SPLAT Archive
16 Apr 2014
Updating the library website
Just over a year ago I started looking at my library’s website. It was in dreadful need of updating. The style, content and organization had not really been touched since the last major update several years ago. Web designers recommend updating a website’s visual design and function every 2-3 years, and ours was certainly overdue.
11 Apr 2014
Scribd – the “Netflix of Books”
In the last couple of months I’ve had several people ask me about Scribd (http://www.scribd.com). So, I thought I’d take a few minutes to let everyone know what I’ve learned about it. Scribd has been around since 2007 and is currently made up of two components – an “E-book” section for publishers to market and
09 Apr 2014
Absolutely Free (and Practically Unknown) Online Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed
In January, 2014, Laura Solomon presented an Infopeople webinar on Absolutely Free (and Practically Unknown) Online Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed. This was a wonderful overview of online applications and provides much food for thought as we look at both our library workflow and our personal workflow. There is a wonderful handout that lists
06 Apr 2014
Have mobile device, will travel
On a recent vacation, I began noticing (and pondering), all the ways that our mobile devices have affected how we function (or don’t), when we’re on the go. First off, since airlines now offer digital boarding passes on smartphones, airline workers are trained to take phones, as well as paper boarding passes, as passengers board
26 Mar 2014
Teaching Internet Safety
A crucial part of your digital literacy instruction programs ought to be classes for the public on Internet safety. There’s a lot of topics in this area, so planning a curriculum around this concept is rich and varied based on audience, purpose, and tech level. First, work on identifying your community needs. Get input from
23 Mar 2014
Ready or Not, Here They Come!
Smartphones. Tablets. E-Readers. Apps. Every day new technology integrates itself into our daily lives in ways we never could have imagined. If you are a child in America today, you are constantly exposed to more screens, apps, and devices than anyone from previous generations. Some parents embrace the change, and some are hesitant to expose
15 Mar 2014
A Story of a 3D Printer and a Library
Boise Public Library was not part of the “Make It” program through ICfL. However, BPL has an amazing Friends of the Library group that gave the library some funds to buy a 3D printer and supplies. We chose a Makerbot Replicator 2.0 and are using PLA filament. Here’s a little of how our story went:
05 Mar 2014
3D Printing in Libraries
Last year, 2013, was very exciting for 5 public libraries in Idaho who had the privilege to be included in ICFL’s pilot project “Make It”. Make It has given our libraries the resources, training and motivation to bring makerspaces, and more importantly the maker culture, into our communities. Now this is not the forum to
12 Feb 2014
How am I supposed to KNOW that?
There is a frequent library customer who uses the phrase, “How am I supposed to know that?” whenever he’s learning about something new, especially when it comes to computers. How is he supposed to know? He isn’t supposed to know. But he might have to learn. We all have to read, watch, or try stuff
10 Feb 2014
Cover: Context Sensitive Lock Screen
Typically speaking, I like to test drive a website or app before I write about it (and I would test drive this one for you, but I don’t have a smart phone, and that somewhat diminishes my ability lol). But this one is super cool, and I have it on pretty good authority (TechCrunch, The