Help with Microsoft Office 2010

As you may have heard, we’re getting Office 2010 on our public computers soon, and eventually on our staff machines.

With Office 2007 Microsoft made some big changes on the interface which have continued with 2010, and they look a lot different than Office 2003 and have a lot of added functionality.

Microsoft heads into cloud with Office 2010: Rich Jaroslovsky
Business Week
June 9, 2010

Luckily, we have some help with all of this change to one of our basic software tools.

Through MELSA’s subscription to WebJunction Minnesota , we have free access to the following classes on the various components of Office 2010:

Office 2010 New Interface - Word & Excel

Office 2010: New Core Features

Office 2010: New Features for PowerPoint, Publisher, and Access

Office 2010: Web Apps and New features for Publisher and Mobile

To take a course sign up for a free account and click on the Courses button near the top of the page. These courses are under Microsoft Office (general).

Also, as part of Microsoft’s venture into the cloud, they’re offering access to free online versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. These apps are stripped-down versions of the for-pays, but should give you an opportunity to practice some skills you learn in the classes, and help you find where some of the basic functions are in the 2010 interface. You do need a WindowsLiveID or Hotmail email address, but those are easy to sign up for if you don’t already have one.

I will be posting this information on the Information Services Council’s intranet page as well.

Enjoy!

Melissa @ Central.

Inventing the Future by Tinkering with the Past: Roles for Reference Librarians

From the Reference Renaissance Conference.

Presenter: Amy VanScoy, Doctoral Student, School of Information & Library Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

“This paper reviews conceptual papers and research studies on these traditional and emerging roles. Using examples from practice, it also explores how these roles manifest themselves in traditional and emerging forms of reference. The goal of the paper is to articulate the diversity of possible roles, to explore how they might interconnect and to examine how librarians can use them to shape their work.” (Description in the conference program.)

Slideshow:
http://www.bcr.org/referencerenaissance/2010/documents/VanScoyRefRen10v2004.ppt#256,1,Slide 1
(Includes quotes from the literature that illustrate the ideas of the roles.)

Handout:
http://www.bcr.org/referencerenaissance/2010/documents/VanScoyRefRen10Handout.pdf
(Includes a bibliography of her sources for this presentation.)

This was an interesting session on the roles a librarian plays as she interacts with patrons, as reflected in the literature. She did a literature review, and then narrowed down her roles as they gelled in her reading.

Two big roles the literature discusses are:

1. Information Provider

2. Teacher - instruction

They are often talked about as if these were the only things librarians do and are often set in opposition - expert v. teacher. Often in essays, but not in research. Much of the research says these roles are both important and need to be played in tandem.

Other roles she found:

Communicator – There’s some talk of putting information provider and communication in opposition.

Relationship development

Counselor - Not discussed a lot, but in a couple of papers. Mediation was used in one of the papers.

Partner (with the patron)

How do these roles work together? Hierarchically? How much does environment affect these roles. How are they balanced? How much is personal style?

Inventing by tinkering:

Examining past roles
Reflective practice
Sharing with colleagues

She used the word “tinkering” because it implies a work that’s never done, as well as working with different elements and reflection, and mixing and matching and introducing new elements.

Melissa @ Central.

Survive & Thrive! Customer-focused Reference “Soft” Skills

From the Reference Renaissance Conference.

Presenters: Keith Unrath, Tamara Grybko and John Vittal of the
Albuquerque / Bernalillo County Library

“Knowledge of resources and search strategies is undoubtedly important to providing reference desk service. It is outstanding people skills that builds customer trust and confidence and takes reference service from adequate to excellent. The Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library developed a training to explore a variety of customer service scenarios: lonely customers, sensitive questions and customers who were unsure where to begin their inquiries. This workshop presents the approach and structure of our training so participants may offer it in their own libraries. A mini-version of the training will be conducted in breakout groups and then all participants will reconvene to share their impressions.” (Description in the conference program.)

Overview: http://www.bcr.org/referencerenaissance/2010/presentations/SurviveandThriveOverview.doc

Training Plan:
http://www.bcr.org/referencerenaissance/2010/presentations/SoftSkillsTrainingPlan.doc

Training Handout:
http://www.bcr.org/referencerenaissance/2010/presentations/SoftSkillsTrainingHandout.doc

This session was very valuable. They ran a mini-training for us, choosing participants out of the audience, so we really got to see the benefits of this approach to learning/refreshing customer service skills.

The discussion leaders would assemble a group (between 8 and 15 people – any bigger and people start fading into the woodwork, any smaller and there’s not enough fresh discussion). They’d send emails out to the group asking them to come up with scenarios along certain lines. The leaders would also have scenarios just in case, but they rarely had to use any of theirs. Then the group would brainstorm about the various scenarios and how best to approach them. Much of the content was generated by the group. It felt much more like a discussion than a training, and staff learned from each other as well as from the discussion leaders. The leaders said they always came away from a session with something new they could apply to their own reference practice.

The leaders did come up with concepts they wanted to be sure were introduced each session, such as the idea the great customer service could be learned; it’s not inherent. They also wanted to make sure to outline the basic behavior standards of the organization. And emphasize respect, responsibility, and relationships: the 3 Rs that are the basis for good customer service.

They recommend mixing veterans and rookies so you get new ideas as well as institutional traditions in your answers. They deliberately have across-branch trainings which keeps the sessions on task – about customer service skills and not branch issues. They so far have only run the trainings for reference staff, but it would be equally applicable to clerical and other front-line staff.

Praise liberally. Let participants know they’re doing it right.

For wrap-up & closing thank participants. Mention that there are always new ideas and Encourage folks to continue the discussion.

One of the points of the trainings is to help staff make situation-based decisions in a rules-based organization. Also to try to encourage people to see in shades of gray instead of black & white. Want staff to work to find solutions rather than purely enforcing rules.

Another point/benefit is to create a space for to interact on a more personal level. People make friends and become better colleagues. It builds a sense of team.

A basic assumption of the training is that staff work in libraries because they like people and want to take care of them. Not because they want to follow the rules. Knowing that the library system wants to have this discussion is as important as having the discussion. It sets priorities for the system.

You can use these trainings to monitor the state of reference in your system. Are you keeping up with all the RUSA standards? You can also use them to emphasize important trends you want to enforce with staff – ADA, the etiquette of working with the hearing-impaired, etc.

Measuring outcomes is a little difficult; it’s hard to measure outcomes in attitude-based training. They used feedback surveys. You could also use competencies to help measure outcome.

