the impact of touch screens

Touch screen technology is a huge part of our daily lives. Many of you may have realized this trying to decide between the basic Kindle and the Kindle Touch. The technology itself is no longer the novelty and businesses are looking for new ways to put it to use. NPR just did a story about iPads in the classroom and hospitals. It also took a look at the psychology of touch screens, especially in relation to children. They are connecting to their devices in a way that older generations may not understand. It wasn't necessarily possible with the analog technologies of the past but now it is commonplace across the board. The story concludes with a look forward at a touch screen that can both give and receive information. It could change again the way we interact with tablets, cell phones, mp3 players and other devices.


http://www.npr.org/2011/12/26/144146395/the-touchy-feely-future-of-technology

Could be useful for you.

When sharing big files and especially lots of photos with others as you might following a vacation or holiday, a really good way to do that is to use sendspace.com. It lets you zip your files. It is free and very simple to use. Doesn't take long either. Great to know about when you need it.

Staff Picks

I was writing about some Staff Picks about Spanish items (movies, books for adults and children, etc.) in Spanish language and I noticed that when I finished writing them and saved them, then I could not come back to them to fix some grammar or vocabulary errors in those paragraphs I wrote.

For your information in regards to editing Staff Picks reviews: only accounts designated as staff accounts have the ability to edit or delete reviews and because I started writing Staff Picks as a library patron, my account has not been set up as a staff account. Since I already have an account, I will need to establish a separate one that is designated with ALD as the prefix. Once I have created the staff account, I should submit a web site ticket to ask that this account be designated as a staff account.

Once the ticket is closed I would have the ability to edit and delete reviews. I could do this by 1) logging into my account and then 2) go to http://arapahoelibraries.org/dashboard. From this view, I should see all of the reviews I have submitted.

Also it is very difficult to transfer the existing reviews to the new staff account I can get, but I can cut and paste those reviews I wrote until this moment.

Moreover if I would like to delete my old patron account, I could submit that request and put it in a ticket.

Of course all this information I have provided by this NL Tech Talk, you can also use it for Staff Picks in English language.

Thanks and ALWAYS ENJOY LIFE IN ALL WAYS!.

Happy Holidays!.

I LOVE MY NEW COLOR NOOK

I did quite a bit of research before deciding on the Nook. I found some really good review articles on ALD's Professional Development Blog, as well as the Internet. Once I made this decision, I went back to ALD's Professional Development Blog(found on Staffbook under Collaboration Tools - Blogs) and did a keyword search for Nook. Nick Taylor had posted a wonderful article in July 23, 2011, entitled "How to Put Library Books from Overdrive on Your Nook - A visual Tutorial." The language used is simple and the visual "screen shots" make the step by step process easy to understand. I found this article very helpful to me, as a new Nook user, and it would also be useful to share with our patrons who are just getting started with this process.
Check out this link: http://beingruth.com/tutorial-library-books-nook-overdrive/ I also learned a lot from those who posted comments on Nick's blog, including some great troubleshooting techniques.

 Experiencing discoveries during my e-reader training and finding ways to better serve our customers with these e-readers.

 I have discovered that "My Help!" on the on demand screen is a wonderful sight to have patrons go to when they want to familiarized themselves with the process of getting themselves set up to utilize e-readers.  This sight gives you step by step instructions and best of all it is user friendly and even customers who are not comfortable with technology are able to feel confident on what they are trying to achieve.
I have also encounter that sometimes patrons are having difficulty signing in with their email address and password when authorzing computer and sometimes other windows open up during this process.  This seems to happen when internet access is very slow.  This can be very confusing to first time users. I had a case when this kept happening and we tried to see if patron was already sign in by going to the on demand screen and seeing if she could checkout an item.  Sure enough she was already signed in.  What have you all experience?

Tell us about your ereader!

Hi NL Techies!
Many, many of you are taking advantage of ALD's great deal to help fund a portion of your ereader purchase. I am enjoying seeing the variety of devices being chosen by NL's staff. Tell us about what you bought! Why did you choose that make and model? What are your challenges and successes with your new device? What do you love about it? What do you wish were different? Share your learning with us.

Rebootable CD

As nobody answered my question I had to call DS help desk and find out the info myself. I talked to Josh and what I learned is: The patron can do anything on our computers as long as it does not require its rebooting. As we purchase licences for all softwares, all our softwares are registered. So he may not copy our programs. If he works on his own computer and wants to make a rebootable CD he needs a program (like Nero) to do this, to copy his own programs on the discs and keep them as a back up. Thank you Josh!

Sticker Shock for E-Book Readers cont'd

(please see the article below first) The article goes on to explain that the digital price increases are the result of a decision made by six of the largest pubishers who banded together to set their own concsumer e-book prices. Because e books are instantaneous, portable, searchable and take minimal storage space, their value has increased - thus justifying the price increase. To read the full article, visit http://www.chicagotribune.com
Article appeared December 15, 2011, and can be found under business/technology

Sticker Shock for E Book Readers

Sticker Shock For E-Book Readers
According to a recent Wall St Journal and Chicago Tribune article, one of the hottest gifts under the Christmas tree this year will be some type of e-reader. This is no surprise, but what might surprise these new e-reader owners is that the price gap between the print and e versions of some of the best sellers have narrowed to within a few dollars. In some cases, the e version may even cost more. In November, 2007, Amazon introduced its first Kindle e-reader (remember that price tag of $399.00??)and a key selling point was the $9.99 digital best seller. Today, you can buy a Kindle for less than $100 - but e book prices for some popular titles have soared. Industry executives predict this new development may already be hurting e book sales (which currently amount to 15- 20 percent of major publishers' revenues). Some customers who were recently interviewed commented that they are purchasing fewer e-books due to the rising prices. They stated it's hard to justify purchasing an e-book for $10 - $15 when the real print book can be purchased on Amazon used for $2 or $3.

