Keyboard Functions to Learn & Use

During my Tech Talk presentation last week a request was made for some basic computer training. I can't think of anything more basic than simple keyboard functions that work as shortcuts for many word processing tasks. So, here is a short list of keyboard function to learn and use:

Pressing Ctrl plus I will italicize any highlighted area.

Pressing Ctrl plus C will copy any highlighted area.

Pressing Ctrl plus V will paste the last text copied.

Pressing Ctrl plus B will bold any highlighted area.

Pressing Ctrl plus U will underline any highlighted area.

Pressing Ctrl plus + will enlarge all images on the screen. Ctrl plus - will shrink it.

Use the tab key to move to the next box when filling in a form.

Press Ctrl plus PrtScn, then paste into a word document (or another document) to copy of picture of the screen.

Double clicking on a word will highlight the whole word. Triple clicking will highlight the line. (Clicking four times doesn't do anything, sorry.) But Ctrl plus A will highlight a whole page.

Press Ctrl plus F to get a "find" box. This is a search box; type in the word you are looking for and each instance of that word will be highlighted. Use the next button to progress through the document.

There are more, but this is enough for now. I have more NELA blogging to do....

NELA Conference 2008

I just got back from the NELA Conference in Manchester, NH (beautiful time of year to make that drive!) where I blogged for the Library as Commons session. Check out the entire NELA Conf. blog when you get a chance, it's proving to be quite informative.

These conferences are always great places to hear new ideas and meet interesting people. I had lunch with a woman from LIS in Providence, RI. We were bemoaning budget cuts, the inevitability of cutting services, etc., when we got side-tracked and started talking about inter-library loan and World Cat. If I understood her correctly patrons in RI can request a book directly from World Cat and it will be sent to their homes, postage required, of course. I started brainstorming about a way that this service could be offered to all patrons, free of charge. I haven't done any research on this yet, this is all just rumbling around in my head, but wouldn't it be great if libraries could, individually, pay a postage subscription to World Cat and any patron with a library card from that library could get books delivered to their homes for no charge? This would be a great service for shut-ins.

After my day at NELA I have a new wish list for the DFL:

A television in the periodical reading room tuned to MSNBC (or whatever news station), with the volume off, naturally.

Patron-set due dates for materials that they will be using for research or for materials they are planning on taking out of town. This would save some time for the circulation staff with renewals and be excellent customer service. There would have to be exceptions - no new release books or DVDs, no items with holds, or items used for current school projects. But I think it has merit and is worth looking into.

Interactive displays with hand-outs, looped presentations on computers, anything that would make them more exciting than just a table full of books. The displays should also change more frequently. Karen does a nice job with displays in the fiction department and we need to start doing more of it upstairs in the non-fiction section.

I'm looking forward to more NELA tomorrow - wikis and more!

After another too long break from blogging, I'm determined to get back into the habit of regular posting. I taught a class last night which was basically a tour through the library's website. It went very well, response was positive, and I feel like the people who attended left with a deeper understanding of the services offered remotely. The general impression I got was that this type of class should be offered more than once a year and I plan on making that suggestion to the director. Having some hands-on time with computers during the class would also be a good idea. (See ladies, those evaluation sheets are helpful!)

During the class I talked about some of my favorite websites and promised to post them here. Two good beginner social networking sites are Facebook and Flickr. For a "portable" list of favorites use Delicious. The woman who wanted to find people should look at Anywho or People Search. My favorite search engine is Dogpile.

I know I spend entirely too much time in front of my computer and my level of excitement over technology will not be matched by most people. At least an hour of my day is devoted to finding new and useful sites to share with the staff and patrons at DFL. That is my job. What I do hope however, is that I can make your life just a little bit easier, or add a little fun to your day, by sharing the information I have. So to my "students" I say explore, play, don't be afraid to follow links, and remember that you won't break anything. Please take advantage of our Book-A-Librarian program and don't ever be afraid to ask us questions, that is why we're here.

Can summer really be over?

It's been a while... this blog has joined ranks with many other things I neglected over the summer in the name of fun, family, and just plain life. Although I never intended this blog to be anything other than a professional/academic outlet, I'm going to break my rule and do some personal musing.