Melissa @ Central

Education, Wildlife and Cell Phones, Oh My! New State Government Reports for November 2010

Hello!

Here are some recently published state government reports that might be of interest.

Education Statistics Summary 2009-10

K-12 Education Finance Overview 2010-11

Summaries of Wildlife Research Findings 2009

Driver Hand-Held Cellular Phone Use in Minnesota, June and August 2010

Minnesota Safety Belt Use and Motorcycle Helmet Use: August, 2010

Nighttime Safety Belt Use in Minnesota: September, 2010

Adult Inmate Profile and Juvenile Inmate Profile

House Research Department publications on Elections

The entire list is here.

Enjoy!
Melissa @ Central
Government Documents Coordinator

NetLibrary Downloadable Audiobooks Training Notes

Hello!

Much about our NetLibrary downloadable audiobooks has stayed the same, but there have been changes. These notes are a mix of reminders of things you might have forgotten and new information. If something's not talked about, it should work the same as it ever has.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about these notes or the training.

Melissa @ Central
651-266-7000 x5

Types of books:

Multi-access - Always available. No holds necessary. Unlimited use. Multiple patrons can use it at the same time.

Single-access - One patron per book at a time. Works the same way as a physical product. Patrons are put on hold and will be emailed when book is available.

WMA - Windows media audio - no iPods. Has Digital Rights Management (DRM). Refers to access control used by publishers which limits usage of digital media or devices. Publisher insists on the license that corrupts in 3 weeks. It enforces limitations on the usage.

MP3 - compatible with everything including iPods. No DRM. The limitations here are a function of the way the system works, instead of being imposed from the outside, as with DRM. There is no license.

Titles are segmented (tracks) by the hour.

We have the Adult Core Collection (purchased by MELSA).

2340+ titles to start (includes Modern Scholar, Coach in the Box, The Bible, and other specialty imprint titles).

Of those, 1180+ are MP3.

Every month 30 titles added at no additional cost. At least 20 of those are MP3s.

All titles in or added to this collection are Multi-Access.

Some of the WMAs will be retrospectively converted to iPod.

SPPL occasionally purchases additional titles. Those are single-access.


Whether a title is WMA or MP3 depends on what the author and publisher want. It’s a security and access issue. With DRM you have more security from pirating and misuse. With MP3 you have more access.




Downloading & Syncing:
To sync – to load onto your portable device.

Click on Download Options banner and it will analyze your machine and tell you which download method to use. There are 4 possible methods.

1. Media Center

This will be the recommended option most of the time. Still does not work with Macs.

Media Center doesn’t take too long to download - 3 minutes? But it does need to run Microsoft updates for the Windows Media Player (WMP), if the patron does not update regularly. This can take a little bit of time.

Automatically connects with the NetLibrary database. This program won’t work if you’re offline. Your books are stored on your hard drive, and it’s integrated with WMP, which is why WMP has to be properly updated.

It still works pretty much the same way. You can use it as a stand-alone utility that will allow you to search for books and download them with one click (after you attach your device to the computer). You don’t need to go to the NetLibrary website. However, you can still start your session and do your searching on the website, if you prefer, and then NetLibrary will launch Media Center when it’s time for you to do the One-Click downloading. (It’s One-Click because it downloads the book and the license, and syncs to your portable device in one step.)

Media Center can recommence interrupted downloads. Patron can choose to interrupt a download if they don’t have enough time, or just want the first 2 tracks, etc.

If there’s a problem with Media Center – patron gets lost or confused, etc. hit the Home button and it’ll reset.

Note: Some people have trouble with Media Center if they’re running a 64 bit computer and don’t have the latest Windows 7 update. They should try running Windows Update, and see if that helps.

2. Download manager

This is a simplified version of Media Center. It allows you to manage your collection from your desktop.

You can download a book to your portable device, play it on your computer, and delete the file, all while being offline. Recommended for those with no or very slow internet connections, for instance if you have a laptop with WiFi but no home internet connection, or dial-up. You can take your laptop to someplace with WiFi and check out and download the book and then listen to it or sync it offline at home. This takes the place of putting your books on a flash and taking them home and using them there. With this process the license downloads automatically.

First go to the NetLibrary website and find and check out the book. Then go to Download Manager to complete the download.

Once it’s been checked out and downloaded - you don’t need an internet connection to use the manager. The files are stored on your hard drive.

Download Manager is also good for those who are new to computers or who are having issues with Media Center.


3. Manual Download

This is the basic download method using the NetLibrary website. It involves downloading the book and the license, and then using WMP or iTunes to sync the book to your portable device. Tip: Drag file from desktop or file into the WMP sync list instead of from within WMP.

This is the method that works with Macs.

For the iPad and iPhone 4 you should download and sync with iTunes.

Sometimes the license does not download correctly. First try playing the book on your computer and see if that gets the license to download. If that doesn’t work, then renew the book and that should trigger a license download. (For WMAs renewal means downloading a new license.)


Media Center and Download Manager don’t play well together – Media Center takes over. Can’t have both downloaded on one computer.

4. Smart Phones.

These devices mostly use MP3s, but not exclusively.

Media Center and Download Manager don’t automatically download to the device.

You can do a manual download and sync.

The process automatically creates a folder in Documents called NetLibrary.

OR:

You can change setting for connection to computer from “charge only” to “disk drive.“ Generally defaults to charge only. You can then literally drag and drop the files into the smart phone, just like you would onto a flash drive.

The mobile app’s coming. Right now the app stores are holding it for approval.

JOBVIEW TRAINING

Jobview is meant to be a very simple, keyboard-free way to search a database of 2 million jobs. These jobs are accessible for free elsewhere, but JobView brings together a feed from 25 different web sites, scrubs them for duplicates, and posts them every morning.

Searching is by category only, a keyword option was tried but found to be too complicated. The patron can limit search to part-time and hourly only. A flag next to a job means a preference for veterans. You can limit by city and state and do a radius search, the whole country is included.

In addition to kiosks at Central, Rondo and Sun Ray, the web version of JobView is available on patron Internet computers system-wide and in the 4th floor training room. Patrons can apply for jobs and attach resumes using the web version only. Currently, SPPL is the only MELSA library with JobView. Give it a try sometime!

