Activity 21-Newspapers

Blogging Exercise for This Activity

Search the Minnesota Newspapers database for a recent news event or a famous local name. Browse an issue of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press for any date in the last year. Try printing and/or emailing some articles.

I have used MN Newspapers quite a bit, but haven't used it lately and I'm glad I looked at it because I hadn't realized all the changes. I know there is a note about it at the end of the activity and a link to a video, but it's hard to watch videos when you are at the desk so I'm glad I looked at it. It's interesting to see the world reports and hot topics..I was a little confused by the USA-MN link-I thought this was a new newspaper, but it is a link to the MN newspapers covered by Newsbank. I didn't realize somehow that it links to some national magazines too. It is neat that you can now click on a year, month date, to pull up an issue...this is great as before you were limited to searching by keywords and dates and this graphic way of pulling up a date is a nice option.

Here's an article that I found. 'Wild' author Cheryl Strayed has deep, emotional roots in Minnesota; St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN); October 26, 2014

Find the New York Times for your birthday. What’s the headline? Is there any other interesting news? (Alternately, look up an important date in history and read the news as it happened.)

Well, I searched the date of my birth and then typed in "headline" and this is what I came up with. Hmmm...I don't know what to think of this. I can't tell which one is the main headline. I found a libguide on using Proquest New York Times and it talks about using "front page" to narrow down your search for headlines so that's what I did.  Here's the news about the Titanic.


Browse Chronicling America. Take a look at some newspapers from 100 years ago today.

Browse the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub for older state newspapers. Try browsing by county or using the map search features.

I like that you can see which issues there are for each county/city either by browsing or looking at the map. The text version of the paper seems hard to read, but if you click on print/view pdf then it gives you the option to enlarge which helps with being able to make the paper more legible.


Write a blog post about your experiences. See above. I think we have some good resources. It will take some more playing around to get used to and appreciate what there is and figure out how to work the quirks.

Thanks for this chance to learn and explore. Happy Holidays!

Here's an obituary from December 1970!

Activity 20: Wikipedia

Try It

You may already be familiar with Wikipedia as an information source, but try exploring some of the article elements a bit further. Start by looking up something that interests you. Look at the references linked at the bottom of the page – whether the article itself is complete and accurate or not, these references can be a good starting point for research elsewhere online.
Note the History and Talk tabs. These can be very interesting, particularly for controversial articles or subjects where there are strong opposing viewpoints, and you can see how the current version has been reached. In these sections, readers can suggest changes and argue their points. Take a look at the discussion for a few articles.
Explore further
Try editing a Wikipedia page. You don’t have to have an account, but setting one up allows you to participate in discussions more easily and actually allows you more anonymity (you can operate under a pseudonym with an account, but an anonymous edit will record your IP address).
Take a look at the Public Library of Science’s Ten Simple Rules for Editing Wikipedia before you get started, and use Wikipedia’s markup cheat sheet as a guide.
Do keep in mind that you’re not generally encouraged to edit information about your own organization, as it may present a conflict of interest.

Blogging Exercise for This Activity

What are your thoughts on Wikipedia as an information source? Do you think it is reliable? Does having the information on the history and talk pages available add to your understanding of page topics?

Hmmm..well, I remember at first being fairly skeptical about Wikipedia and then as I used it more it seemed fairly reliable due to all the citations that were used. It is interesting to read the article about the person who wrote the book about IBM and the Holocaust and his claims that his materials were edited out of Wikipedia articles and it is also interesting to read Wikipedia's article about Wikipedia itself and the claims that Wikipedia is inaccurate, biased, etc. Also to know more about Wikipedia's history and that its founders had a pornographic site before they started Wikipedia...it's all a little too much. I don't want to have to read who is posting and deleting what...I guess I will continue to take Wikipedia with a grain of salt and be a little more dubious than I had been. I accidentally created an account for Wikimedia which isn't the same as Wikipedia..wikipedia is still considering whether I can have an account and will see about sending me a password. I'm not holding my breath as I don't really want to edit a page, but am trying this as an academic/personal growth type of exercise. I looked at the history and talk pages and it is interesting to see comments and requests for edits..it does seem that most take this quite seriously..I don't see anything that looks nefarious, but who knows..there is so much to it that it seems endless and makes me feel tired....

