Photo CC-BY-NC-SA gaspi *your guide

Using the Internet as a Reference Tool (nine years of sales) – 2850 copies

Using MS Outlook (seven years of sales) – 1100 copies

Directory of Mgt Software for Public Access Computers (seven years of sales) – 630 copies

XHTML & CSS Essentials (five years of sales) – 980 copies

Searching 2.0 (one year of sales) – 1,460 copies

“This book has something for nearly everyone. Even early adapters [sic] of Web 2.0 technology may find an interesting tip. Those who wonder about the usefulness of Web 2.0 for their work will discover several examples, whether in answering reference questions to organizing their own computer.”
—Legal Information ALERT, Barbara L. Fritschel, Law Librarian, U.S. Courts Library, Milwaukee, WI

“Throughout the book, Sauers evaluates the reliability and appropriateness of each tool for searching and suggests best ways to organize them for quick reference access. Screen shots help to visualize concepts being introduced, while exercises in each chapter help put new-found knowledge into practice..”
—Catholic Library World, Betsy Butler

In the move from Blogger to WordPress the old feed (www.travelinlibrarian.info/atom.xml) is now dead. The new/current feed (feeds.feedburner.com/TravelinLibrarian) has actually been working for years and I asked people to move to is quite a while ago. It looks like 400+ people hadn’t ever gotten the message.

The FeedBurner version is now the only legit version. Please tell your friends and thanks for your continued support.

What we ended up with is shown in the photo above, which if you click will take you to some other photos at other angles on flickr. (There have been some minor tweaks since the photo has taken like better cable management but nothing too significant.) The computer is an Acer nettop which is sitting inside the cabinet. The monitor has been mounted under the cabinet so that it can be folded up and out of the way when it’s not in use. The keyboard is foldable for easy storage and rubberized for easy cleanup. The computer itself is connected to the home network via WiFi (802.11n) and stores all the scanned recipe files.(And is also backed up across the network to an external hard drive in my office.)

Needless to say, Mary is happy with the results. It’s not a powerful computer but it does the job she needs it to do. All for about $300.

Here are the detailed specs and links for those interested:

• Acer AspireRevo AR1600-U910H Black/White Nettop PC
  (1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 Processor 1024 MB DDR2 Memory, Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader 160 GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive, No Optical Drive included Integrated NVIDIA ION LE Graphics, 6 USB 2.0 Ports, VGA & HDMI ports Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3)
• USB Mouse
• Coby TFTV1212 12-Inch Widescreen LCD Digital TV/Monitor
• LCD Mount Bracket Kitchen Under-cabinet DLP Hdtv Monitor 10-15"
• iConcepts Flexible Foldable Keyboard
• D-Link DWA-130 Wireless N USB Adapter
• CABLES TO GO : VGA270 VGA cable HD-15M – HD-15M 3 ft
• Windows Live Photo Gallery for indexing and displaying recipes.

Also needed: 1.25" hole saw

(There are now six computers in our house. The only two rooms without a computer are the bathrooms. Technically there’s no computer in Diana’s room but only because she has it with her on campus.)

Use a password generator, store your passwords in some secure software or Web site, create a passphrase that you can modify on a site-by-site basis. I don’t care how you do it, just use a different password on different sites. Still going to be lazy about this? Then at least use a different password on the really important stuff like your bank account.

Cross-posted on the ITART blog, The Travelin’ Librarian, and the NLC blog.

This morning two more articles about how we work also grabbed my attention.

The first is on “The Importance of Buffers”. The idea that the moment you get to work you have to immediately dive right in to the first thing on your to-do list has always bothered me a little. Lately, I’ve been arriving at my office about 15 minutes early due to changes in how I get to work. In the past I felt that since I was at work I should get at it. Lately I’ve sat down, pulled a book out of my bag, (one that has absolutely nothing to do with libraries, computers, or the Internet,) and read for a few minutes to sort of wake my mind up. Then, at the “official” start of my shift I get my computers (yes, computers) booted up, logged in, and fire up Outlook. I check to see if there’s anything that needs to be read immediately and then I go make my coffee. I’ve built in a morning buffer and I seem to be much more productive for it.

The second article, “Reality Breakdown: Raises on Lowered Budgets?” has to do with how to get a “raise” in these tough economic times. (Note to my superiors, I’m not looking for one, it just got me thinking.) In this article Michelle Burleson notes that a raise doesn’t have to be monetary. Some of her alternative suggestions include a more flexible schedule, telecommuting, and a job title change among others. On first glance, some of these might not seem as beneficial or even possible depending on the library your in but let’s thing about one in particular: a title change.

Think about your current title and your long term career goals. The next time you apply for a job, would you rather have your previous job title listed as “Librarian II” or “Technology Innovation Librarian”? Which sounds more impressive? Which is more likely to catch a potential employers eye?

So, when this year’s evaluation comes around, and you know that there is absolutely, positively, no raise in the forecast, why not consider asking for something that won’t actually cost your library anything but will still benefit you?

• 90 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009.
• 81% – The percentage of emails that were spam.
• 47 million – Added websites in 2009.
• 8% – The increase in domain names since the year before.
• 1.73 billion – Internet users worldwide (September 2009).
• 18% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year.
• 738,257,230 – Internet users in Asia.
• 252,908,000 – Internet users in North America.
• 126 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
• 350 million – People on Facebook.
• 4 billion – Photos hosted by Flickr (October 2009).
• 12.2 billion – Videos viewed per month on YouTube in the US (November 2009).
• 148,000 – New zombie computers created per day (used in botnets for sending spam, etc.)