On an unusually snowy March night I ventured out to take Laurie Foley’s free workshop called “Blogging- Who, What, Where & How?” at the brand new Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams library. The audience was small due to the weather and mostly women. (Two-thirds of bloggers are men.) We all wanted to know the same thing — how do I start a blog and more importantly how do I get readers?

Laurie Foley is an award-winning blogger and business coach.  She presented us with the history of blogging. Did you know that 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed since 2002 but ninety-five percent are abandoned within four months? 72% are hobbyists, 15% are part-times, 9% are self employed and 4% are professionals.  A great professional blog is Huffington Post and a good local one to check out (besides DCPLive) is Decatur Metro.

Then she recommended some good books: The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott; Wordpress for Dummies, 2nd Edition by Lisa Sabin-Wilson and Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (you can find all of these titles at DCPL).  Then she wowed us with the fact that 900,000 blog entries are posted every twenty-four hours. I must say I feel a little daunted but determined.

If you missed this class, don’t worry.  Every month the Library has many other computer classes which you can check out in our events calendar.

A lot of seniors aren’t comfortable with their computers. They’d love to get email and photos from their families but struggle with the mouse and keyboard. They see the grandkids whizzing around on the screen and think it’s too late for them to learn the trick. Well, it’s never too late to learn something new. I often tell seniors in our computer classes to think back to when they were learning to write and had to figure out how to grip a pencil. Were they writing in cursive right off the bat? They just need to practice. A DeKalb County Public Library card gets you 2 hours of time on a library computer and our page for New Computer Users is a good place to start. From there I usually recommend the Palm Beach County Library System’s Mousercise. This website guides a beginning mouser all around the screen, then through the dreaded double-click, scroll bars, radio buttons and drop-down menus. The exercises aren’t timed and there are no ads or confusing links.

When Mousercise gets dull, what to do next? Any familiar game like Solitaire is a good choice. There are lots of places to play online and many computers have a version already installed. Knowing how to play the game makes it easier for seniors to understand where to move the cursor. WebSudoku offers several skill levels and a timer if you want to increase the challenge. A woman in one of our computer classes enjoyed playing Wheel of Fortune online. Other good choices for a beginning mouser: Bookworm, an addictive word search game with no timer so you don’t have to rush and Thisissand, an unusual website that lets you make sand art (click the gray box to get started). Once a senior gets used to the mouse, there’s no stopping them online. Next click, email or maybe – Facebook?

Last year, the library conducted a survey of adults over 55 about their knowledge and interest in services and programs. Can you guess what was one of the top areas of interest? If you said technology, you were right. With the help of the Senior Advisory board, we created an inter-generational program called Tech Talk: Exploring 21st Century technologies with teens. Two of the Senior Advisory board members specifically mentioned that seniors are on fixed incomes and wanted to learn about and how to use new technologies. Often they hesitate in purchasing new technologies unless they know if it will make their life easier or more enjoyable. This program pairs up teens with older adults to explore and learn about new technology.

Members of the Teen Advisory Board volunteered to be trained and then share their knowledge about a variety of technologies. The two hour training involved exploring learning styles, how to communicate technology concepts and included a demonstration between an older adult and the trainer. The training was an eye opener for not only the teens but also the trainer (me!).

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The Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association, is an organization dedicated to serving public libraries and helping public library staff better serve their communities. Their current promotional campaign is “The Smartest Card. Get it. Use it. @ your library.”

In a recent conversation, Michael S, a co-worker, reminded me why I whole-heartedly believe that the Public Library Association is right on with this campaign. Here is Michael’s story: 

A few months ago, my computer crashed and I was devastated. It took some time for me to realize that all of my precious information was lost forever. With the blue screen of death and one little code error, I realized that countless photos, mp3s, and writings were gone.  But, as those feelings of grief passed, I realized that I was at a crossroad with my e-life. I had to decide if I should fix my computer or buy a new one.

Not ready to part with this computer and realizing my limited knowledge of blue screens and code errors, I decided to seek a professional opinion. Off I went with my computer to a repair shop. The expert at the repair shop believed the problem to be a bad hard drive and that a new one should be installed. After a few estimates for a replacement hard drive that included the cost of labor, I decided I would try to replace the hard drive myself. What did I really have to lose if I could not repair the computer?

With the help of internet forums, such as lifehacker.com, a handy instructional video from YouTube, and books from the library – Repairing and upgrading your PC, Troubleshooting your PC for dummies, and Building a PC for dummies, I replaced the hard drive myself and have a functioning computer once again.

I am still working on retrieving all that was lost from my old hard drive, but I am now more comfortable with opening up my computer and trying to repair and upgrade it myself. This experience and all the information that the library offered has given me the “smarts” needed to fix my computer.  With this knowledge and the inspiration from another co-worker who happens to write blogs on open source software, I am thinking about building a computer from scratch.

His experience is a perfect example to me of why a library card is the smartest and most valuable card in a wallet. So, readers, how is a library card the smartest card in your wallet?