Activity 19: Pinterest

Blogging Exercise for this Activity

Have you used Pinterest before? Well, I started looking at in a previous Disco Tech exercise. Here is me on Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/erinzolotukhinr/boards/ (Be sure to include a link to your Pinterest page in your blog post!)

 Heard of it?  Yes...What do you think? Fascinating yet frightening because it goes on and on and on and where/when/how do you stop....

 Do you see any potential public library uses? Sure...you could invite people to pin ideas for programs or favorite books? You can use it to gather your own research...

I did pin somethings on St. Paul Public Library's pinterest page and even created an education board...http://www.pinterest.com/stpaullibrary/

1. Create a free account for yourself in either Zoho Docs or Google Drive. (Hint: if you already have a Gmail account, you have a Google Drive account! Use your Gmail username and password to log in. Did this..used Google.
2. Explore the site you chose and its features by creating a test document (or two) in the word processing application. Feel free to be as creative as you want with fonts, bullets, and the like.

Optional Exercise #2: Try writing your blog entry in Zoho Writer or Google Docs and then using the “publish” feature to post it to your blog. (I didn't write my blog in Google Docs, but I embeded these images/survey from Google Docs..does that count?)

This is a drawing I created in Google Docs:
 

This is a survey form I created:

 

 
 
 
1. Create a blog post about your discoveries: How does the application you chose compare to other word processing software you’re familiar with? What features did you like or dislike the most? Can you think of any ways the application you chose would be useful to you?

Well, there's a lot you can do..it's kind of funny, you seem to have to dig for information..not a lot of instruction right off hand..but as you get into things it somehow starts to link to help sections, but not a lot of direct instruction to begin with..I have had surveys and docs sent through google docs where you can submit your information and comments and this does seem a good way of searching and not have lots of versions floating around. I am not an expert Microsoft Publisher user but I'm guessing you probably have more options with drawing/images then in Google Docs drawing. I wanted to tilt an image, but couldn't see how to do it as rotate wasn't really what I wanted to do.  Google Docs obviously, is good for Team work or work with groups.

Here below is my attempt to paste a Zoho doc into a blog post, but it didn't work so well. Not sure how to fix this. Help, please. I'm not a html expert reader, but it appears the embed code says scroll, no which I believe is computer speak for no scrolling. I tried to change the "no" to "yes"..perhaps I should have asked the assistance of Bethenny Frankel, but it wouldn't let me change anything.

Activity 17: Online Education:


Explore the Coursera and Khan Academy sites.  Sample an introductory lesson from one or both. Feel free to sign up for a full class if you find one that interests you.



 I watched an introductory video and signed up for a class that starts in January. I find it confusing to search Coursera as there are so many options so I just ended up browsing and picking out one that sounded interesting. This seems more aimed at adults and older kids/teens.



So, I tried Khan Academy before I watched the introductory video and it makes more sense watching the video first. I signed up as a parent and could create an account for my son which is cool. I like the way the math is set up in graded levels and that there is the potential for testing and seeing where you need help and where you can move forward. It sounds like this will be done with other subjects as well, which I think is great. I think this covers a lot of material, but it would be great if there were varying levels offered so it could work for people of varying abilities, knowledge bases, etc. I will try some math with my son to review what he's doing in school and maybe we'll look at some history for fun..he's interested in medieval times.

Have you used Coursera or Khan Academy before? 

Nope.

Have you taken other online classes?

I have signed up for two. One on Library Advocacy(edX) that I did several exercises for but I got terribly behind and didn't finish. I have signed up for a MOOC that I am very behind on-officially it is finished, but I have til mid December to try to catch up. I have done webjunction webinars and other short term online trainings.


What do you like or dislike about learning new things online? The tricky thing for me is that when it is on my own time, especially if I am doing it at home, other things get in the way-e-mails to answer, tv to watch, books to read,  kid/husband to talk to, I am tired and I don't feel like it...I also am very distracted in the online environment with exploring various links and then getting lost in my own thoughts. I think sometimes if I go to an actual class or do something online that is shorter term I am better off, but I guess I keep working on it. I do feel accomplished when I actually finish. 

