Microsoft SteadyState Works

This week the new computer maintenance guy had to work on getting our black and white printer to work again on all of our computers. There were a number of problems with doing this that he had to overcome. The first problem was that the computer's networking capabilities stopped working. There was a piece of electronics attached to the printer that made it network capable that is no longer functioning. The Board is trying to decide if we should replace this part. In the meantime, the computer guy was able to manually network the computer into our system so that each of the library's computers can print to it. Manually networking the printer to the patron computers lead him to problem number two. He attempted this procedure last time he visited the library but the computers reverted back and lost the settings he put in. He was able to figure out that earlier in the year I put Microsoft SteadyState on our computers. This is a program that allows the patrons to do what they will to try to change the computer's setting but when you shut the computer off the computer will resume the same settings as when SteadyState was activated. I was not really sure that this program was working but through this process we found out that it definitely was! The computer guy thus had to go around to each computer and shut off SteadyState, install the new printer settings, while uninstalling our old virus protection, install our new virus protection and turn SteadyState back on. This was a long process but he got it done. Computer 1 which was specially designed by Bill Gates for libraries which has its own built in version of SteadyState is still causing the computer guy fits. Because of all the protections that Gates put on those computers it just hates to be messed with but the computer guy got it so it will print again but now it prints to our big color printer. Every computer guy that has looked at that computer hates it for all the protections that it has on it but personally I wish all the library's computers were like it in that I can let anyone, and I mean anyone on that computer and not have to worry that they will in anyway hurt it because it is practically indestructible. From little, little children to destructive teens to handicapped people, I can rest assured they can do their thing on that computer and it will stand up to them. Unfortunately it is not possible to get any more computers like it or to even find out its configuration, believe me I have tried, so it is nice that SteadyState comes close.

I am coming near the end of my last class for my MLS degree. Because I can see the end in sight, I have taken on another "job" in order to give back something to my community. I have started as the treasurer of the Roanoke Area Heritage Center (the museum). The previous treasurer had to resign due to health concerns and I agreed to take the appointment on.

Remember we are going to need at least one new board member come January. To be a board member, you live within the actual Roanoke town limits, you must have lived in Roanoke for at least 2 years and you must be an adult. If you are interested please contact Lavonne, my assistant or me so we can give you more information of the position.

Week of April 7, 2008-GOOD NEW/BAD NEWS

This week the Board of Trustees meet on Tuesday and discussed budget matters. It seems that the tax money which is the library's main income will be delayed due to tax problems at the county and state levels. The money usually comes in June as is now not expected until August or after. This is going to put a real crunch on the library as we will not be able to order books or videos or anything that isn't absolutely necessary until after the money comes in. It is going to be tough going this summer without new books and videos to please the patrons. But a great fall as we will have to make up for the shortages in those areas before the end of the year.

We have also found out that for a reason we don't know the state has cut our budget by $10,000. We are planning to appeal or at least ask why this happened.

On the good new side, the color printer which we thought was going to cost us $643 to repair only cost $125. A new part was not required after all. A small piece of paper got stuck in an area that is all but inaccessible. The technician was able to find it and remove it and the printer is working great. THANK YOU, FATES!!!

The computers have been busy this week. With the weather being better, people are getting out and coming to the library.

I have been working on a new big addition to the library's website. I am hoping to have it up and running come May or June. Look for it. It is called KID CLICK-EVERYTHING FOR KIDS AT THE ROANOKE PUBLIC LIBRARY!

Celia’s Twelfth Blog for Library Systems Class—Francis Ford Coppola is SAFE.

I have found going through the wiki process that things I thought would be easy really aren't. I could never get my computer to print screen or to get it to copy parts of pages which I have been able to do with other computers but for some reason not my laptop. Since I wanted to show different page parts and this wouldn't work I used my flip camera and took pictures of the page I wanted to show. This wasn't a perfect solution but at least I was able to give the user of the wiki an idea of what they should be looking at. I took on the project of writing my group's help page of the wiki so showing examples was useful and in some cases I believe necessary.

