Think of it like Voltron, in blog form. You remember Voltron, right?

From now on, you can get all the great information you received from The Answer, The Bookshelf, The Radar, and the Soapbox in one place: blogs.skokielibrary.info.

Please update your bookmarks and feeds accordingly. See you at the superblog!

The Borns turned to crowdfunding website Indiegogo to help bring the Kangaroo Cup to production. (Want a Kangaroo Cup of your own? Pitch in here.) They created a video  to promote the Cup in the Digital Media Lab using iMovie. The whole process took a couple of days, importing audio, using voice overs, and several other techniques.

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to Joe Born, “The media center was important in this project. This was practically a hobby but our material was good enough that it moved people.  The media center was important in making that happen.”

Whether you’re creating a video to get your Indiegogo or Kickstarter off the ground, producing a song, or designing artwork to promote your business, the Digital Media Lab can be a useful tool for making your ambitions come alive. How can we help make your project happen?

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/skokielibrary/Library_Tech_Talk_-_Episode_13_-_10-5-12.mp3 [/podcast]

If the embedded player isn’t working please use this link.

If you are interested in submitting some content please let us know!

I remember bygone days when one heard a song and was relegated to endless torment waiting to catch it on the radio in hopes of finding out the artist, title, or even a snippet of lyrics, which you could then go and hum, or depending on your desperation, break into a full on solo of the torturous tune for some unsuspecting record store employee who would hopefully be able to give name to your pain.

But those days are gone and now we have the power of SHAZAM! ( *Warning* I will be working in the title as often as possible). AND it is so easy. All you have to do is open the app on your mobile device, press the center button, which is the SHAZAM! Logo. The app will then “listen” to the song (takes about 10 sec.) and offer a name if found SHAZAM’s library of music.

But wait, there’s more, SHAZAM! (you were warned about the name usage) now works for television programs. You can use the app to get trivia and cast info from the television program or featured music on the program.

SHAZAM! is a free cross platform app, but you can also buy a subscription with unlimited tagging, and is available for

To compose a new message in a new window use Shift + C.

To scroll between messages in your in box use K to move up and J to move down.

Use X to select a message as you are scrolling through your inbox.

When you are in an email use R to reply to the message, A to reply all, and F to forward the message.

To save a draft of a message so you can work on it later use Ctrl + S.

Use Shift + # to move a message to the trash.

With Coursera, you can take college-level courses from the comfort of home for free.

Coursera is a consortium of universities that offer MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses. MOOCs are typically free and boast extremely high enrollment; a single class can have 100,000 students enrolled. Coursera originated with two Stanford professors and has since evolved into a collaboration of universities from across the world. Currently, Coursera has 195 class offerings and their catalog continues to expand. 33 universities are registered with more expected to hop onboard in the future.

Course offerings vary widely across fields; here’s a small sample of classes Coursera offers:

Introduction to Finance

Planet Earth

Calculus: Single Variable

Synapses, Neurons, and Brains

Archaeology’s Dirty Little Secrets

Introduction to Guitar

A History of the World Since 1300

Introduction to Sustainability

Creative, Serious, and Playful Science of Android Apps

To see a full listing of courses, click here. Each class consists of video lectures, course assignments, and quizzes. There are also discussion forums where you can interact with other students. Classes run anywhere from 3 to 14 weeks. At the successful completion of the class, most universities will provide you with a signed certificate of completion.

If you are interested in even more MOOCs, take a look at edX and Udacity.

If you have created video, audio, graphic art or anything else in the DML and would like to have it featured online or in person please let me know. If you are interested in what learning Adobe Illustrator we can help!

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/skokielibrary/Library_Tech_Talk_-_Episode_12_-_9.11.12.mp3 [/podcast]

If the embedded player isn’t working please use this link.

This can prove to be an invaluable resource for anybody interested in audio for video or audio production.