May 20th, 2010 Brian Herzog
We finally decided to bite the bullet at my library and upgrade from Office 2003 to Office 2007*.
Office 2007 is being installed on all the staff computers first, so that when it’s rolled out to the public we’ll be able to help them with the new Ribbons menus. And thanks to a heads-up from Dean Baumeister (Memorial Hall Library, Andover, MA), we’re going to use some great interactive tutorial guides developed by Microsoft to help make the switch easier.
The neat thing about these guides is that you use a standard Office 2003 menus to do the task you want, and then it shows you exactly how to do that same task using the Office 2007 Ribbons. We’re going to put shortcuts to all of these on the desktops, to have easy ready-reference for locating Office functions:
I’ve only played with Office 2007, so I’ve been poking around with these guides to see where all the tools and functions I use every day have ended up in the Ribbons. The trickiest thing to find so far has been Word’s options. It used to be at Tools > Options, and now it’s oddly hidden up in the big round button.
Ah, the joys of learning new software (and trying to make it work as much like the old software as possible).
*Yes, I know
Office 2010 is due out this summer, but lets not get ahead of ourselves (
read more,
see more).
Tags: 2003, 2007, guide, libraries, Library, microsoft, migration, office, office 2003, office 2007, public, tutorial See Also
Posted under Library, Technology | 5 Comments »
May 26th, 2009 Brian Herzog
Here’s a new little handout to show patrons (and staff) the basics on how to connect to the library’s wireless network. Feel free to modify* and use it if you like.
The handouts are designed to be a third of a page, with Windows instructions on one side and Mac instructions on the other:
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been noticing more and more people asking for help connecting to the network. It wasn’t that our network was problematic - the patrons just seemed like first-time laptop owners, and had no idea how to connect.
We have a more hardcore troubleshooting handout, instructing people to use ip config to release and renew their ip numbers, but that was definitely overkill for these patrons. They needed something plain and simple, that showed the basic steps to search for and connect to networks.
But of course, plain and simple is tricky, since there are so many brands and operating systems out there. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on making this better, or post a link to your own handout in the comments section.
And thank you to Jessamyn for writing the Mac portion - it would have only been half as useful without your help.
*I usually do little handouts like this in PowerPoint, because I already have templates setup - sorry for the amateur desktop publishing
Tags: connecting, connection, guide, handout, how to, howto, libraries, Library, network, public, wi-fi, wifi, wireless See Also
Posted under Library, Service, Technology | 6 Comments »
December 18th, 2008 Brian Herzog
In addition to this blog, I also write a weekly post for my library’s blog. I don’t feel like I’m spreading myself too thin, but sometimes I have to wonder if there is any connection between my online and real-life activities.
Last week’s post for the library was a Holiday Book Guide. It contained a list of kids books suggested by our Youth Services Librarians, and also links to other websites with end-of-the-year book recommendations. The list of other websites is short, but I tried to find a good mix. However, apparently, I wasn’t reading them very closely.
A couple days ago, I was going through a cart of new books with a coworker. He held up three books and said “hey, I saw all of these on that Boing Boing list of books.” It was then that I realized that, although I had read all of the lists I linked to, apparently I had retained nothing because none of the books he was holding looked familiar.
This must have been a case of me working faster than I was thinking, trying to get a useful blog post up by the (self-imposed) deadline. But it’s also a reminder that websites aren’t just something to link to as information for other people - I need to read them, too.
I guess I need to remember to stop and smell the roses - or in this case, stop and read the blogs.
Tags: blog, blogs, Books, guide, holiday, libraries, Library, post, posting, public, reading See Also
Posted under Library, Random | No Comments »
May 29th, 2008 Brian Herzog
Since I mentioned recently that it’s staff review time in my library, I thought it’d also be appropriate (although I use that term loosely) to post this 1943 Guide to Hiring Women. Originally published in “Transportation Magazine,” I found it over on the studio twentysix2 blog, and I agree with Tom’s commentary.
As a male in a traditionally female-dominated field, of course I found this interesting. I work for and with women, and have women who report to me, and I’m happy to report that this is not at all applicable to 2008. All of my colleagues, professional and paraprofessional, have their jobs because they are good at their jobs - not just because they fit the uniforms we had on hand.
Times change. That’s a good thing.
Tags: 1943, employment, female, guide, guidelines, hiring, job, jobs, libraries, Library, public, woman, women See Also
Posted under Library, Random | 4 Comments »