At out last wiki group meeting I took a video of Megan using the wiki as part of the training for the wiki. I thought this would be easy to add to the wiki. I was wrong again. First I had to edit the tape as at one point Megan stopped and started again. So I had to make two videos out of it, the first video ending where she started the part she repeated and the second starting where she restarted that part. It amazingly came together quite well. I then proceeded with downloading the video to YouTube. There is a feature in the flip camera software that allows for this fairly easily. At first, I kept getting an error message that it wouldn't transfer. I finally got one to transfer but when I checked it, it didn't work constantly. I ended up taking my laptop to the library and having one the patrons who knows more about YouTube help me. He figured out that the inconsistency was caused by there being to videos downloaded. He figured out that the bad one had to be eliminated for it to work correctly. So he eliminated what he thought was the bad one but it ended up he deleted the good one. I would then have to start over with downloading the videos to YouTube. The filtering in my library prevented me from doing it at the library so I went home and again downloaded the video to YouTube after first deleting the bad one that was still there. They download seemed to go well but I couldn't get the video to play from the wiki. I thus went back to the wiki and eliminated the link that was there and made a new one to the new working video. Now at last I think the video is working and working consistently.

After we made the training video more pages were added to the wiki. I am worried that this might cause some confusion but do not want to redo the video. The video still highlights the main points of the wiki. I was surprised when today I got an email from a library praising the video as one of the best they had seen explaining a wiki. I hope that everyone else feels that too!!

Celia’s Eleventh Blog for Library Systems Class - THANK YOU, Dr. Ball

This week proved to me that I am gaining not only knowledge from my MLS classes but also confidence in my ability. A patron came in who is a powerful mover and shaker in the town and who for a long time did not approve of me as Library Director. He said that he had a research question for me. "Why are barns red?" I thought that I would have time to find the answer but he wanted me to come up with an answer on the spot. I was able to stay calm and look it up on my computer. He was impressed when I gave him his answer in a short time. (In case you are wondering, it started in the 1800's when they added blood from slaughtered animal or rust (to prevent mold and ivy from growing on the barn walls) to the stain (linseed oil) that was put on the barns to protect it. This thus turned the barn a red /orange color not the bright red of today.) After I read this to the patron, he asked me to print it off so he could take it with him since he wanted to share it with the people he got into the discussion with while driving a man to his doctor's appointment and those working in the doctor's office. The page I printed off for him happened to have a picture of a barn on it that was very decorated so he wanted me to find out why barns are decorated they way they are so I went back to the website I found the original barn information from and with some further digging found that there are two areas of thought on this. One is that they are decorated purely for aesthetic purposes and the other is to ward off evil with the hexagonal shapes. With these answers, I think I was able to actually impress the patron. For a man who gave me a very, very hard time when I was first started this is a real boost to me and to the library. So a big Thank You to Dr. Ball and her Online Searching Class for giving me the confidence to pull this test off.

I spent most of the week working on designing and implementing a website for kids at the Roanoke Public Library. I am adding pages to promote the programs, events and other items that we have available. I am collecting permission and information from area organizations to add to the site also. I have asked all the area schools, the boy and girl scouts, 4-H, visitors' bureau, local chambers, and sport organizations. So far they have all been very cooperative. I don't want to add links without permission. Everyone that I have shown the site I'm making are excited about it. One of my board members is especially pleased as he has been asked many questions about the library and its events as he has been volunteering at the American Legion. This process has been fun, frustrating, and very informative. I can't believe how much I am learning and how much is actually possible. I find that I am really getting into wiki. I love how they allow interactivity and make the pages come alive.

The circulation computer at the library has Microsoft Office 2007 on it which the library was able to purchase at $20 a computer from TechSoup. I have used Publisher to make the library's brochures but not much more. My assistant was using Word to make a paper to insert into a kit we were sent for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners to prepare them for entering school. These are the first kits that the library has that it is planning to circulate. The point of this is that the Word only has a very few fonts on it. It doesn't seem to be downloaded correctly. I have tried to repair it and tried to add more areas to it. Neither of these has worked. I think that I am going to have to completely remove it and then download it again and hope that the bugs in it go away. Computer and computer programs are great when they work and such a major pain when they don't!!!

 

 

Celia’s Tenth Blog for Library System Class—Punished for Vacation

I don't know if it happens to everyone, but I have noticed that every time I go on vacation I come back to some form of disaster that I have to fix or find a fix for. That happened this last week as upon returning I was told that both of our printer were down and that the only thing we and the patrons could print to being the copier. I tried everything I knew to get the big color LaserJet printer to work and nothing worked. I talked to a board member who is our handyman and he said that he would see what he could do. So Monday night after the annual membership Friends meeting, he and the board president went to work on the printer. They followed the step-by-step instructions given by the machine which I and my assistant had done repeatedly to no avail. They then proceeded to try to take the machine apart this again was to no avail. I had called the company that serviced the printer for the company that had donated the printer to the library and they wanted $184 for the first hour service call and $46 for each 15 minutes after that with no other information told to us. I then tried Allen Business Machines which is where the library bought the copies and has a service contract with. After being transferred repeatedly I was told that I needed to speak to their IT serviceman who was out. He did call me in a timely manner and I was told that they charge $125 for the first hour service call and $34 for each 15 minutes after that. I told him what the problem was that we have a 54.6 error and that we have gone through the help steps, cleaned it, and replaced fuser kit but the error was still there. He said that since I could give him the error number and the exact problem he would not have to trouble shoot so he knew what the problem was—we need a new drawer. He quoted me at $654 to buy the part and replace it in our printer. He suggested though that instead of doing that it would be more cost effective to just buy a new printer. He said that often once a problem like this happens it leads to more and more problems and turns into a money pit.