Andrea @Central

THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY E-TUTORIAL

The American Community Survey comes from a sample of 3 million addresses. It replaces the old Census "Long Form", but is collected every year instead of 10 years. Data is gathered into 1-year estimates, 3-year estimates and 5-year estimates, and released the next year. The ACS is used to determine how funds are allocated by Federal, State and community programs.

The American Community Survey is found in American Factfinder under "Data sets". The most recent data is set by default, but you can go back to earlier data. If you do multiple searches and need to change the geography and/or table, click on "clear all selections" in the upper-right-hand corner. If you want to view the same data type for other places, there should be a "view this table for other geographies" link on the left.


There are seven data sets:

• Data Profiles--This is for finding quick answers to the most common questions.
• Comparison Profiles--These profiles feature data by percent and median.
• Selected Population Profiles--These profiles give snapshots of different ethnic groups. 3-year estimates are better to use because of the larger sample size.
• Ranking Tables--These tables rank states by different characteristics, which are grouped by subject. Only 1-year estimates are available.
• Subject Tables--These tables have popular questions grouped by topic.
• Detailed Tables--These tables get very specific. For instance, transit to work in Seattle would include separate listings for ferry, streetcar or bus.
• Geographic Comparison Tables--These tables let you compare places by different categories. For example, percentage of foreign-born residents in each Minnesota county.

This e-tutorial is part of the ACS Compass Products, which are educational materials on the American Community Survey. I encourage everyone to take it themselves if they can. I found the video sample searches and the quiz especially helpful. If you have more questions, the Census has an 800 number and an online question form.


--Andrea @Central

Disrupting the Pipeline

Disrupting the Pipeline presented by St Paul Youth Services (SPYS)

Seriously, did you know that the 13th amendment to the constitution holds that slavery and indentured servitude are abolished, except as punishment for a crime? You could look it up…. and our first speaker (Prof. Nekima Lyon-Pounds) has done just that. It seems that much of our judicial system is founded upon ways to utilize this “free” labor. If you look back at the progress of the amendment through the ratification process, it becomes painfully obvious that the South saw this as a way of replacing the workforce that they were now unable to access through slavery. And, they were not the only ones. The chain gang concept became a way of creating a ready workforce, with people (mostly healthy teen or adult black males) being convicted of ludicrous crimes (vagrancy, spitting on the sidewalk) and being forced to endure years of servitude for selectively enforced crimes. This inequity has set up distrust among communities of color which is hard to fault them for….would you trust a system that was skewed in such a way?

Once we were all sufficiently depressed by this reality, Joel Franklin (a program manager at SPYS) talked about the statistical realities of growing up at the intersection of race and poverty. Those statistics are included in the power point handout that you can read in the FYI basket in the phone room. To select just a few:

• A black boy born in 2001 has a one in three lifetime risk of going to prison. A Latino boy’s risk is one in six. A white boy’s risk is one in seventeen.
• The percentage of black children in poverty by state showed that only 3 states in the union had a higher percentage of black children in poverty than MN- we were “beaten” by Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
• While MN ranks 36th out of 50 states for white unemployment rates, it ranks 2nd in black unemployment rates in the United States.
• High school dropouts are almost 3 times more likely to be incarcerated as youths who have graduated from high school.
• 89% of black, 85% of Latino and 59% of white 8th graders cannot perform math at grade level.
• 86% of black, 83% of Latino and 58% of white 4th graders are not reading at grade level

This last statistic is particularly depressing, as the state determines how many prison cells it will need based on 3rd grade reading scores. More kids not reading at grade level=more space required in prisons.

Are you sufficiently depressed yet? No? Read on.

Dave Willms, the Director of Programs at SPYS, gave us all a crash course in recognizing and comparing the differences between the survival mode mindset and the growth mode mindset. When the environment provides youth with basic needs, safety and support for developmental growth the child will generally be in what is called growth mode. When the environment is ambivalent to the needs of youth, or withholds resources that youth need for developmental growth, the child will be generally default to the state called survival mode. Some of the basic assumptions of the two modes are reproduced here:


Survival Mode Assumptions

Individual Needs First: Take what you want or you won’t get what you need.

“The System”: is corrupt and cannot be trusted or counted on

Relationships: are used to get what you want or need….loyalty is extreme, but reserved for select friends/family. (Friends/family are backup in a dangerous situation)

Choices Based on: immediate outcome. Future is almost always uncertain.

Organizational Skills: Organizing things, time and processes is futile because schedule and proximity is unpredictable.

External Locus of Control: Because environment is dangerous and unregulated. What others do or say dictates behavior. Therefore, individual responsibility is not assumed.

Respect (from others) is Primal: Demanding respect from others is critical to not just esteem but also safety. If disrespect is tolerated…exploitation will follow.


Growth Mode Assumptions

Group/Individual Needs: There’s enough for all if we only take what we need.

“The System”: generally works and can be trusted.

Relationships: are used as a demonstration of popularity…loyalty is less critical…(Police are backup in a dangerous situation)

Choices Based on: longer-term outcomes, future is predictable if we learn how to plan for it.

Organizational Skills: learning to keep track of things, time and processes is almost automated. Hoever, boys generally learn these skills later than girls.

Internal Locus of Control: Because most environments are regulated and monitored, self regulation skills are encouraged, supported and taught. Personal responsibility is generally assumed.

Respect based on Internal Processes: Demanding respect is not required…respect from others is assumed. Safety is based on a deep trust of the system as managed by others.


But, let’s be clear….neither mode is either right or wrong. They are what they are. In some instances survival mode is what you would want and need. For example, the special services of the military actually look for kids in survival mode to train as elite soldiers in our fighting units. However, those who live in growth mode generally believe that mode to be the default. That is where huge misunderstandings and complete communication breakdowns can and do occur. And, that is where the SPYS training that has helped turn the relationship in several branches to their teen ‘troublemakers’ from adversarial into a definitely more communicative and peaceful alternative.

One of the ways that is done is by identifying and moderating the style in which these kids are approached. The four main styles are; authoritarian, permissive, uninvolved and authoritative. While we should all be striving for an authoritative style, which fosters growth and maturation through relationships and guidance, the reality is often much different, even for those who have trained for a long time. After all, kids know how to push our buttons, don’t they? Here’s a short list of ‘traps’ to avoid and ‘tricks’ to push some of the right buttons on them:


Traps

• Withholding resources to teach responsibility
• Interpret limit testing as disrespect
• Relationship testing as dislike of the adult
• Assume behavior is only about motivation
• Believe repetitive behavior exhibits resistance
• Withhold respect until teen gives respect

Tricks

• Teach responsibility by giving tools AND incremental expectations
• Interpret limit testing as an attempt to engage/connect
• Relationship testing as fear of rejection, failure, disapproval
• Assume positive behavior needs a combination of skills and reason to succeed
• Understand new behavior is learned slowly/incrementally
• Self-respect is nurtured by adult’s unconditional respect of others

For more information, see the handout in the FYI basket in the phone room,
or speak to any of the staff who were lucky enough to be present at this valuable training.


