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!