or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk




Using Firefox On Our Public Computers

   May 8th, 2008 Brian Herzog

firefox logoMy library is in the process of re-doing all of our public computers. One major change we're making is to switch to Firefox for our web browser, instead of the Internet Explorer/Public Web Browser combo we've always used.

The reason we're switching is a simple one - Firefox is just cooler. It lets us have more control over how the browser functions, and lets us offer more tools integrated right into the browser. Better for us, better for patrons.

Here's a list of the customizations we're making:

Add-Ons

  • Public Fox - this is designed to make Firefox a public web browser, as opposed to being used and customized by a single, private person. We're using it to lock down add-ons, preference, about:config, and a few other things, as well as control what file types can be downloaded
  • Menu Editor - also for the control freak in us, this one lets us remove menus from the tool bar (we're getting rid of bookmarks, help and history)
  • Greasemonkey - one of my favorites, this lets us embed custom coding on webpages, such as a link from Amazon to our catalog, and helpful links on our catalog's "no search results" page (more info on those on our Tech Tools page)
  • Add To Search Bar - this fun one lets us easily add our library catalog right to Firefox's search bar. The other searches we chose to include are Google, Yahoo, Amazon, the Internet Movie Database, Answers.com, Wikipedia, and Merriam-Webster
  • IE Tab - For all of those "Best viewed in Internet Explorer" websites, this one lets you toggle back and forth between the Firefox and IE rendering engines, so IE-only pages and scripts will load in Firefox
  • Image Zoom - just like what it sounds, this adds zoom controls to the right-click menu, to make images bigger and smaller. This one is most useful to patrons who get emailed digital photos at 1024 x 768 resolution, which is too big for our screens. This lets them zoom out so they can see all of their grandchild's face at the same time
  • Update 5/30/08: Print Preview - We realized that we had forgotten to put the Print icon on the toolbar, and then that Firefox didn't seem to have a native Print Preview toolbar icon. This Add-On gives us the Print Preview icon

Options Settings

  • Turn off all automatic updates - we use Deep Freeze, so we do our own updates
  • Turn on smooth scrolling
  • Turn on check spelling
  • Set homepage to our Reference start page
  • Always save downloads to My Documents
  • Always show tab bar
  • Turn off all warnings, except when redirecting from secure to an unsecure page
  • Don't remember anything, delete cookies and clear private data when Firefox closes

Other Customizations

  • Disable mailto: links - one repeated tech question from patrons is "I want to send an email but I'm getting some connection wizard." This happens when someone clicks a "mailto" link on a webpage, and Outlook launches as the default email program. Since patrons need to log into their own web email to send messages, making nothing happen when someone click a mailto link is actually an improvement
  • We also took whatever steps we could think of to ensure computer security and patron privacy - this means not keeping any history, and making sure that when Firefox is started, it does not restore from a previous session
  • Update 5/30/08: Add the Print and Print Preview (see Add-Ons above) icons to the toolbar (we chose to use icons only and not text because it used less room)

A lot of these were judgment calls, and there is no single right way to adjust your settings. Also, there're lots of other useful Add-Ons out there too, and more at https://addons.mozilla.org. If you have any suggestions for security or usefulness that we didn't include, please let me know in the comments.

Update 5/15/08: I've had a couple questions about Public Web Browser, so I thought I'd elaborate. It is a great product that works with Internet Explorer (or other browsers, I'm guessing) to lock it down and make IE more applicable for a public library computer. It has always done exactly what it was designed to do, and the librarians who developed it provide wonderful service. Our switch to Firefox has nothing to do with PWB - we just prefer Firefox to IE.

Update 5/30/08: Added an Add-On and toolbar setting to make it easier for patrons to use Print and Print Preview.



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Reference Question of the Week – 4/22

   April 28th, 2007 Brian Herzog

This is only marginally a reference question, but I thought it was funny. And as with most things in my life, it requires a bit of a setup...

Our internet connection went down on a recent Friday at 5pm. On Saturday, since our Assistant Director in charge of computery stuff was on vacation for the week, I called comcast.

Eventually I spoke with a very nice tech support person. He had me check stuff and try things, none of which worked. He concluded the problem was on their end, and would send out a service guy. But, since the next day was Sunday, and the Monday was a holiday, it was unlikely the guy would get there before Tuesday.

Of course, we were open full regular hours Saturday and Sunday. Very disappointed patrons kept coming to the desk to ask what the problem was, and when it would be fixed. People even repeatedly called throughout each day, asking if "we had turned the internet back on yet."

But one patron stood out from the crowd. He's a high-functioning special needs guy who comes in pretty regularly. We don't require signups to use the public computers, but he always comes to the desk and asks permission anyway. When I told him Saturday that internet access was unavailable, he stood and thought for a moment.

He then asked where the computer books were, and I showed him. He looked at the shelf for awhile, selected one book, and then sat for about an hour reading it. Later he came up to the desk, looking kind of deflated, and holding the book out to me.

It was The Internet for Dummies, and he said "I thought maybe I could fix your internet, but this book doesn't tell me how."

I thanked him, and told him it was okay, because we had someone on their way. That made him felt better, and he said he come back in a couple days.

He was the only patron who didn't first think how their day was ruined because the library was keeping the internet from them. It took me be surprise because, as a librarian, I am continually asking what the library can do for the patron, and not what the patron can do for the library. This was a refreshing and unexpected reversal.

internet, internet access, internet down, libraries, library, public libraries, public library



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