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!