I guess the good part is that you don't have to go to a school, especially if it's from a school that is in another state/country, etc. I guess another good part is sometimes you can keep working on it bit by bit and of course, free, is less expensive than not free, although maybe paying money would make me more attentive because I wouldn't want to waste the money...not that I want to not finish things, but when you know someone's money is invested, one starts to feel guilty about the idea of wasting it...

Oh, I digress. Lots to learn both online and in the real world.

Activity 16: Online Presentations: Haiku Deck, Slideshare, Tildee, Prezi, Google Slides:




 Here's a Haiku Deck presentation I created for the 1st session of Adapted Summer Reading Program in 2014. I generally found it easy to use, although I think there were some times when I had to edit in order to fit things in, but editing is not necessarily bad. I do remember that I was in a hurry to create my presentation and then later I discovered if I had read help sections that there were some things that could have been easier. It was nice to use for an Orientation and it was good that you could share it by e-mail.

It was pretty easy to create a free account and download the Haiku Deck I had previously created. I had discovered this site previously when someone asked me how they could share a Powerpoint type presentation.

Take a look at the presentation I made! It's pretty easy to do this. This could be a good educational/learning/createch activity..to teach people how to teach each other and in the process help to ingrain the thing you are teaching...I like it!

 I watched the introductory video and made an account. I will have to play with this. It does seem a bit complicated with the zooming and framing and all and there are times when I have watched Prezis and they seemed a bit dizzy making, but still they are kind of intriguing..I will have to see whether I explore this further. It could be interesting to tell a story with the paths you can show and zooming in on details.

Okay I just did a very quick slide show with little to no content, just to give it a try. This was pretty easy to use and it is nice you can add videos and also you don't have to worry about clicking on save.

 

 

I think all of these are intriguing and could be useful in some capacity as I have commented above. I will have to play with these more when I have real content to add.

Activity 15: Historypin.com is a website dedicated to bringing history to everyone on a global scale. It allows users to post pictures onto a map in the area that it pertains to
It’s a very interesting way to learn about where you came from or where you would like to go.

Blogging Exercise For This Activity

1. Look up where you were born. Is there something about the city you didn’t know about? The neighborhood?
I don't remember what neighborhood I lived in when I was born as I was only 5 at the time I left. I did look up the city and state and there were some interesting photos from previous times, but nothing that held any personal connections for me. I tried looking the name of the elementary school I went to, but I didn't find any photos of it.

This is Mount McKay which my family and I saw in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Thunder Bay Library posted this with some interesting commentary on how it might have gotten its name.

2. Look up a place that you would like to visit. What buildings or landmarks look interesting?

 This is a glacier in Alaska

 This is Centennial Library in British Columbia

This is Gruchy's Beach in British Columbia. Max loves watching waves and the tide.

Well, all of this make more sense when you look at the How to Guides....this could maybe be good for people doing History Day projects and for archives and the like..maybe tracking a trip?

Activity 14: Learning Express Library

Try it out!

• Find the LearningExpress Library tab under the Research Tab on our homepage.
•   Did this!
• Click on Welcome in the User Guides tab and watch the short video.
•  Okay-my comment on this is that it should say Welcome, Short video so it is more apparent that there is a short version of the video available. I do think that in the longer video it is nice that you can click on a certain section that you need as many people won't have or want to take 16+min to watch an instructional video, even if they really probably should...
• Click on “How to take a Test”  in the User Guides tab and watch the 2 minute video of the basics of test taking.
•  The How to take a Test video seems thorough and I like that you can get a list of questions/answers by subject area so you can see where you need to improve or what you already know and that it recommends other tests/products that may be of use.
• Take a look at the “Featured Resources List” at the top left of the homepage. It is under “Welcome to LearningExpress Library.”
•  There are quite a few resources. For career information, one might also want to check out iseek.org or Occupational Outlook or JobNow for careers not included in Learning Express, but it does include quite a bit. It's nice that it has academic help for grade school-adult, career info, adult basic ed, citizenship, etc.