For anyone who knows me you already know this summer has been a busy one. Here are the high points:

A week ago I picked up my oldest boy, 15, from two weeks away at camp. Fifteen year old boys are strange, I know that, but he came back to me a stranger. It's amazing what pulling a young teenager out of his normal existence and putting him in a group of 119 other kids will do. He came back with a foul mouth (not that he hasn't heard/said everything already, it just seems dirtier now), a sarcastic nature, hair on his legs (okay, he left with that too, but again, it seems dirtier now), what seems like a few inches in height, and just a general feeling of not being mine anymore. I know the experience was good for him, and it was good for me to have a bit of a break with one less child in the house, but it is taking us a while to get back to the status quo.

My other two kids had a good time with their brother out of the house, their bond grew deeper which was nice to watch. The oldest and youngest now share something that the middle child wasn't a part of - not something that usually happens.

Work was extraordinarily busy this summer. Lots of new tech stuff going on, and I'll get to that in my next post. In the midst of enjoying the summer reading program, hot summer reads and overall elevated levels of circulation, the entire staff was saddened by the loss of fellow colleague, friend, and mentor Judy Sime. Judy was a lovely person, full of grace and dignity while she fought her battle with cancer. In so many ways she has been an inspiration to me, as well, I am sure, to many. She will be greatly missed.

My little family has added two new kittens to the mix, putting me dangerously close to becoming the crazy cat lady I have nightmares about. I think I'm just one pair of sensible shoes away from the abyss! But if Franks and Beans (gotta love it when kids name pets, right?) are my downfall then so be it, I've never seen two more adorable kittens. Unfortunately Franks is suffering from either a very bad cold or a fatal kitty virus, one that there is no test, and no cure for. We are doing everything we can to keep her going - sitting for hours with her in a steamy bathroom, lots of meds, and of course lots of love. She's a fighter and we're hoping for the best. If you're interested, pictures can be seen here.

My girlfriends and I have instituted First Fridays as a way to stay connected. Everyone seems to be going in so many different directions it's been hard to get together, but now we have a plan to meet the first Friday of each month for food, wine and great conversation.

And I think one of the best things that happened this summer is, through Facebook, I've reconnected with one of my best friends from high school. She's living in California now but comes back to the East Coast a few times a year. We have plans to get together in October to celebrate our 45th birthdays in Manhattan. Rest assured, there will not be a post about that!

That just about does it. What's next? Possibly another class, although I'm still trying to figure that out. There are a lot of exciting things on the horizon at work. My kids start school on Tuesday, which doesn't seem possible, but I guess then things will get back to what we call normal.

ILS599 Final Project

The final project for ILS599 is to devise a Web 2.0 plan for a library. The Duxbury Free Library is currently in the process of upgrading its services to incorporate Web 2.0 technologies that our patrons could benefit from most. As reference librarian and “accidental techist”, I have been responsible for identifying needs and planning the implementation for these new services. The plan presented here is an actual representation of what is currently happening at the DFL.

Duxbury, Massachusetts is a town that expects a lot from local services. For the most part, members of this community are affluent, college educated, professional, liberal, and forward-thinking. They take an active part in community development and planning. Library usage is high. The children in this community are active in sports and artistic endeavors and perform well in school. The library is located on the public school campus, which also has playing fields, an indoor swimming and diving pool, and a recreation center. Historically our patrons are on the cutting edge of technology; they have the expendable income to purchase the latest gadgets. Our goal is to raise the technology level of the library to meet our patron’s need and desires by adding IM Reference service and two Flickr accounts.

IM Reference is an instant messaging service that will allow patrons real time internet access to the reference staff. A widget, or tool, will be put on the DFL webpage and patrons simply type their question in the text box, hit enter, and the message will show up on the screen at the reference desk at the library. Communication will continue in this way, with the librarian answering back from an instant messaging account set up for this purpose.

Flickr is a photo sharing application that puts pictures that the library chooses on the internet. Pictures, taken with a digital camera and downloaded onto a computer, are then uploaded into the Flickr account. After they are organized and labeled they are able to be viewed by the public from a link on the DFL webpage.

