Saturday, December 26, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Biggest surprise for me: Windows7 Professional! Jon-Erik is installing it on my laptop today (it's so convenient having a live-in technician around, even if it is temporary). I'm SOOOO looking forward to this and won't miss Vista at all. I was still nervous with each log on even though we'd created a fourth, emergency, profile on the laptop in case the family account I was using went the way of my personal profile. But really - 4 profiles for one user? That's pushing things, I think.

So my post-holiday activity will be playing with what should feel like a new laptop. My Christmas Eve activity? Uploading my first video to YouTube - something I think I should be familiar with by now. It really was dual purpose: I've recorded video on the Flip camera but hadn't gone any farther, and what's the point if you don't do something with those? So I uploaded a short video of my dad's Christmas trains when we were helping set up his tree. I'm taking the "private" route and only sharing with a select group (family, just to see how the process works. But the video looks good (you'll have to take my word on that!). Another notch in my technology belt!

Today was Audiobook Question Day at the library. A patron with a new Zune had audiobooks she wanted to remove, and it wasn't obvious to us how that would be done. Some searching finally turned up an answer, and she was able to clear her device to make room for more. Judging by the forum discussion she wasn't the first person with the question. Then a patron with an iPod came up with a more difficult question: he has a audiobook in iTunes but when it transfers to the iPod, the chapters get arranged alphabetically! Most books have numbered chapters, so this doesn't happen often, but is definitely a problem. Not sure how to overcome this.

New Year's Projects: learn Windows7 and update my laptop class by mid-January (the next time we're offering it). Then it's time to prepare my presentation on staff technology learning ("Taking the Oh No! Out of 2.0") for MPLA in April. An ongoing project is making tutorials on placing holds and renewing items in our catalog. I'd done one in Jing, but think maybe the Flip Camera might be a way to go. That way we can have narration and explain the process a little better.

It was a Wii Christmas in my family: a brother, cousin, and my parents all got systems! My folks spent the afternoon learning how to use the controllers, and Mom beat Dad at bowling!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Deep Freeze

It's December, so we're preparing for the annual Deep Freeze weather event! We had a brief episode a while back, but now it's going to get serious. We should have a week of very cold temperatures, which can mean either no one comes to the library or everyone does! Already we've had a few cases of dogs tied up outside the library for longer than would seem prudent. I've started closing my office door, too, to keep the cool draft from escaping to the public desk area.

Last Saturday was the "Get to Know Your Laptop" class. I had done something similar last winter for a local school Adult Ed program, so thought it would be something good to offer at the library too. I was surprised: 2 people came with new Windows 7 laptops. I've only read a little about that, but from what I could tell it looks pretty good. My handout was written for XP, but the new computers were able to follow along too. Seeing it in action makes me more likely to consider an upgrade for my Vista laptop too - that has always been a bit of an annoyance. The XP netbook is still fine, although I've heard of a few brave people upgrading those to 7 also.

No word from the City about upgrading; I suspect we'll wait for new computers. We've extended the warranty for another year on the public machines, but things are starting to die off: a mouse here, a monitor there. The black & white printer is due for maintenance, but even though several of us are Dell certified, no one (me included!)wants to replace the fuser! The cost of the parts alone is high, and a service call would make it cost more than a new printer. So we're ignoring it for now. It will probably go for a while longer, since the fuser was replaced not long ago when a serious paper jam developed. That technician had a terrible time, which is why I think the rest of us are hesitant to tackle that job.

Only 3 weeks until the days start getting longer again!