Blogging Exercise:
What are some pros and cons about this site?
Sometimes you can't find the test/career you want, but it is overall a nice resource. I like that it has computer classes now which includes everything from how to install a printer to using the internet or various microsoft products. I wish the instructional videos for computer classes were close captioned as I can't watch them at the reference desk with the volume on and this would be good for people who have hearing impairments or who benefit from seeing words while they hear them.

Would you recommend patrons to use it? If not, why? I would recommend it in many cases as it has a lot of nice resources. It may not be right if someone needs a particular test that isn't there, but it does have quite a bit to offer.

Activity 13: Statistical Abstract of the United States

Search and browse the online Statistical Abstract of the United States. Reflect on what you find — content, ease of use, availability of help, etc.
Does your library still have print copies of the older editions of the Statistical Abstract? Have you used the print version before (for your own information or while helping a customer)? How do you think using the online version compares to using the print editions?

 

1) Yes, we do have older print copies of the Statistical Abstract.

2) Yes, I have used the print version way back when.

3) The online seems nicer for searching and is more interactive than just the pdf copies which are essentially the static books, but put on to a computer platform. You can get more up to date information, although need to watch for the relative standard of error: Mean RSE : the Relative Standard Error of the mean wage estimates, a measure of the reliability or precision of the mean wage estimates. The relative standard error is defined as the ratio of the standard error to the survey estimate. For example, a relative standard error of 10 percent implies that the standard error is one-tenth as large as the survey estimate. You can also see more years of data when you use spreadsheets as it isn't as limited as a printed page and you can see how to cite the information and have links to other data and press releases about the data. The ProQuest LibGuide is pretty helpful.

Activity 12: History Day Help

REMINDER: when a patron comes up to you and asks for help with a History Day topic, make sure the patron has an active library account AND a pin number set up in order to access our databases from outside and to check out materials. (good advice)

1. Find out what National History Day is. 
http://www.history.com/shows/classroom/videos/national-history-day-history-of-nhd#national-history-day-history-of-nhd



2. Find out what the theme for History Day 2015 is.
3. Find some of the topics the Minnesota Historical Society suggests students work on.
4. Find where you will direct students to look for information on History Day in SPPL?
Blogging Exercise:
1. Explain your experience working on the tasks.

Looking at History Center for information on Roy Wilkins I found background information, historical documents, articles, a media clip and journal articles.  I think this can be a good source of some primary materials and background information. Also on the Teen page History Day Help there are some good links to not only the History Database, but also online repositories like the Library of Congress, National Archives, Minnesota Video Vault (tpt). I think these are good resources to share with students along with checking our catalog for print resources. Another resource that we don't link to directly (you can get to it through Other Online Databases and Websites and then Books and Literature and then E-Books) is HathiTrust Digital Library which offers a great wealth of digitized titles (government documents, etc) from libraries around the world. The only thing I don't like about HathiTrust is that I find it difficult to search at times.

2. Explain how you would apply it with History Day 2015?

I would/will hope to keep this information in my brain and to make sure the students are aware of these resources and at least point them out to the student/s and if there is time and desire on the student/s' part we could look at some of the resources together to try to see what they can find on their topic. Both the U of M and MHS have good information on how to organize one's search and presentation.

3. After performing the tasks, do you feel better prepared to help patrons out with History Day?
Yes, it is always good to have a reminder of what is available.



 

Activity 11: Search Engines Beyond Google:

I tried Bing and it seems pretty good. It does certainly have similarities to Google, but I like the sub-categories, reminds me a little of how Yahoo used to look. Under "More" there is a travel section, a translator and Explore Bing which has spotlights on timely information like Halloween and Elections (both coming up) and other topics depending on what time of year it is and then features of Bing.

 



I tried this search engine. It seems interesting..definitely less clutter and ads..and I guess it is good that it doesn't search your personal info..sometimes the ads/info gathered from data mining are interesting, but in general I suppose it is better if it doesn't do this. The searching seems pretty good. It does talk about instant answers and ways of searching, but I don't see how you get instant answers..I thought it would be something you click on.

I tried Ask and it definitely does have a lot of trivia questions, which are interesting..but I wonder what sources are being used to answer it and whether it is usually accurate. The one about Christopher Columbus and who funded his voyage matched what I had heard so that seems accurate...