Creating Space for Entrepreneurs

Did anybody else see this? We have a webinar available on ALD-U about new use of space in libraries and the concept of co-working. Then I read this in the Post and was so excited to see this huge co-working opportunity opening up in our very own backyard. Would love to hear what you think and how it might apply in libraries. http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_19513723

PDF to Word Document

I sure did not know I was able to convert for free a PDF file to a Word document. I assumed I had to download some pricey software. Gracias a Jorge I now know how to convert a PDF easily...so just in case you were wondering how to do the same use this website next time you or a patron needs to convert a PDF file to a Word document.

http://www.pdftoword.com/

November Challenge - And the winner is...

Kathy Carter of KE! We had some excellent posts this month demonstrating people's learning and applying their learning either at home or on the job. Kathy's post showed intellectual curiosity in terms of a question that started in her home life that inpsired her to look into what kind of technology was available to solve this problem. She investigated Lexile.com, found how it links (literally) to ALD and then shared how it could be usefully applied at work. A $20 gift card to Amazon is winging its way to Kathy as I type.

Thanks to all of you who participated in this challenge and in sharing your learning with all of us this past month. Keep these great posts and comments coming!

iPad connectivity at ALD locations

Recently I have had some hard time figuring out problems with patrons trying to connect to our Hotspot. I thought I did everything right - cleared out cache/history/cookies and enabling the iPad to accept cookies. BUT! I still had a problem. I was able to navigate to any page, but once there I could do nothing on the page itself: I could not use links, I could not even zoom in/out onto the page. I even published this question on the ALD tech liasion page, but I still got the same suggestions about cache and cookies.

And finally today with Jay's help I figured out what I was doing wrong! After doing all the right things I did not restart the iPad proprely! I just turned it off and on instead of holding onto the off button on the top of the device till the screen prompts you to slide the device to "slide to power off".

So for the colleagues who are not very familiar with iPad and who come across a patron who cannot connect to our Hotspot I suggest doing the following:

1. On the main screen choose icon Settings > Safari (iPad's default browser)> on the right choose and touch Clear History/Clear Cookies/ Clear Cache


2. On the same screen find the option Accept Cookies, touch it and in the menu that appears touch Always


3. Restart you iPad by holding onto the off button on the top of the device till the screen prompts you to slide the device to "slide to power off"

Apple Store

If you read the blog I just posted, then you might be interested to know that I met the author, Kitty Migaki, at the Apple Store when I was seated next to her for a "Projects" session. I am totally impressed with the store, which I had not set foot in until I got a lovely new laptop and entered the world of Mac computing. I have now taken about 8 one-to-one sessions with my own personal instructor. They are knowledgeable and approachable. I haven't met a bad one yet. For these sessions I had to pay $100/yr., an incredible value when you realize that you can work in several sessions a week if you want them. The projects sessions are like a study hall, with an instructor cicrculating. These are free, I believe, for anyone with a Mac. What is interesting about these sessions too, is that you meet some wonderful people sometimes, like the author I just met. It has some aspects of a community gathering, an added bonus I hadn't expected.

Innovative Children's Book

I met an interesting woman who has just published a unique children's book, entitled Alphabet Denver. It is a very unusual book, offering a GPS hunt for locations in the Denver area that are shaped like letters of the alphabet. It's color-coded with places within walking distance grouped under the same color. It uses different poetry types to describe each letter, with references in the back for teachers, parents, etc. explaining the poetry types. It even has QR codes linked to map locations. The latitude & longitude are listed on the page with the letter. The Denver Art Museum, Tattered Cover, Barnes & Noble, & The Bookies carry the book. Bookies sold 60 copies in 2 weeks. What a great book to have when you want to lure kids away from the t.v. or computer & get them out exploring the city with you. I loved the graphics and the combination of technology with our old favorite, BOOKS!.

Virtual Laser Keyboard: One Step Closer to Rocket Cars?

When it comes to keyboards, I really prefer the old thick, heavy, clunky-chunky keyboards. I like knowing I've actually struck a key, so the more biofeedback I get, the better. Having said that, I thought this was pretty amazing. Not so much that I'd want one, but it changes a paradigm for me about what else might be possible. What could this allow us to do, in a library setting, that wasn't possible before?

Avatar and Terra Nova in particular are Sci-Fi titles that have used virtual keyboards, and I always thought 'Nah, that'll never happen'. Well, I guess I should make room in my garage for a rocket car.

This model is put out by Celluon http://celluon.com/ but I 'borrowed' the image from here (it was better). http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/e722/?itm=celluon&rkgid=328562980&cpg=oggdgt1&source=google_gadgets&creative=9124005525&adpos=1t1&gclid=CPyXxI7646wCFYTsKgodkUsRRQ

telecaregivers

The Christian Science Monitor had a great article about the emergence of "telecaregivers". Using devices such as video cameras and motion detectors, caregivers can monitor safety and social activities from a distance for, for example, seniors living unassisted at home. This could also provide a measure of safety for persons with disabilities. This may sound like something from the future, but there are senior home care companies using these technologies now.
One of the developers of these technologies is AgeLab at MIT's School of Engineering. Engineers adapt technology used by NASA, including infrared sensors and tiny radio frequency tags. This can even help with driving safety, keeping track of lost eyeglasses, taking proper medication. Properly used, technology may provide additional independence for seniors and people with disabilities, while giving some peace of mind to those concerned with their well-being.