The duties of the full time reference librarian include the research and implementation of new technology for the library. Any staff time spent on these endeavors is therefore “free” of additional charge to the library.

Reference statistics prove that our patrons are using the electronic databases frequently with an average of 10,000 searches a year; in person visits average over 30,000 a year. Although the DFL already has a large user-ship for its current reference services, the addition of IM reference will open the door for a new form of communication. Many patrons are already using IM daily; the DFL hopes to capture this audience in addition to our walk-in, phone, and email patrons.

Personal Meebo accounts have already been set up by the director and the reference librarian. Over the next few weeks each of the seven regular reference staff members will be instructed to set up their own account in order to practice instant messaging in house. An open discussion will be held at the July reference meeting to review best practices and troubleshoot any problems. After the staff becomes familiar with the process “dummy” reference questions will be directed to a Meebo account set up at the reference desk. This way the staff will gain practice answering questions of a varied nature.

A week before the start of the school year, a Meebo widget will be put on the library’s webpage. The reference staff member on desk duty will handle the IM questions; no additional staffing will be required.

After the initial launch a PR campaign including buttons and bookmarks will begin. The library owns a button maker and bookmarks can be printed in house. Cost will be minimal. Flyers will go out to the schools on a staggered basis so as not to get too much IM activity at once. The goal is to build users gradually, giving the staff time to get used to this new service.

(Timeline for Meebo)

(Problems/Concerns)

In order to increase patron interest in the DFL’s online presence two Flickr accounts are being set up – one for adults, one for children. The adult account will include sets titled “Programming”, “Staff”, and “Building”. The children’s account will have sets titled “Programs”, “Displays”, and “Summer”. There is no charge for the Flickr accounts, the library already owns a digital camera, and the reference librarian will be responsible for maintaining the accounts, so there will be no cost to the library for this application.

(Timeline for Flickr)

(Problems/Concerns)

The Duxbury Free Library is very excited to be enhancing its services to patrons with Web 2.0 technology. For the second year the DFL will offer a free “Tech Talk” series to the public. This series will include four 1 ½ hour long presentations on the fourth Thursday of the month, starting in October and running until February, with the exception of December. The tentative line-up includes “What’s New at the DFL” by the reference librarian, “Gadget Petting Zoo” by local retailers, “Digital Photography” (presenter has not yet been booked), and “Social Networking for Grown-ups” by Jessamyn West.

Our hope is to continue this series annually as long as there is public interest in technology. The staff is dedicated to offering the best service possible, keeping ourselves abreast of the current trends, and anticipating the needs of our patrons. This series, combined with the addition of the above mention web 2.0 applications, puts us closer to the leading edge of technology.

Now what? Redux

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called "Now What?". My life since then has been almost all web 2.0 all the time. Work, school, free time – it has all been spent either learning about web 2.0 applications, trying to figure out how to use them most efficiently, and of course, keeping up with my Scrabulous games!

So, what do I feel about this "stuff" now?Flickr is still one of my favorite web 2.0 applications. I've spent the past few weeks playing around with an account for the library. This afternoon I sat with one of the children's librarians and showed her how to set up an account for their department too. I think, after we link from the library's webpage to the Flickr accounts, our pictures will be seen and enjoyed by more people. I know the pictures I've posted on my personal account have been looked at over and over again. I only have one complaint about Flickr : I'm a librarian, and I've already admitted to being a little fussy about things…I'd like to see deeper levels of organization available.

I'm coming around a little to Facebook, but still have a hard time seeing it used in any practical way in my current position. I know a lot of libraries have a presence on Facebook, but it doesn't feel like a good fit for the DFL right now. Our YA librarian is using it and just the other day was experiencing a great surge of interest from “her kids” after tagging some photos she uploaded on her page. As a personal social networking tool, I'm still a little bit on the fence. One of the things I find most fascinating about it is that even though I see my Facebook "friends" from work almost every day, and I'm involved in a Scrabulous game with almost all of them, we hardly ever mention our Facebook "relationships". I'm also still hoping for more meaningful professional connections, more network and a little less social. With that in mind, I'd love for my classmates to add me as a friend to their Facebook accounts so we can keep in touch while we continue down this path of higher education! I’d be especially interested in hearing how you apply the concepts we’ve been discussing in this class to your jobs.