A couple of months ago I did a post about open source software and I listed a sample of programs you might want to try. Today I would like to highlight OpenOffice.org, which is the free office productivity suite that has all of the functionalities of the leading commercial office suites (all the functions you would use anyway). Here’s an overview of what comes with it.

Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Drawing, & More

OpenOffice has as many functions as you would need. You can type up a word processing document, create a spreadsheet with formulas, or make up a slide show presentation. There is also a drawing program that allows you to create diagrams for presentations, a database program, and even a math program. Here’s a screenshot of the Writer program:

As you can see, the interface is very similar to Microsoft Word 2003, and many of the functionalities are the same.

Multiple Document Formats

OpenOffice.org allows you to create and save documents in its own Open Document Format (ODF), but it also allows you to save things in Microsoft and Adobe PDF formats as well, which means that you can have all the functionality of an expensive, proprietary software program at no financial cost. I would encourage anyone who needs an up-to-date office program, but doesn’t have the means to go out and buy one, to seriously consider OpenOffice as an option!

If you’re like me, you don’t really learn much when reading instruction manuals or browsing through the “help” sections of computer programs. I’m one who does best when I can see how to do something, and I know I’m not alone in this. A big part of what we do in the library nowadays involves teaching people how to use computers, and unfortunately we don’t always have the time needed to really dig in and show people how word processors and other programs work. We have books on specific computer programs, and we offer classes in many of our branches on a regular basis on how to get started with computers, Internet, and word processing. But sometimes what we need is a quick visual tutorial to point people to, and that’s where web sites like In Pictures come in handy.

This website uses screenshots and basic, short text instructions to walk you through things like writing a letter in Microsoft Word 2007 (or 2003) or beginning OpenOffice.org Calc (a free spreadsheet program with many of the same functions as Microsoft Excel). Here’s a screenshot of the beginning Word tutorial:

Here’s their web address: http://inpics.net/

For the past couple of years, I have been exploring and experimenting with open source software. “Open source” means that the creators of a software program make their source code (the commands that make the program operate) available to other developers for improvements and innovations. The programs that come out of this type of programming are most often stable, reliable, free, and sometimes better overall than proprietary (“closed source”) programs like those made by Adobe or Microsoft. Here are some examples of open source programs worth trying:

For the Beginner:

Mozilla Firefox – this is the popular web browser that has gotten so much press over the last year or so. It’s attractive, quick, and works just as well as Internet Explorer (some would say better).

Pidgin – this instant messaging program allows you to have all of your IM programs (Yahoo!, Google, MSN) in
one place, and even shows when you receive new email messages.

For the Slightly More Adventurous:

GIMP – this image manipulation program rivals some of the everyday features you get with some of the most expensive imaging software available to buy for hundreds of dollars.

OpenOffice.org – This might be the most impressive of all. This is a fully-functional, richly-featured office suite,
including a word processor program, a spreadsheet program, a presentation program, and a database program. They each allow saving in both Microsoft and Adobe formats, and they are free to download.

For the Thrillseeker:

This is something you’ll want to fully investigate before trying. There – I’ve warned you.

Linux (pronounced like “Lenox”) is the umbrella term for many different types of operating systems that have been developed over the years. I won’t go into a full description or history in this post, but there are many resources on the web and books in our library system that cover Linux in full. Here are links to the web sites for a few of the most popular:

Ubuntu – (pronounced Oo-boon-too) their tagline has been “Linux for Human Beings” and they are even pre-installed on new Dell computers. I use this operating system at home (along with Windows XP – yes you can use both!) and I love it.

Debian – (pronounced Deb – Ian – after Deb & Ian – the creators) – Debian is very slow to release new versions because they are so meticulous in testing. Very stable and reliable.

Fedora – This is one of the most well-known distributions of Linux.

I think if you give a few of these open source options a try, you’ll find that there are plenty of free alternative solutions to all your computing needs.

Most computer games give me a headache, but there is one website that I love for its soothing, relaxing Flash games: orisinal.com!  Even though these webgames are exciting and challenging, they are also visually appealing and comforting.  Make sure you turn your speakers on.   I haven’t played all of these yet, but it seems like they are all kid-friendly and may be a nice break from the other violent games they may be playing.  And one last warning: some of these can be very addictive!

There’s a lot of talk in computer and information circles about “Web 2.0.”  This term refers to all the new technologies that are suddenly abundant on the web, and with these come a brand new vocabulary.  Where terms like “cybersurfing” and “e-business” were new words 8 to 10 years ago, we now have “RSS,” “blog,” and “wiki.”  Insiders and web aficionados have at least heard these words, but even people who use the web all the time may have trouble understanding what they mean.  Fortunately for those of us who need a primer in all these new technologies, a group called Common Craft has put together some video tutorials that explain how all these work in simple, easy to understand ways.

Here’s a link to Common Craft’s video tutorial for RSS feeds.

And their main site:  www.commoncraft.com