There are not nearly enough stories about disabled librarians, considering how large and ubiquitous the profession is and how much we strive to serve disabled patrons. I enjoyed this article about a blind librarian and the work she does at the Philippine National School for the Blind. [filipino librarian]
OSLC: Unique Events, PT Barnum and Muffin Stumps
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
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
Hello from the Ohio Small Libraries Conference
Hi from Columbus Ohio. The Ohio Library Council IT division has their own blog and you can read a bit about the conference there. If you look around at some of the other blogs the contributers from that blog also post to, you’ll find great stuff like Library Geek Woes and the Spotlight on Ohio Libraries blog. My two talks are here:
The Information Poor & the Information Don’t Care, Small Libraries and the Digital Divide (a slightly updated version of my favorite talk)
Until We’re All Robots: Sensible Approaches to Technology in Libraries (a more philosophical talk that I’m afraid wasn’t as accessible as I thought it would be)
Tomorrow I’m sitting in on a few talks as well as participating in the closing summary session, Then I’m getting a late flight to the airport and arriving home at midnight, after most of the Sampson family has already arrived for the graduation festivities. My family and Greg’s sister get in on Friday. You can see the bug I found in my shower on Flickr here. Other than that, I’m having a pretty nice time.
thing blog thing blog
Library Thing takes on the tags vs. subject headings debate in their new thing-ology blog, a complement to their other blog.