--Doris

SCIENCE RESOURCES IN ELM

Within ELM, there are three main databases containing science resources. They are EBSCO Science Reference Center, Gale General Science Collection, and Gale Discovering Collection.

Science Reference Center contains periodicals, reference books, encyclopedias, biographies, images and videos. It is currently available as a stand-alone database in the familiar EBSCOHost format, as part of the more high-school friendly Student Research Center, and as part of the elementary- and middle school- level Kids Search. Advanced Search options include curriculum benchmarks and the document type “science experiment”.

General Science Collection contains the full-text of 60+ science journals. It is geared to upper high school and above. Some of the titles have a full-text embargo of six months to a year. In addition to reading, printing or saving text, patrons can listen to articles or download them as sound files.

Discovering Collection is Gale’s database on topics including science for grades 6 - 12. It includes science encyclopedias, topic overviews, multimedia content, biographies, and science experiements. In advanced search, the patron can limit document type to “experiment activity”.

In addition to the above databases, Britannica Online also has excellent interactive science lessons and multimedia guides.

--Andrea





.

Locating Consumer Information in ELM

Many of our old favorite databases in ELM are excellent sources of consumer information. For example, Masterfile Premier features Consumer Reports in addition to specific periodicals on computers, electronics, home repair, etc. which also have product reviews. Business Source Premier is a good source for investment and money management tips. ProQuest contains reviews of films, books, plays, and restaurants. Consumer Health Complete is a good source for information on medications and medical tests. Netlibrary contains searchable online books on travel, legal self-help, resumes, and over 360 books in the Complete Idiots series (no titles are more recent than 2007, so keep that in mind if currency is an issue).


To search for product reviews in Masterfile Premier, click on “advanced search”, then go down to “document type” and choose “product review”.

Consumer Health Complete has the Lexi-PALS Drug Guide where patrons can look up what a medication is for, side effects and contraindications (the latter includes herbs and supplements as well as prescription and OTC medications). For medical tests, just type in the name (e,g, CT scan) and a fact sheet should come up telling the possible reasons for the test and what to expect.

ProQuest Newstand Complete has a plethora of search options for patrons looking for reviews. In “Advanced Search” one of the options is “document type”. If you click on “Look up document types”, you will get options such as film review, book review, theater review, restaurant review, etc. If you scroll down and click on “More Search Options”, then “Any document type”, under “Reviews--More review options”, you can choose Favorable, Unfavorable, Mixed, or Comparative. This would be very handy for travelers looking for things to do in a new city. They could look for “Chinese” in document text, “New York City” in location, then limit to only favorable restaurant reviews for good Chinese restaurants to try.


The Star Tribune is in ProQuest Newstand Complete back to 1986. The presenter said that the indexing could be better, but there are search options that don’t exist in Minnesota Newspapers. In the course of this webinar, I discovered that the Pioneer Press was added to ProQuest on April 22, 2010.



--Andrea

Lino Lakes Transition Fair Outreach Event

On Tuesday, July 20, Barbara M. and Doris ventured out to the Lino Lakes Correctional Facility for their annual Transition Fair. It was, in many ways, an amazing experience and an event that I hope we can continue to attend in the coming years. This was an opportunity to fulfill one of the missions of our library, to serve a largely unserved population, and a unique opportunity to spread the word about libraries to these offenders and their families who might not know of us and what we provide to the community.

We were welcomed with open arms, along with armed guards and metal detectors, as one would expect in a medium security penitentiary. It turns out that the process of getting into a prison is almost as laborious as getting out. But, once in the hall where the 65 tables of community service providers were being set up, there was a surprising ‘reward’ awaiting the presenters. The Lino Lakes facility has a teaching program where they teach the inmates to bake. And do they ever! The cinnamon rolls they provided us were fantastic! The old timers who had been to this fair before joked that one of the reasons they kept coming back were visions of these rolls.

Once the fair began, the offenders were brought in four groups for approximately an hour to talk to the people at the different tables. Across from us was the FreedomWalk table (a Christian group that helps offenders reacclimatize to the outside world), next to us was the Salvation Army, and on our left was the Father Project. All kinds of providers were there, from faith based organizations to union labor groups to community service organizations. And, as is often the case, we brought home as much information as we disseminated. In fact, you will soon be seeing the link to Twin Cities Community Voice Mail on our employment pages. This service is free to the phoneless in our community and its usefulness is immediately apparent. After all, if you need to give a prospective employer a means to reach you, how would you do that without a phone? This is one answer to that vexing question.

The coordinator of this event, Joe McCoy, was delighted that the library had come to this event. He maintains that this fair is one of the highlights of the year for the offenders in their care. It is an opportunity for these men to speak to outsiders about what they will find when they leave the facility, and is a countermeasure to the negativity that might otherwise overwhelm them as they try to normalize their lives. And his assertions were proven by the men themselves. The offenders were, without a doubt, some of the most polite people I have dealt with in a very long time. I don’t remember a time when I heard that much “please” “thank you” and “excuse me” in one place. They were invariably polite, patient and engaged as they roamed among the providers. They were alternately surprised and pleased to hear about the classes we provide, the materials that they had access to, and services they could access with their library card.

In fact, we knew we had made a difference when one of the offenders dragged his buddy over to our table exclaiming “You gotta hear what the library’s got!”, and another was thrilled to learn of the many free programs available to his children. Joe mentioned later that several people had come to him saying, “Did you know about all that stuff the libraries do now?” Well, if they didn’t before, they do now!


--Doris

Postal Exam Books.

Hello!

I found this entry on one of my Government Documents lists, and thought it might be of interest.

Subject: FW: [Publib] PRESS RELEASE: Sweeping Revisions Call for Immediate Purging of Postal Titles

Just in case anyone else was getting ready to pitch all their postal exam books.....

I was curious about this message, since it seems to be from an author who's trying to sell a new book. I contacted the USPS and eventually got through to a very nice, live, gentleman. He checked and said that the USPS will give anyone a free copy of the official study booklet, or they can download it themselves.

