How does our thinking about the Digital Divide change if it were a world with $100 laptops? What if they were rugged laptops with cranks for backup power, and straps. What if they had wifi? What if all the software needed to run it were free?
Category: ‘puters
public access computing vs. OPACs
How does your library determine how many computers to “set aside” for OPAC-only use? Is that decision based on anything? At the library I used to work at, we had about 15 public access computers with fully five of them OPAC-only. The other ten computers were mobbed. TechnoBiblio looks at whose using which comptuers at San Francisco Public and has some questions as well.
information visualization aesthetics @ Seattle Public Library
The article begins “From now on, whatever you check out of the Seattle Central Library will play in color-coded streams across six big plasma screens on the library’s fifth floor.” but don’t freak out, that’s actually not what happens. Read more about the new art installation in the Seattle Public Library’s main branch. Of the three other major artworks in the library, two aren’t working currently, they need new projectors. [thanks matthew]
what are YOU doing on September 11th?
Libraries are getting started on their September Projects [blog, article]. Do you have plans on 9/11? Is your library closed? If you’re home and online consider participating in the Rambling Librarian’s IM chat between Singaporean and US libraries on the theme of “How much do we understand each other” For East Coasters it’s a bit late at night, but West Coasters can check in before they go to bed and meet some of their colleagues overseas.
make sure you know the gazingus protocol!
Every now and then I’m asked if I know how to do something I don’t know how to do. Most recently this came about when the staff at the school I work at wanted to learn Macromedia Contribute, for messing with their web site. Did I know how to use Contribute? No I did not. Could I learn it before I had to do a training on it for novice computer users in a few weeks? Sure I could. And, unlike those questionairres you had to fill out when you signed up with a temp agency, I didn’t even have to fib, I just said “I’ll start learning it today.”
Everyone’s lists — like this recent one on LISNews — are great. However, the world changes and what is right for today’s librarian might not be right for tomorrow’s. So, I’d add to this list and to these lists generally, the ability to learn as you go and teach yourself new things. If someone tells me that the job I want requires intimate knowledge of the gazingus protocol, then I guess I’d better learn it, and fast. Since I have a good working knowledge of computers generally, learning something specific about them is usually not too difficult. This is helpful at my job and I bet it would be helpful at yours.