 

RecipeBridge.com does have access to a lot of recipes..I guess it could be handy if you really want all of your recipes in one place? Maybe if you're very interested in food and cooking? Otherwise I think just searching the internet works well too.

 

I just tried  Momondo which seems interesting. I don't know whether Kayak being an "indepdently run" subsidiary of Priceline is bad..hard to say. I haven't really used either site before. But I did do a search on aurora borealis under "inspiration" and came up a list of the best places to see it so that's cool.  

 

At home I sometimes use www.goodsearch.com because I like the idea of donations being made to a charity of your choice. I used to use www.dogpile.com, but then I think I just ended up joining the Google bandwagon at work. 

 

 

 

 



Activity 10: Transparent Language



 

 Well, I have to say I am impressed. I last used this when it was Byki and it seemed okay..lots of online flash cards that you could flip over and practice learning different words, phrases, etc. But this seems better, practicing the alphabet, learning each letter and then being tested until you have it down and the various parts where you listen and then practice and you can test your speech (I have to take some of this for granted because I am working at the desk so anything with sound or that requires me to speak I can't really do right now, but it looks good.)

 

 



 

 

I like the vocabulary section as it looks like there is quite a bit you can learn there and I also like that grammar is included too. Something I liked from Byki that they've kept is the turtle icon which slows things down which I think can be important at first. I like the quizzes and the practice. 

 

I think it is good there are ways to connect with others learning the language and that there is a word of the day and even study materials and online help and ways to use this on mobile devices. In fact this reminds me that I have this icon on our ipad so I think I will show this to my son who is working very hard on learning as much Russian as he can. Coolski! (That's a vocabulary word you won't get in Transparent Language-mostly 'cause it doesn't exist..but it should!) 

 



Activity 9: Catalog Tips and Tricks

Well, there was certainly a lot to this activity, but it was a good reminder and informative as well because I did pick up a few things.

 

 

One thing is extended display when you do an author search, it is good to see the titles listed along with the authors' names. This makes it easier to pick out which author record you need.

Another thing that I found interesting is the reminder that you can click only available titles and limit it to a specific location to hone in on those titles that should be available at your agency.

I have used the Book Bag features of the catalog before, especially when making lists of materials to pull for displays, class visits, etc. and it's nice that I can e-mail it to my work address and then print it out.

I'm not sure I knew about saving preferred searches or if I did I had forgotten this. I will have to remember that you seem to have to be logged in to do this which makes sense since you are saving it I do like that you can check "mark for e-mail" and then click update list and be notified if there are updates to the collection that match your search terms. This is cool.

I did know about linking to records and searches..I have used this in blogs and other postings It is good to have a reminder about e-book records. There is an e-audio book record that I'm confused about. I looked up an author like-Stephanie Bond and I found a record for:

 

 

but when I click on this I am taken to an entry in One Click Digital but there is no way (I can see) to request it. When I login it refreshes the page and I no longer see this entry and when I try to look it up by title or author I can't find it. To which I say..wah! I don't know whether anyone actually reads my ramblings, but if they do I wouldn't mind listening to this e-audio book if we have it/could get it, etc. etc.

 

Learning about how to request issues of magazines was news to me...have to remember that to get a specific issue you click on the request button, log in, choose the pick up location, click submit and then you have a page where you can click on a bubble next to the various issues available.

 

I am supposed to tell about some tricks I use with the catalog. Can't think of any. I do like the Popular Searches as these make things easier for customers as a rule. Sometimes there are links that lead to nowhere or items that should have been cleared from the catalog but aren't or sometimes someone clicks on the wrong button and something says it has arrived, but it hasn't really..., but otherwise the catalog seems mostly good. As far as promoting it I know that staff offer training to people who ask for it or as part of answering questions when it seems appropriate. I think we may be working on some online training. Another thought is maybe posting catalog tips from time to time on the website and/or Facebook as reminders to people of what can be done in the catalog.



Activity 8: Points of View Reference Center

I've thought this database is a good thing ever since it replaced Opposing Viewpoints



I looked up Ukraine and found an Overview and some articles but it didn't have the "Related Information" that was listed in this activity and that I found under other subjects. I then realized that there was a side article on the main page saying that Crisis in Ukraine was an upcoming topic so I suppose once it is fully done it will have these side links to magazines/journals/transcripts. I think it is good that these are there, but one does have to examine them carefully to see if they are related enough to what you or the student is trying/needs to say in his/her/your paper.