I noticed that the booklet was published in November 2004, so I asked him about the whole issue of "All the exams were revised over a period of months ending in mid 2009". He said the USPS is still using this edition of Pub 60a and anything else is not official.

Enjoy!
Melissa
Government Documents Coordinator.

FILL ANY PDF

What do you do when a patron wants to fill out a pdf form online and they can't because it won't allow them? Well, you could send them to one of the branches that has a typewriter, but there is another option. Fill Any Pdf:

http://www.fillanypdf.com/

allows you to make any pdf form the kind you can fill out online. You will have to download the form first to "My Documents" on the patron Internet computers. The patron can even sign the form electronically with the mouse if they feel comfortable with that. I wouldn't recommend typing in Social Security numbers or credit cards numbers just in case someone else could see them, but otherwise it could be very handy.


--Andrea

BP Oil Spill Sources

Hello!

Here are few resources on the Deepwater BP oil spill.

Video, transcript, and White House Blog entry of President Obama's press conference.

The White House's page on the Deepwater BP oil spill.

Deepwater Horizon Response: Official site of the Deepwater Unified Command. The Coast Guard's Admiral Thad Allan is in charge of the clean up and this is the offical website talking about his operations.

Enjoy!
Melissa.
Government Documents Coordinator

Minnesota's Legislative History

From Robbie LaFleur of the MN Legislative Reference Library:

The Legislative Time Capsule is a new feature on the Legislative
Reference Library's website.

During the past 40 years of the Librarýs history, we have tracked
statistics about the Legislature. What first started as typewritten
lists in notebooks became text files on a computer and then pages on
our website. Still, researchers looking at individual sessions had
to find and compile statistics from many databases and web pages.
Wéve taken a giant step toward useful consolidation of legislative
statistics on the web, combining scattered data for each legislative
session. You can quickly find information on members, bills, laws,
vetoes, dates, special sessions, leadership, and more. The pages
draw information from the House and Senate, the Office of the Revisor
of Statutes, Legislative Manuals, and lists compiled by the
Legislative Reference Library.

The Legislative Time Capsule pages will only get better as we add
data and categories. For example, lists of committees are available
now back to 1917, but the remaining years will be added soon. As
time allow and staffing allow, we will add election results,
legislative district descriptions, links to books and articles about
the activities of each year, and more. If you have comments or
questions about the pages, or suggestions for information you would
like to see included, email us at refdesk@lrl.leg.mn.

Enjoy!
Melissa
Government Documents Coordinator

MINITEX REFERENCE REFERRAL

Minitex Reference Referral is a service that helps with questions that can't be answered with your library's resources. The 4 librarians on staff will take questions from public, academic or special libraries.

Reference Referral will do the following things to answer your queries:

• Search all University of Minnesota resources, including databases.


• Make trips to The Minnesota Historical Society and Hennepin County libraries.


• Contact experts and other libraries, either in Minnesota or nation-wide.
  
  

The number of questions they receive has been going down due to the Internet, but the ones they do get are harder. How long it takes to get an answer varies by how difficult the question is. Just like SPPL, they do not give legal, medical, or tax advice or appraisals on collectibles.

Please do the following when submitting queries:

• Let them know what sources you have already consulted.


• If you know a resource is available at the University, please suggest it.


• Specify if it is a rush request, or if it is not needed after a certain date.

Questions may be submitted by phone, email, or through the Mylibrary portal. You need to create a username and password for Mylibrary, but then you can go back and check on the status of the question online. Why not create your account today so you'll be ready when the time comes? You can then browse and see all the questions your SPPL colleagues have submitted.

--Andrea

MANGA READING LOUNGE @ANIME DETOUR 2010

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


Inspired by this entry from the YALSA blog, we decided to try having a reading lounge at our local anime convention, Anime Detour. Katy and I met with Anime Detour representatives to set it up. Since some Hennepin County librarians were already planning to have a presence there, Melissa and I met with them to coordinate efforts. Both systems brought manga and nonfiction related to anime and manga. A drawing to win free manga and DVDs was very popular. Hennepin County brought eye-catching posters with both libraries' names on them (Check out this manga-style character created especially for the library). We handed out flyers for library events and SPPL-branded pens and ID cases/keychains. Did you know Hennepin County Library has an Anime Prom? That sounds like fun.

We were open 12-6 Friday and Saturday. All together, 174 people came to talk to us or check out the manga. We were a little worried at first about not having a separate room, but we had a big area right by the gaming room, which brought a lot of foot traffic. I think people appreciated having somewhere to relax and read as a break from all the convention excitement. Attendees often asked us where different events were (we librarians always look so helpful and knowledgeable), we did a bit of reader's advisory ("Are there any manga series with romance AND action AND character development?"*), while others just wanted to share their love of their favorite manga with us.

Thanks to Amy, Erik, Jody, Juli, Camden, Alicia, Jan and Ally B. from Hennepin County; Lori, Anton and Jo from Anime Detour; Sheree, Therese, Paul, RoseAnn, Jennifer, Bill, Carol, Barb M., Melissa and Katy.



--Andrea


*For manga reader's advisory, Manga: The Complete Guide by Jason Thompson is good, and Novelist has manga as well.

LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, PART 5: TOWARDS DIGITAL INCLUSION

The Community Technology Empowerment Project (CTEP) and growing numbers of nonprofit organizations are working alongside libraries to overcome the digital divide by offering computer classes and computer labs. They realize that many people are looking for jobs and finding that the process requires computer skills they don't have and computers and internet access they can't afford. Community technology centers can be found in libraries, nonprofits, workforce centers, schools, neighborhood centers, parks, churches, synagogues and mosques.


As part of a panel discussion, several representatives from these organizations talked about the services they provide:

• Project for Pride in Living offers 30 minute one-on-one sessions, classes about specific jobs, employment help, informational classes such as explaining Facebook. They even send social workers out with laptops their clients can use.


• The Pillsbury Foundation has an employment-oriented computer center.


• Nexus Community Partners, which has an office on the East Side of St. Paul and created the Beehive website to help people find services they need, has started offering computer classes.

The Technology Literacy Collaborative is a new initiative that includes representatives from all these groups, including libraries. Their web page is under construction, but they plan to offer information on best practices and curricula for teaching technology literacy. They are working on a database of all community technology centers on the Twin Cities to replace this one, which is a bit out of date.

Handouts for this panel should be appearing in the FYI basket soon.