I have been comparing fixing that printer both through ABM or the library buying the new drawer and installing it ourselves or buying new printer. I used the areas of initial cost, capacity of the printer, speed of the printer, cartridges needed, cost and life of cartridges (color and black) and whether it has duplex capabilities. I also have to factor in if we get a new printer that we would have to have the tech guy come to network it in. I have an email in to him to find out that quote.

I was lucky as the other printer that was down was just because it was not plugged into any computer. On the Monday before I left we had a board meeting. The board member I mentioned before came early to look at one of the new donated computer was telling me that there was a problem with the CPU fan. When he opened it up, he found that the inside of the computer was very full of dust and that the fan was clogged with dust. Once he cleaned the inside the fan and the computer worked fine. He thus went and cleaned all the donated computers figuring that they would all be dusty inside. He was right. Evidently when he was reattaching he did not reattach the printer. We didn't notice it since the big printer was the default and the one everyone used until it went down so we didn't notice the problem right away. I glad that was so easy to fix.

One other problem happened too. The OPAC computer that we use for the scanner too wouldn't go on the Internet. It would try but would immediately shut it down. I explained to the tech guy as a flick or like it was taking a picture. I again had tried everything I could think of to get it to work including having one of my patron who is technically good with computers try what he knew. Again we had no luck. The tech guy even had trouble finding the problem but finally did. I had updated Internet Explorer to 7 from 6. In that process or sometime after the program became corrupted. The tech guy took Internet Explorer back to 6 and now it works fine.

I sometime wonder if vacations are worth it, then I wake up and know THEY ARE!!!!

Celia’s ninth blog for Library Systems class--Colorado (Wyoming) Experience

This week I was proved again how wonderful the librarian profession is. For my other class, I was to interview a webmaster. One of the webmasters, I chose to try to interview was the Denver Public Library's. Their webmaster not only answered my questions, she also offered me an inside tour of the library while I am there over spring break. I can't wait!

I also found out that other professions have great people too. March is disability month. To celebrate that, my library has a guest storyteller and the local developmentally disabled group (Pathfinders) come and give a talk. During this story time, I take pictures as my assistant runs most of our story times although I do get the guests and help her plan. We had this special story time on March 3, 2008. I took my digital camera and took about 5-6 pictures. I then went home and downloaded them to my computer. I thought that all went well but when I went to find the pictures on my computer they weren't there. Since I am planning to take the camera on vacation with me I had cleared it thinking all was well. The pictures were simply not there. All I can figure out is that something went wrong with the download. I have learned that I should erase the pictures from the camera until I am positive that they are on my computer and that I know where to find them. Luckily for me the Pathfinders organization sent a lady to take pictures for their own publicity so I asked them to send me those pictures so I could add them to my article to the newspapers to publicize the event. They were happy to help me in this way as both of our organization will get some good publicity out of it.

We also had problems with one of our computers and the printers. We have a 4500 color LaserJet printer that is our default printer. Computer 4 would only print to the 2300 b&w LaserJet printer though. Even when the 4500 was chosen, it would print to the 2300. I had to reset the 4500 printer into computer 4 and finally got 4500 printer working correctly from computer 4. What really bothers me now is how the computer lost those settings in the first place. My board has had me set restore points on all the patron computers. One of the board members has a portable DVD drive he is going to use make back-up disks. We are also planning on putting SteadyState from Microsoft on all the computers also. This program is supposed to take the computer back to its starting point every time that it is restarted. I will be putting that on the computers when I get back from vacation. We are hoping with all this protection the patrons will not be able to add or change things like they are now.

Denver was great! I was surprised as I thought Denver would be more mountainous but we did drive out to see them a little closer than you can from Denver itself. I did get my tour of the Denver Public Library. I took my new flip video camera and took a video during it. We were specially allowed to go into the room where a G7 summit was held during President Clinton's term of office. It was neat to see where the heads of state sat and the special nameplates placed inside the table. They also have a wonderful display of Colorado artworks from the neighboring art museum. We were also shown the genealogy and children's sections of the library. It is a 64 million dollar library that is a showplace as well as a functioning library. It was definitely being used and was a vibrant place so it was proof that libraries are necessary.

