Need a guide to Google? Check out the Google Cheat Sheet, which includes Google services, tools, and background information about the company.
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Scheduling meetings can be a nightmare - trying to accomodate different day/time requests can be time-consuming and frustrating. Here to save the day is DOODLE! This simple (and free!) tool allows you to create a meeting request w/different date and time options. Then you send a link to meeting participants. They follow that link and indicate which dates and times would work. You, as the meeting organizer, can then see which date and time works best for the most people. It’s slick and easy! Next time you need to schedule a meeting (or even a family dinner), try it! You’ll like it!
We get a lot of questions on what libraries should do with old, retired computers. If you’re not going to re-use the machine for something else (a children’s computer, OPAC station, quick e-mail station, open source server, etc.) then it might be a good idea to recycle that resource.
I found the following list of businesses that accept computers for recycling. Some of them may charge a small fee to recycle the computer/monitor for you, but it will be worth it to not have all of that plastic, chemicals, and precious metal go into the lanfill.
Steve Krug is quoted as saying, “Scratch an expert and you’ll often find someone who’s muddling through — just at a higher level.”
Sometimes you get lucky when you talk to a tech support person and the problem you are having is a problem they have encountered before and they know just what needs to be done to fix things. More often, however, it’s a new problem to the tech support person, too. Contrary to popular opinion, techies don’t hold all of the answers in their head. When they encounter a new problem, they rely on experimenting and exploring to try to fix the problem. Most techies also rely on Internet resources to help find the answers to technical problems.
Some popular resources for solutions to technical problems include:
- Microsoft’s Knowledge Base http://support.microsoft.com
- Google Groups http://groups.google.com/ (just doing a Google search regarding your problem can also often be fruitful)
There are resources for more specific areas, too. For example, the Web4Lib mailing list is a great place to get advice regarding all things “web” in libraries http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/.
Next time a technical problem occurs, try a little detective work online. You may discover that someone else has just the solution you need.