--Andrea

Notes from Gadgets: Personal Electronics for your Library (a webinar from WebJunction)

I have just been dragged into the 21st century via a webinar that purported to talk about Gadgets, and ended up being a 603-(yes, that is not a misprint)-way conversation in chat.
While the presenter was talking to us, there was a live chat stream going on the right hand side of the screen and while the presenter was talking quite a few of the participants were holding their own conversations about their own favorites, preferences and experiences with those gadgets. And to top it all off, many of those same participants were also tweeting at the same time. It amazed even the presenter and staff taking part in the webinar.

The presenter, Jason Griffey, is the head of library information technology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and author of the April issue of Library Technology Reports on the topic of "Gadgets and Gizmos". He is also a blogger.

His part of the presentation was basically an overview of the new tablet style of personal electronics. Since that was his focus, much of the 55 minute presentation felt like an extended commercial for the iPad. But some of the points he made are enumerated here.

1) Since the advent of these personal devices, the container and the content have become separate issues. In the good old days, a book was both container and content. Now there might be many separate containers which house the same content in different ways.

2) Media used to be one discrete medium-either text or video or audio. In the near future, a lot of content may be multimedia.

3) What used to be simply read is now heading towards interactivity....when people can change, or even create content with the container, it changes the game of librarianship significantly.

4) With the advent of the new tablets, your display and your interface are the same, there are no external parts, such as a keyboard or mouse. This brings in a new era of portability for everyone. Jason believes that touch electronics are the way all electronics will be in the future. The participants in the chat were not so sure.

5) Over the course of the next 12 months there will be no less than a dozen competitors for the iPad coming out. Of those he talked about, there is only one that may actually be a serious competitor, in his opinion. That device will be from Google and will be running ChromeOS. Google is also hoping to make these devices cheap enough to be "disposable". If they get it right, they might just have a breakthrough device on their hands, which will successfully challenge the iPad.

6) The price for e-readers is going to plummet in the next 12-18 months, because of the demand for tablets instead of readers. (Can you imagine buying a $50 e-reader and loading it with 300 classic titles and circulating that e-reader? How would you do it? How many would you need to keep up with demand?)

For those of you interested, here's the link to the whole shooting match... (chat transcript and all). Have fun!

http://www.webjunction.org/events/webinars/webinar-archives/-/articles/content/95933154


--Doris

LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, PART 4: FAST, CHEAP AND OUT OF CONTROL

Any library can host a technology workshop for youth, you don't have to be a technology expert or have a lot of money. Lots of great free software is available. Don't put pressure on your self to understand something "perfectly" before you teach it. The presenters recommend a collaborative approach where teacher and student learn together. Some people need to be constantly reassured, while others prefer to do things themselves.

Hennepin County Library has trained teen volunteers so that they are now able to teach the classes. Other teens feel comfortable coming up to them and asking questions, while younger kids look up to them.

The main program they teach is Scratch which is a fun and easy animation program. We learned to use it in 30 minutes. Here is my project.



Other recommended free software for workshops:

• Sam animation--stop motion animation


• Artrage (not technically free, but can have an endless free trial with some features disabled)--drawing


• Audacity--audio editing


• Picasa--photo albums


• Gimp--photo editing


• Pivot--stick figure animation


• Kodu--video game creation

Optional equipment:

• Drawing tablet


• Digital camera


• Tripod


• Microphone

Handouts for the pressentation are available here.



--Andrea @central

LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, PART 3: Wikipedia: The Educator's Friend (!)

Wikipedia can be an excellent springboard for learning lessons about research and the nature of authority.


Benefits of Wikipedia:

• Free


• More articles than Encyclopedia Britannica


• Up to date--good source for breaking news


• Accessible


• Each page contains a history of all changes


• Usually at or near the top of any Google search

Wikipedia is anti-expert. 50 % of doctors have used it in their work. It is the source most cited by bloggers. Andrew Lih (Wikipedia Revolution) calls it "The best place to start and the worst to stop."


Core policies of Wikipedia:

• Neutral point of view


• No original research


• Verifiability (can cite database or print sources, the source might not be available for free online)

Each article has references at the bottom--librarians can look for them in Google Books, databases, or catalogs and find more material by clicking on the subject headings that come up.



Advantages of databases/catalogs:

• Authors are experts


• Well-written


• Rhetorical skills instead of flames

If students contribute to Wikipedia, they can learn critical thinking.


Handouts are available here.


--Andrea @Central

LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, PART 2: Best practices for creating online tutorials

If created properly, online tutorials can convey critical information to your library’s users. HTML tutorials are more interactive, but creating video tutorials or screencasts are easier.


Online tutorials are:

• Asynchronous --Can watch them at any time, but it's also easy for users to be distracted.


• Broadcast--Less interactive than face to face.


• Responsive & Scalable-- Many can do it at the same time or when it's convenient.


• A multimedia experience.


• effective for multiple learning styles.

Tutorials are most effective for:

• Chunks of info (they can't be exhaustive).


• Reaching a large or distant group.


• Encouraging multiple ways of learning.


• Tasks, processes or steps, not broad concepts.

Best practices for online tutorials


Design:

• Look at it through a local lens.


• Plan design before you do it. Design should be transparent--be clear about audience, outcomes, content (concept may need to be broken into several videos)


• Visual piece has to be engaging--think visually so users will be engaged mentally.


• Make content interactive--include things like quizzes.

Production:

• Break up content into chunks.


• No more than five minutes, tops --2-3 minutes is better.


• Do storyboarding ahead of time--50% scripting, 50% production.


• Use editing tools to make it more dynamic (this is an advantage Captivate, Camtasia or Screenflow has over free software)


• Everything should be consistent-- same shape of window, file type, text, contact info, and intro screen.


• Record short clips --stop any time you click a link or go to a page--that way you don't have to redo the whole thing if you mess up.

There are many free screencasting options available such as Screentoaster, Screencast-o-matic, Jing, Wink and Camstudio. They don't have editing options, but you could edit the screencasts later in another program like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. For free public domain music check out the Internet Archive or Jamendo.


For hearing impaired patrons, Camtasia & Captivate can have closed captioning.


Handouts for the presentation are available here.

LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, PART 1: Readers Advisory 2.0

Social software can be used as a readers advisory tool. You can go where customers are, keep track of what you've read and connect with authors. Try several sites--they are mostly free and easy to drop if they don't work for you.