I would recommend this database to students who are researching pros and cons and/or current topics that have been in the news that they might need different opinions on. I think this database also has good information on how to write papers, evaluate resources. This could also be useful for people who are trying to get an overview of an issue and the different positions people have taken on this issue. 

I did some more exploring and under Reference Shelf (on the right hand side of the page) there is a link for charts and graphs that lists different topics it has charts and graphs under in alphabetical order and you can search it. It would be nice if there were a Charts and Graphs category under Related Resources. Also under "More" on the top of the page there is a section for images/video where you can search by topic. I think this would fit better under Related Resources. Also the videos come from Video Encyclopedia of the 20th century...what is this? I don't see any information explaining this on the website, but I did find this information when I did a google search on Video Encyclopedia of the 20th century.

Activity 7: NoveList

I've used NoveList for a while and I find it fairly helpful when customers are looking for readalikes or suggestions for books in a certain genre. It is interesting to know that there are audiobook reviews on NoveList and listen alikes for audiobooks.

I looked at several of the Recommended Reads lists and they seemed pretty good. I also discovered that Novelist has a new feature called Keeping Up that explores different genres and includes information on the genres for people learning to look more, lists for adults, teens, older kids, info on audiobooks in the genre, fun reading maps and more!

I searched for the book "The Cowboy and the Cossack" which is one of my favorites

 

 

and it gave me several title recommendations which lead to some other recommendations and there were several that sounded interesting:

 

As for what other tools I can suggest to help people looking for good books or audiobooks I think our links under Books and Literature: Selected Websites are pretty good and I would recommend GoodReads and LibraryThing as good places to look for recommendations too.

Disco Tech Activity 6: One Click Digital

Blog about your challenges with OneClickDigital. What would you change about OneClickDigital? What did you like? Would you use it-why or why not?

Hi. I do like One Click Digital overall and I think it meets a demand for e-audio books which is great. I have downloaded the app to our Family Ipad and since our Ipad is currently in Russia along with my husband and son I downloaded the Media Manager to my home computer so that I could listen to an e-book while putting away clothes (because if I turn on the tv I will never get anything done, sad, but very, very true).

I haven't tried a bookmark or the timer yet so I will have to try that.

Things that have been frustrating..I recall that at one point I had trouble finding where to go to make my downloaded book play on my ipad once I opened the app. I will have to test this again once the family and Ipad are back. It is easier on my home computer because I just open the media manager.

I was just looking at the oneclick digital site on the work computer and I think the advanced search is interesting. It's nice you can search by narrator. I found a list of books reach by Barbara Rosenblatt who is one of the narrators who I would listen to read the phone book because I really like her voice and the different voices she can do. But if I wanted to search by genre I think that is a spottier search because one the books seem to be assigned genres strangely. I did a search on juvenile nonfiction and it came across a title about ancient Roman history and I think the genre listed is fiction and mystery and there is another book "A Case of Exploding Mangoes" where the genre is listed as Computers/General...hmmm..read the description..don't think that this is what the book is Really about...

 

But I have had fun listening to books both on the Ipad and home computer. My son and I found a Russian language learning book that we listened to for a while.

 

 

And I just finished listening to a Joanna Fluke mystery and it was interesting because there are recipes at the end and I realized that the narrator was going to read all the recipes as part of the e audio book and I guess that is as it should be since you should get the experience of the whole book, but I can't say I've listened to a recipe before.

 

 

 I saw a kids book where it talked about it having the appeal of the Origami Yoda books because of the diary entries and quirky doodles or something of that nature and I am curious to try this book at some point, because how do you express quirky doodles in an audio format..I just don't know.

 

Two things: One is that when you look at the books you check out it says that if you want to renew, just click the renew button next to the title and I think that must be an option we don't allow in SPPL, right? 'Cause I don't see the option to renew.

 

The other thing is that the Advanced Search as odd as it might be at times shows me that there are many more titles than is apparent from just looking at the featured titles. Also if you go in the list of checked out books there is a tab for recommend a title where you can recommend a e audio book you think the library should have so that's cool. 