One thing I am very excited about is IM Reference at the DFL. I just got the official go-ahead from the director to get the ball rolling on this project. (For my SCSU mates, there will me more detail in my Final Project on this at the end of the week.) We're going to go slowly with the staff and plan on doing the launch with the public for the start of the school year in September. I like IM; I wish I used it more. Today at lunch I was talking with a member of the circulation staff and she expressed an interest in using it in-house as well, so maybe there's some hope of adding another form of communication for the staff here.

I have no experience with Twitter but have been keeping an eye on it. I found a great example of a library using it as an event push and can finally see where we might be able to add this to our growing arsenal of technology. Nothing solid in the works yet, but I will definitely keep watching Twitter developments.

So, do I still feel like a Wallflower 2.0? Not exactly. But all of this immersion into web 2.0 applications, admittedly doubly concentrated because of this class, has made me wonder if I'm leaving real people and real relationships behind. I think a balance is what's needed, personally and professionally. Half of my day is spent at the reference desk assisting patrons. I love this part of my job just as much as I love playing with the tech stuff. I think if my entire day had to be spent on either of those, ie, all public service or all technology, I would not be a happy librarian. After this class is over I'm going to try to make sure at least half of my social interactions are done in person, or at least without a keyboard.

IM in the library

It's finally Friday and I'm heading to the cape for some restorative camping. But before I go I have some SCSU housekeeping to take care of…

My class has been talking about blogs, wikis, IM, basically all the things that I'm completely immersed in at my job. It's been fun and, of course, educational. We're talking a lot about how these and other web 2.0 applications work, and how and why libraries should use them, but I'd still like to hear some testimonials, if you will, from librarians who are currently using these tools in their libraries. I know here in Duxbury the reference wiki I set up has been a tremendous success. It met our expectations and even had a few bonuses that we were not expecting. I've started to archive previous months reference questions, mainly because I'm a little funny that way (I won't use the "A" word), and also because even though we didn't keep the paper version of the reference questions list I feel like at some point I'll be able to turn this electronic version into another kind of tool for us.

Back to the class…one of our assignments for this week was to get some experience using IM. We used the Meebo IM aggregater, one of the more popular IM tools. I already had a Meebo account set up (dmbgarvin, in case you want to add me to your friends list), thanks to a workshop I attended at SEMLS a few months ago. Lately I've been trying to get a few other staff members on board with the concept in preparation for our launch of IM Reference, hopefully by the start of the schools year.

For anyone who doesn't know what Meebo is, it's basically a single IM account that you set up one time with any and all IM screen names you have. It will allow you to talk with anyone else with a Meebo account, even if you are an AIM person and your friend is a Yahoo person. Great tool, really; it pulls the IM community together and enlarges the circle of communication.

So, the class was supposed to "check in" via IM with Rebecca, the distance education librarian at SCSU and one of the instructors for the class. Then, she wanted us to join the ILL599 chat room she set up on Meebo specifically for the class. I popped in three or four times and every time I was the only one there. Which wasn't really surprising to me, it's a fairly small class and there were no designated hours. I have group chatted before and find it to be a little hard to follow.

Where do I see IM in libraries…..reference definitely, circulation maybe, YA librarians probably, although it could be distracting. IM chat rooms, not really. What I don't like about the rooms are the questions and comments that hang without being answered, or conversation threads that are overlapping numerous other conversation threads. I'm way too linear for that! I think if a bunch of people (I'm thinking young people here) are just "hanging out" it can be fun, but if it's a tool to share information I'd rather see a one on one situation. The name is very fitting – Chat Room – it's a great place to chat, but not to have any kind of serious or meaningful interaction.

So those are my thoughts of the day on instant messaging. Have a wonderful weekend everyone, I'm off to pitch a tent, roll out my sleeping bag, and catch up on some reading!