Hennepin County Library has a Web 2.0-style site called Bookspace. It lets you inform patrons when a book comes out, allows rss feeds & comments and the patron can create a profile. It was created with an in-house Coldfusion script.

Patrons can also create a weekly search in the Aquabrowser catalog.

Facebook can be used to promote the library's catalog and events. Authors have fan pages on Facebook to let readers know about visits & when new books will be coming out.

Libraries can create their own YouTube channel and upload fingerplays & booktalks. YouTube is also a source for author interviews and video tributes by fans to their favorite books.

Ning an easy way to create a group like mystery fans, science fiction, book club, etc.

Librarything is a site for cataloging one's books that is also social. The user can read other's reviews and get "reader's also like" recommendations--even books they would not like! Users create their own tags to identify books. Under the heading of "common knowledge" users add information like character names, movie adaptations and cover artists. Libraries can also publicize reading events there.

Goodreads is another social reading site. It offers book-swapping and quizzes.

Even Twitter can be useful--check out the hashtag #reading.

The Reader's Advisor Online blog is highly recommended by the presenters.

Handouts are available here.

--Andrea, Central

Happy Census Day!

While today is the official Census day, you still have a couple of weeks to fill out the form and send it back.

Here's a White House press release with more Census information and a picture of President Obama filling out his form.

Enjoy!
Melissa.
Government Documents Coordinator.

New Health Care Help

Confused about the New Health Care? Have patrons with questions you can't answer? Here’re four links to help you get better informed.

H.R.4872 Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010: Text of the bill, history, voting records and other basic legislative information. This is from Thomas: "In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, legislative information from the Library of Congress."

HealthReform.gov The government Health Reform website managed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Health care reform bill 101: what the bill means to you” from the Christian Science Monitor.

"Health Care 2010: Tracking the national debate on health care system overhaul" from the Washington Post.

Enjoy!
Melissa.
Government Documents Coordinator.

Freedom of Information: Your Key to Open Government

I attended the Jane Kirtley lecture “Freedom of Information: Your Key to Open Government.”
Dr. Jane Kirtley is the Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

March 16th is National Freedom of Information Day, chosen because it’s James Madison’s birthday, and he’s known as the Father of the 1st Amendment. The week around March 16th is Sunshine Week, sponsored by the American Association of Newspaper Editors, which is “a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know.”

The 1930s was when the Freedom of Government Information story really begins. Previously, the federal government was fairly small and relatively weak, and keeping information secret was not as important. In the 1930s, with the Great Depression and the New Deal, the Federal Government expanded very quickly and grew more and more powerful. Information started to really be the coin of the realm, and so to be a power base and subject to a hoarding mentality.

On July 4, 1966 The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was signed into law. It “is a law ensuring public access to U.S. government records. FOIA carries a presumption of disclosure; the burden is on the government - not the public - to substantiate why information may not be released. Upon written request, agencies of the United States government are required to disclose those records, unless they can be lawfully withheld from disclosure under one of nine specific exemptions in the FOIA. This right of access is ultimately enforceable in federal court.” National Security Archive.

FOIA gets amended roughly every 10 years. The 1996 amendment ordered government agencies to put information online. Unfortunately it was an unfunded mandate. Here’s the text of the current FOIA law at the Department of Justice.

If a person or entity wants a piece of federal government information that the agency in question does not want them to have, the person files a FOIA request with that agency. It’s up to the agency to prove that they don’t have to provide the information based on current FOIA law. If the agency denies the request, the requester then has the option of taking the agency to court if they feel the request was denied unfairly. Given the number of courts authorized to hear FOIA trials, the agency can almost always find a judge who’s sympathetic to them and will decide in their favor.

Unfortunately, FOIA does not always work as intended. There are often delays (the oldest open FOIA request is from 1992), sometimes because an agency doesn’t want to release the information, but more often because of things like bureaucratic delays, lack of clarity in the law, and lack of resources.

The largest users of FOIA are commercial concerns that are looking for a financial advantage. They can also more easily afford to pay for court costs if their requests are denied.

Government agencies are required to report on their FOIA activities. The DOJ puts together an annual compilation of Annual FOIA Reports Submitted by Federal Departments and Agencies and Annual FOIA Litigation and Compliance Reports. Also, every year the National Security Archive at George Washington University does a FOIA audit for the departments of the Federal Government.

After 9/11/01, a lot of government information was hidden with national security used as the reason. Personal privacy is the current popular reason for withholding information. Kirtley says there are 2 ways to deal with concerns about general access to information that is potentially sensitive. You can suppress it, which she feels is short-sighted – you’re treating the symptoms, not the disorder, or you can pass very carefully worded laws that criminalize the misuse of such information and create a judiciary that vigorously enforces them. She prefers the latter option.

President Obama promised a new era of open government, explained in the White House’s Open Government Initiative. There are also new guidelines for FOIA. Unfortunately, there’s very slow progress getting them implemented in Federal Agencies.

The legislature is considering the Faster FOIA Act of 2010, introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), “which will establish an advisory panel to examine agency backlogs in processing FOIA requests. Under the legislation, the panel, named the Commission on Freedom of Information Act Processing Delays, will be required to provide to Congress recommendations for legislative and administrative action to enhance agency responses to FOIA requests. The panel will be required to identify methods to reduce delays in the processing of FOIA requests, and will be charged with examining whether the system for charging fees and granting fee waivers under FOIA should be reformed in order to reduce delays in processing fee requests.”


Minnesota’s answer to FOIA on the state level is the MN Data Practices Act.
Here’s an Abbreviated Fact Sheet and a Data Practices Overview.

Dr. Kirtley stressed the importance of legacy or traditional media. One of the great media roles is watchdogging the government, an example of which is the creation and sponsorship of Sunshine Week. With legacy media’s decline, these efforts also decline. Now the American Association of Newspaper Editors have so little money that most of the content on this year’s Sunshine Week website is recycled from last year.

Her last point was that we need to contact our elected officials and tell them we want them to take open government seriously and to get judges who will enforce laws vigorously and not just let things pass.

Enjoy!
Melissa.
Government Documents Coordinator.

Questions patrons may have about the 2010 Census

Q. My census form has the wrong city on it. Should I send it in?

A. Yes. ""Don't worry," Dr. Groves wrote in The Director's Blog on March 17, noting that the mailing address and physical location of a house were different for census purposes. People will be counted "in the jurisdiction where your home is physically located," the director said. Addresses in a single ZIP code were labeled using a single city name to streamline delivery for the "largest single [mailing] ever undertaken by the United States," Dr. Groves noted.

