Using Videos in Technology Training – a Webinar

Posted on November 13th, 2009 by smoreland

Tech Training Made Simple with Online Videos
Register at: https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=p6rixijtm47b
Wednesday, November 18, 11:00 a.m. Pacific time (1 p.m. Central)

Wouldn’t it be great if complicated technology concepts were explained in a simple way that’s easy to understand? Imagine how something like this could assist you in training sessions for patrons or staff. Well look no further, Common Craft creates explanatory videos “In Plain English” that cover topics like green, money, society and technology.

In this free webinar, Stephanie Gerding from TechSoup for Libraries will interview Lee LeFever, from Common Craft to learn more about their videos and how they are created. We will also hear how librarians are using these videos to support the needs of their community.
Hope to see you there,
Stephanie
–
http://stephaniegerding.com

Common Craft has some very good videos that truly put Technology (and other complicated ideas) in Plain English.  A sampling:

• RSS
• Twitter
• Photo Sharing
• Cloud Computing

“Online at the Library” article

Posted on October 20th, 2009 by Heather Braum

Governing magazine has posted a great article, “Online at the Library” about how libraries are helping patrons without computer or Internet access still connect to online-only government services. Check it out!

(Thanks to Bob Walter at Pittsburg State University for posting this to KAN-LIB.)

Massive Phishing Campaign Hits Multiple Email Services

Posted on October 7th, 2009 by Heather Braum

Here’s even more information on the phishing scam previously posted on this blog. Brig McCoy posted the following on the KANLIB listserv, from Slashdot, but as some of this blog’s readers are not in Kansas, I thought it was still a good idea to repost his email here. Please read this to the end.

“It seems as if the massive phishing campaign reported yesterday was not specific to Hotmail, as was initially believed. According to a report by the BBC, many Gmail and Yahoo Mail accounts have also been compromised. Earthlink, Comcast, and AOL were also affected. While the source of the latest attacks has not been determined, many are pointing to the same bug that claimed at least 10,000 passwords from Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail. Microsoft has done their part in blocking all known hijacked Hotmail accounts and created tools to help users who had lost control of their email. An analysis of the data from Hotmail showed the most common password among the compromised accounts to be ‘12345.’ On their end, Google responded to the attacks by forcing password resets on the affected accounts.”

http://tinyurl.com/ycvuu7y

Re-read that next-to-last sentence… a password of ‘12345′? Please use better passwords… take the first letters of a sentence, for instance.
Sigh. “

Remember the blog post several few months ago on the 500 worst passwords of all time and also mentioned at this year’s Tech Day during the Cloud Computing presentation? Now would be a very good time to check that list and if one or more of your passwords are found on that list, please change it/them now!

Thousands of Microsoft Windows Live Email passwords leaked online

Posted on October 6th, 2009 by Heather Braum

Sometime over this past weekend, several thousand Hotmail/MSN/Windows Live passwords were leaked online through a third-party. If you have an email account at one of these places, I’d highly recommend you go ahead and change your password. It appears most of the usernames whose passwords were posted online were in the A and B range, but it’s good practice to change your passwords frequently, anyway.

Public Library Section Blog

Posted on October 1st, 2009 by smoreland

The PLS Blog also has additional links, information and notes from the day.
Visit and Add to your RSS reader…

PLS Blog

KLA-PLA Live Blog

Posted on October 1st, 2009 by Heather Braum

SWKLS Tech Day 2009 Presentation On Social Media and Libraries

Posted on September 24th, 2009 by Heather Braum

Presentation

Handout, low-res PDF

Handout, hi-res PDF

swklstech09 Delicious bookmarks

Tech Day 2009 – So far, so good

Posted on July 16th, 2009 by smoreland

Tech Day 2009 is coming together! – #neklstechday = for the twitterati

Visit the Tech Day 2009 Page for a full, annotated agenda

When: Thursday, August 6 from 9 to 4 ish with 8:30 registration

Where: Topeka & Shawnee County Library

Who:

• Keynote: Amy Begg De Groff of Howard County Library
• Breakout Speakers:  Mickey Coalwell, Diana Weaver, Liz Rea, Heather Braum, Tim Martins, Cindi Hickey, Brenda Hough, Diane Trinkle, Royce Kitts, Sarah Walker-Hitt and David LaCrone.

What:

• Keynote with Amy
• Discussion of Open Source, facilitated by Amy (so bring your questions and be ready to share and talk)
• Lightning Rounds – again, be ready to share your favorite web-based piece of software or useful Web site.  We’ll fit as many in as we can in an hour, with a 5 minute time limit per presentation.
• Break out sessions, so far – titles will most likely change:
  • Open Source Community: Your Ace in the Hole – Mickey, Liz and Diana will discuss, using Koha and WordPress as examples, how OS projects develop and grow
  • How To Open Source – Tim and Liz will cover repurposing an old PC with Ubuntu and other examples of how they implemented open source projects
  • Cloud Computing – Heather and Sharon will give an overview of cloud computing (revised presentation given at KLA Conference)
    • Heather found this great Op-Ed piece from the NY Times on Cloud Computing – the Comments are worth a read!
  • WebJunction: A Spectrum of Opportunity! – Cindi and Brenda – Letterman’s Top Ten Reasons You Want to Be an Active WebJunction Kansas Member.  (OK – Really Brenda and Cindi’s list.  We’re sure he would approve though.) Bring your color to our WebJunction spectrum and share it with us!
  • Getting the Board Aboard – Selling Gaming to Your Board – Diane and Royce will share how they started, developed and ’sold’ gaming collections and programs to their Boards and communities.
  • Digitization on a Shoestring – David will share the basics of scanning for small libraries
  • Netboxes in the Library – Sarah and Heather will talk about a pilot project using netboxes as patron computers at the Lyndon Carnegie Library.

How: Registration is NOW OPEN!

Why: “Computers in libraries are like icing on cake – they add to the whole experience, but just make a sticky mess without a firm foundation.”  Come to Tech Day for help building your firm Foundation!

What you *shouldn’t* do on public access computers

Posted on May 12th, 2009 by Liz

MakeUseOf.com has an entire list of things you shouldn’t do on Public Access Computers, aimed at the users of those machines.

The highlights:

• Whatever you do absolutely NEVER EVER save your log-on information.
• Don’t type personal information on the computer. Avoid credit card account numbers, banking passwords and things that can be used to give you a bad case of identity theft.
• Erase your web browsing history and restart the computer (if you can’t log-off).
• Watch out for people staring at you or spying on you.

Do you tell your patrons what NOT to do on library computers? Do you emphasize online safety?

NEKLS uses DeepFreeze technology to protect our computers AND ensure patron privacy, so some of these things are less important in our libraries, but it’s still a good idea to be aware that it isn’t acceptable to do your internet banking (for example) on any computer.

Visual Representation of Patron Computer Usage

Posted on April 22nd, 2009 by Heather Braum

Here’s a couple of visual representations of the responses to yesterday’s survey on patron computer tasks. Click on each image to see the full-size graphic. The graphics were created using the free website Wordle.

Original List (not standardized)

Cleaned Up List (standardized)

Finalized Graphic (with more standardization)

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