 

Disco Tech Activity 5: Freegal

Freegal is another one that I created an account for back when we first got it. I haven't used it a ton, although I do have a few songs that I've downloaded. It didn't seem too hard to create an account, what I find frustrating/interesting about Freegal is that when I search for things for example: Frozen (soundtrack) I don't find it. It seems hit or miss what is/isn't on Freegal. I wish I were more into top music, maybe then I would find what I was looking for...I feel like I find more on Spotify.  However, that being said, there are some interesting things on Freegal. Under genres there is an Educational category and there are albums of voice lessons, speeches, albums in French, learning state capitols. Under spoken word you can find abridged Ernest Hemingway stories in Spanish. There is an album of oldest recorded voices that has two tracks on it one of Andrew Carnegie and one of Thomas Edison. I will have to try videos..I haven't had too much interest in doing that, but I will have to give it a try. I haven't had people ask me for help with Freegal, although I do recall mentioning it to someone who was looking for a place to download free music.

Something else, at least when I am searching from the library computer, will have to try on Ipad at home, but I think I experienced something similar, is that I can't seem to enter anything in the search button at the top. So I click search and of course it doesn't find anything because I didn't enter a search term, but it does bring up another search bubble to refine my search and usually I can type a term/terms in this bubble.

DiscoTech Activity 4: Zinnio

Way back when we first got Zinnio I did set up the accounts..I seem to hazily recall some confusion between switching from the library page to the Zinnio page and back, but may this was in an earlier iteration or it only happens initially. I tried checking out some magazines today and it seemed like a fairly smooth process. We don't seem to get a ton of calls regarding Zinnio so I don't know if this means not a lot of people are using it or people are using it and finding it easy to use. We do get calls about e-books and One Click Digital and this is usually people who have something that is confusing them.

In any case, back to Zinnio. I wish they could come up with a way to not have 2 accounts. I get that there is the library page for limiting the choice to what the library subscribes to and the Zinnio page allows one to read, but it seems like there should be a way to do this without two accounts. Although once I have this set up, I don't really notice the two accounts thing, but it does seem better not to frustrate users in early stages (or at any point in the process.)

Zinnio does load magazines quickly and they are easy to move about with the viewer. I am confused about the search feature as I couldn't get it to "find" anything. In the National Geographic Travel magazine it couldn't find the word "geographic" nor other words in titles of articles. I searched other magazines for words that were in titles or clearly mentioned in the articles or captions, and nothing, nothing, nothing..so what does "search" do?

It is very nice to have access to a number of magazines, esp ones that are pricey like the Economist. I wish there were more children's magazines and I thought I had seen a short story mystery magazine-Ellery Queen, but maybe I was looking at the overall Zinnio site and not our library Zinnio site, still there is a pretty good and seemingly growing selection.

If you don't have access to a computer/phone/reader, than this isn't much of a help, but for people who do have access to technology it is a nice resource.

Disco Tech-Activity 3: 3M Cloud

Okay. I think it is easier to download 3M Cloud books, because you find a title and basically you click on it and it downloads. With Overdrive you have to select the format (now of course if you are a Kindle reader user than this is the one you are going to use since you can't use 3M Cloud so in that case it's okay that there is a choice of formats.). You also have to go from the library's webpage with the e-book catalog back to 3M Overdrive to download the books fully. I did discover from doing all of this that there is a way to avoid some of the frustration (minor though it may be ) I've had with Overdrive and getting settings to come up..I'd try tapping at the top or bottom of the page in the book and most of the time I'd ended up paging forwards or backwards and what I really wanted to do was be able to go to settings so, most of the time, I could get out of the book I was reading to return it (this seems easier in 3MCloud). This time I went to the help section of Overdrive in the app and I discovered that if I tap and hold down on the image of the book cover it does bring up 3 small icons with options like delete, return, and share..which is great!

I think it is nice to have both platforms because, although there is some overlap, you do end up with more selection. I think in some ways I like 3M better because it seems like often there are more books not checked out and it seems somewhat easier to use.

I wish our library catalog looked as appealing as the 3M Cloud Library kiosk that we have at Central and Arlington and Hayden Heights...but that's a side matter...