The Postal Service uses multiple city names to deliver mail when a ZIP code crosses jurisdictional boundaries, he said. Each census form has a unique bar code that is used to check-in forms as they are returned by mail; the bar code is tied to a mailing address that includes the city or town associated with the physical location of the home. The director urged people not to cross off the address or bar code on their questionnaire."


Q. Will participating in the 2010 Census potentially get me in trouble with the immigration authorities?

A. No. "Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told lawmakers that the department is "committed to working with the Census Bureau to ensure our enforcement responsibilities do not interfere" with "a thorough and accurate" census.

In a March 16 letter to members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Secretary assured legislators that personal census responses "will not be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and may not be used for immigration enforcement purposes." The Census Act (13 U.S.C. §§8 & 9) prohibits the Census Bureau from revealing any personally identifiable information collected in the census and provides that personal census responses may not be used against an individual, are immune from legal process, and may not be admitted as evidence (without an individual's consent) in any judicial or administrative proceeding.

The letter followed a meeting between Hispanic lawmakers and President Obama; at that March 11 meeting, the lawmakers expressed concern that continued immigration raids would discourage immigrants from participating in the census. Secretary Napolitano reiterated that neither the Commerce Department nor the Census Bureau would ask ICE to suspend immigration enforcement during the census. She acknowledged for the first time, however, that the two executive branch departments were working together to ensure that immigration-related activities "do not affect [the Census Bureau's] ability to collect accurate and comprehensive data for the census.""

from The Census Project, Census News Brief 3/21/10

Enjoy!
Melissa.
Government Documents Coordinator.

Cool new Gov Doc tool: Census Mail Participation Rates for 2000 & 2010

The Census Bureau has put out an interactive mapping tool for finding out Census Mail Participation Rates for 2000 & 2010. This tool goes down to the census tract level, and will also give you a snapshot of an area using colors representing participation rates. Data is updated Monday through Friday, and is so pretty close to real time.

Right now Minnesota is at 29% with the National rate being 20%. In 2000 MN returned 78% while nationally the rate was 70%.

It's really important that MN has a high response rate for the Census; millions of dollars and a seat in the House of Representatives are at stake.

Enjoy!
Melissa.
Government Documents Coordinator.

3 Bureau of Justice Statistics Reports on Sexual Victimization in Corrections Facilities Cited in the New York Review of Books

Hello.

This came up on my Government Documents listerv. We might want to know how to find these resources in case a patron asks for them.

The New York Review of Books cited three Bureau of Justice Statistics reports on sexual victimization in corrections facilities in the March 11th issue. They provided a bibliography but not web links. Here are the reports. I cannot find any of them in CGP or in DD2's shipping list database of items distributed to depositories. But you can find them through the BJS website and using Google.

Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09
by Allen J. Beck, Paige M. Harrison, and Paul Guerino
Bureau of Justice Statistics, 49 pp. (2010)
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svjfry09.pdf

Sexual Victimization in State and Federal Prisons Reported by Inmates, 2007
by Allen J. Beck and Paige M. Harrison
Bureau of Justice Statistics, 48 pp. (2007)
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svsfpri07.pdf

Sexual Victimization in Local Jails Reported by Inmates, 2007
by Allen J. Beck and Paige M. Harrison
Bureau of Justice Statistics, 43 pp. (2008)
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svljri07.pdf

Enjoy!
Melissa.
Government Documents Coordinator.

BYKI

Byki (pronounce BIKE-e) is new language learning software from Recorded Books (publisher of the Pimsleur language sets) and Transparent Language. It contains 85 languages including ESL for several languages. No Hmong or Somali yet, but Byki is still growing.

Byki is based on a flash card system. It is meant to be the equivalent of the first 2 or 3 semesters of college. The user can save their progress and jump around among the cards, which have words or phrases in the user's native language one side 1 and the foreign language on side 2. There are 5 main steps in the course:


1. Review It--look through both sides of the cards. If the speaker is too fast, click on the "turtle" icon below to slow them down.

2. Recognize It--See side 2 of the card and think or say side 1.

3. Know It--See side 2 of the card and type the information from side 1.

4. Produce It--See side 1 of a card in your list and think of or say side 2.

5. Own It--See side 1 of a card and type the information from side 2. Clicking on the "keyboard" icon below will re-map your keyboard to the characters of the foreign language. It will not work for syllabic languages like Chinese or Japanese unless the user re-programs their home computer to type in that language.


In addition, you can record your voice and have it graded for pronunciation. This requires a microphone, but cheap ones can be purchased for $7 or so. Recording seems to work only with Internet Explorer on Windows PCs, but if anyone is able to get it to work with other browsers let me know. Some, but not all, of the non-Latin-alphabet languages have an alphabet tab to help in learning letters or syllables.

To help the user feel part of a learning community, each language has a Facebook page, Twitter stream, and a blog. A "Word of the Day" can be sent to the user's email or RSS reader.

Users are encourage to contact Byki's Tech Support if they have any technical issues. There is also an FAQ and a video guided tour.


--Andrea

PHOTOGRAPHY TOUR OF THE LIBRARY

On Saturday, Feb. 13, I gave a tour to members of the Flickr Twin Cities group. They were doing a photo walk of downtown St. Paul. Here are some lovely pictures they took of the library:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/libtour21310/

Check out this page for some comments they made.

--Andrea

POWER SEARCH!

The Foundation Directory Online has a new search option: Power Search! Now a patron can search FDO's four main databases at once: Grants, Grantmakers, Companies, and 990s. In addition, it searches news stories, RFPs, PubHub reports, and The Catalog of Nonprofit Literature. Pubhub is a collection of foundation-sponsored reports and the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature is the catalog of the Foundation Center's own libraries.

A phrase surrounded by quotation marks or a string of keywords can be entered into Power Search, for a more "Google-like" experience. "And" is implied between a series of words. Once a search is entered, options appear on the left to guide further searching. FDO now gives you options to narrow your results. I like the way numbers of hits are listed with each option. You can also search with results by putting a keyword in the search box at the top. if you change your mind about narrowing, simply uncheck the box on the left to go back to your old results.

Don't forget though, when you search the individual databases the default is still "or". For example, in Search Grantmakers if you want to find grantmakers who have a geographic focus of either Minnesota or the whole country, you view the index and click on "Minnesota", then "National". "Or" will be added automatically. If you want an "and" search, you have to type in "and".