I repeatedly took a group of pictures in Denver on my digital camera and then went back to the hotel and downloaded them to my laptop. I have quite a video slide show now of Colorado and even some of Wyoming which we spent a little time in. I was lucky as the hotel gave us complimentary "wired" Internet service. I would have had to pay for "wireless" Internet. I was thus able to connect from Denver and work on the wiki project a little. I copied off maps from the internet before we left which show Denver in squares grids and then part in diamond grids. We thought it was a mistake but once there found out it was actually set up that way. It was confusing! We were often relying on my nephew's phone as he was able to get Google Maps on it. It is incredible to me how phones have changed. Who would have believed 20 years ago that we would be getting Internet, able to take pictures and texts or talk to people on our phones from almost anywhere. My nephew could often be seen in during the "vacation" making sales calls from his phone in the middle of our touring walks of Denver while we females shopped. I left my niece use my cell phone to call her husband and such since I have nationwide coverage and only use it for emergencies. I thought that I had 500 whenever and 75 weekend minutes. It turns out that it was actually the opposite and she talked for 96 whenever minutes so I will have to pay extra since I have an overage. Luckily it isn't that much!

Celia’s Eighth Blog for Library Systems Class-Amazing “New World” of Technology

In my Web Architecture class, we have an assignment to interview a web master. Since I don't have any close, I decided to email ones that I have used their web sites. I emailed my questions to five web masters. Is it any surprise to any MLS students that the 2 public library web masters responded promptly and fully? I heard nothing from the 2 government sites or the corporation that I also emailed. That again proves that we as librarians really do want to spread knowledge whether it is our own or through resources we have found.

One of the libraries I emailed was the Denver Public Library. During spring break, I am going to Denver. My niece, Amy, has to take her final test to be a doctor in Denver which is why we are going. My sister and I figure that we will have time to discover Denver while Amy is testing. I looked on the Internet for information on Denver. I found out that we are staying in a hotel about 8 blocks from the Denver Public Library. We will in fact be very close to many interesting place including the mint, art museum, state house and other museums. I still find it amazing how easy it is to find that information. I am old enough to remember when to learn that kind of information would have required hours and hours at the local library and the information received may not be as current or as complete. I sometimes want to throw the computer out the window when it doesn't work well, but I can't think how I could get along without one now. If someone comes into the library, I often run to the computer to find out their answer. I search for phone numbers, addresses, books, tax forms and all others kinds of information. How did librarians do this job without a computer? It boggles one's mind to think of it.

I was talking to some 20somethings in my library and we were discussing how much school children learn about computers now days and how computers are a common sight in classrooms. They said that they remember just having a few if any when they were in school. Boy, did I feel old since computers weren't even thought about in school in my day and those that did exist occupied a whole room. Isn't it amazing how schools and even life has changed because of computers and the technology they have brought?

Because of my trip to Denver, the board is meeting on March 3rd over a week earlier than normal. I have to get the end of month reports done on Saturday, March 1. Luckily the local bank is open for a few hours on Saturday so I can hopefully get some kind of bank statement so I can report to the board the library's financial condition. That again is only possible because of computers and technology. Without that technology, there is no way that the bank would have any possible way of getting that information for me for the reports in time for this early meeting.

I was informed by our tech guy that all media inserted into our computers are tested by our antivirus system. That means that it is safe to allow flash drives. The library that has the DVD/CD repair machine we are thinking of buying says that it requires little maintenance. In fact, a maintenance kit came with the machine and they have yet to use it. It just requires a little wiping out after each cleaning. I am hoping that these 2 issues can be finished at this coming board meeting.

I found out on Thursday that we are running out of label protectors. These are clear plastic with adhesive backs that we place over the reused bar codes and book spine labels. Since we are re-shelving and cataloging a lot of our young adult as juvenile where they should have been in the hopes that being shelved and cataloged right they will circulate more we are going through a lot these protectors. I tried very hard to order some through the DEMCO website. I never succeeded at it as that website will never accept my user name or password. I started a small notebook where I keep all the user names and passwords for all the accounts and computers the library has. This has been a lifesaver or should I say memory saver. When I started it I never thought I would have near as many as I do. My board president was going to copy them and have them put into the lock box but when he saw how many there are decided it wasn't worth it. It is amazing that are lives' are now reduced to user names and passwords.