shape policy, patrons wanting to do a specific thing. Sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re bad. They spur people to action more than tech planning. Keep an eye out for them, they will cause change to happen, quickly.

The Digital Divide is really between the board, staff and public.

– Actual images of hardware installation, put in USB drives, DVD burners and XP upgrades (and of course memory)
– Lock the machine down (old PAC securityo tool, DeepFreeze, Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit)
– Deploy it using Ghost or Altiris

BUT there may be other ways to buy computers that are as functional and as cheap “how much money do you want to put into that Gates Computer?” According to users, what makes a computer up to date? They’re black, flat panel monitor, “XP feel”

In the Ohio library system, “entertainment” is in their mission statement which means they have to have computers to support that (for videos, for music, games, social networking). Why upgrade? Well if you can’t get parts for it anywhere but EBay. When you’re deciding who gets the best computers: reference, circ, public, OPAC in that order. “Use throwaway computers for your OPACs”

We looked at the Tiger Direct site just to see that computers really were as cheap as he was saying they were.

OSLC: Ten Things to Do to Your Computer Today

Posted on by jessamyn

Presented by Don Yarman & Jim Mann. Online at www.oplin.org/presentations/tenthings.ppt

This was a nice “how to” discussion which had matter-of-fact advice about keeping your Windows machines current. It’s rare to see these go smoothly without a lot of “Why is Microsoft so BAD?!” talk, this was very value neutral and very well-received.

The best thing I learned: how to change nag messages telling you about updates/firewall/virus protection

baseline: updates, firewall, anitvirus, spyware removal. details vary
for: windows pc with internet connections
suggested sites: Windows Secrets, How to keep your PC spyware and malware free for nothing

meta information: ConsumerSearch.com
firewall: Microsoft Firewall info, ZoneAlarm if you don’t have XP
antivirus: Avast, AVG Free, House Call (free online scanner) and SysClean (triage computer fixing)
adware: “one program is not enough” SpyWare Sweeper, Spyware Doctor. Free: MS Windows Defender Ad-Aware

They discussed the difference between upgrading and updating and problems that are associated with each one.

“You will be amazed how many of your programs want to communicate with the Internet. PowerPoint communicates with the Internet.” How do you decide? “Google it and find out what other people are saying about it. We’re all good reference librarians.”

Know where to get help: Google, WebJunction, Vendor sites, Microsoft, Join a user group
The road less travelled: Firefox, Open Office, Gmail, Apple, Linux [Linspire/Ubuntu]
buy twice as much of everything: RAM, hard drives, wireless, new monitor, upgraded software, have a test/throw away computer (tigerdirect.com)
update: operating system, firewall rules, antivirus definitions, adware definitions
book suggestion: How to Expand and Upgrade your PC