New Class - Basic Book Repair

Ever wanted to know more about repairing your perhaps falling-apart-ish books instead of buying a new copy? We're offering a new class to get you started on the right path to book repairedness.

Join us on Tuesday, June 9th from 10:00am - 12:00pm in Meeting Room B, for our new Basic Book Repair Class (click HERE for details & registration).

Librarian Pam O'Hara will show you some simple techniques for repairing your own books. She will discuss tightening hinges when text blocks are pulling away from the cover, replacing torn endsheets, mending paper and tipping pages into bound volumes.

She will demonstrate techniques and give you a chance to try some hands-on repair. The class will provide helpful handouts and a listing of where to purchase supplies for book repair. Our only caveat is that this is not a class for repairing rare or archival books.

We look forward to seeing some of you do-it-yourself bibliophiles there!

Office 2007 on all Adult Internet Stations!

We now have the entire Microsoft Office Suite including Word 2007 (for word processing), Excel 2007 (for spreadsheets), PowerPoint 2007 (for presentations), and Publisher 2007 (for making posters & flyers) on ALL of our Adult Internet computers (instead of just on Internet Computer A). If you want to use the scanner, you still have to make a reservation for Internet Computer A.

Libraries Help During Tough Economic Times

Check out these videos:

If you don’t see the two videos below on library use during tough economic times, click here for the MSNBC video and click here for the KWWL video

Brand New Widget

What is a widget, you ask? Well, it's another way to get a hold of a librarian if you need to ask (or more accurately type) a question. If you search the catalog and get absolutely no search results, you'll see a screen like this pop up:

If the library is open, you should see an "Ask A Librarian" box on the right side of your screen. You can type in your question and one of the librarians will respond to you. If you do so on the weekends or during a particularily busy time, it may take a few moments, but we're trying to respond as quickly as possible to your questions as we can.

You can also try it out by going to our Ask Us page here.

Let us know what you think!

Sign up for November Classes at library

As we move into November, we've got quite a slate of classes lined up and encourage you to sign up for any that might strike your fancy. All library classes are free, but you need to register to make sure that you get a seat.

For the past few months, we've offered a new class several times called Introduction to Editing Digital Photos and we've been a bit overwhelmed by the response. Every time we've filled the class and still had people on the waiting list. We recently added an additional class on Monday, November 10th from 2:30 - 4:30 in the afternoon.

Below is a list of the classes available for the month of November:

• Nov 5, 3:00- 400 Magazines, Newspapers and Other Online Resources
• Nov 10, 2:30-4:30pm Introduction to Editing Digital Photos
• Nov 12, 12:00-1:00pm Digital Microfilm Scanner
• Nov 19, 2:00 - 3:30pm Value Line & Morningstar
• Nov 20, 4:00 - 5:30pm Introduction to the Internet
• Nov 24, 3:00-4:30pm Introduction to Funding Sources

Click on the name of the class for details and to be taken to the online registration page. You can also call the reference desk at 328.2309.

Are there other computer classes that you would like the library to offer? Let us know by either posting here or visiting our suggestions page.

Back to some serious blogging

Okay, that was a long gap without a blog entry from your favorite Rochester Public Library Reference Blog. What has Ripple the bear been up to since this past June (has it been that long?!? - yes, it has). Well, hibernation hits different bears in different ways. And now we're back! It's not Halloween yet, so that's not so terrible.

And it's been a busy summer. We've added several adult internet terminals on the second floor. We now have stations A-O (or A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N and O for those who like to see it all in virtual print), and an express terminal. But wait, as the Infomercialians say, there's more. And that more is station A which has not only a scanner, not only Word 2003, not only Excel 2003, but the entire Office 2003 Suite installed on it for your processing, spreadsheeting, and officing pleasure. You do have to sign up for it specifically - so please do so at the sign up terminal (or directly on the machine if no one is on it).

Which brings up another one of our somewhat recent changes: direct reservations on the adult internet terminals. We have set up the internet stations so that you can log directly on to a free internet terminal by walking up to it and signing on with your card and PIN number.

Admittedly this has caused a touch of confusion, at least initially. If someone goes to the sign on terminal and place a reservation a nanosecond before you start clicking on the screen, they will get that computer first. So, a tip for you if you're walking up to the terminal to sign on directly, start typing right away. That should take your computer out of immediate danger of being pulled out from under you. Sorry, "sign on at the terminal people". You can type and scan fast, too, if you want.

One reason that we made this change is that some patrons didn't care for the fact that they couldn't choose the location of their computer. With direct signing on, you can choose any open terminal.

There were some fears that allowing direct signing on would start a "Running of the Bulls" for internet computers when we first opened in the morning (you know who you are), but this has clearly not happened (you know who you aren't).

Anyway, that's all from Ripple's den at this point. Look forward to more Bear blogging as we power back into Web 2.0 territory. More pictures (which is to say any) next time. Promise.

Next Reads and Author of the Month

While your first thought when you hear the phrase "two great tastes that taste great together" may be the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, at the library we have the literary equivalent of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup - NextReads and Author of the Month.

You read. In addition to this lovely blog, you read actual, honest-to-goodness books. And sometimes you run out of ideas of what to read next. That's where NextReads and Author of the Month come in.

Now you could wander into the library with a blindfold on (not recommended, or even suggested) and randomly pick a book from our shelves. You might like it, you might not (JavaScript for Dummies may or may not be compelling. Okay, it's not compelling). But you're better off getting some informed choices coming your direction. Informed? How would you do that? Well in this age of e-mail and the internet, we've got tools for you. Great tools.

First up, Next Reads. How would you like to have us e-mail you some monthly suggestions of new and classic books based on your reading preferences? That sounds a bit boring, but let me re-phrase: You pick the genre, we'll deliver you the choices. For example, ever since you read David McCullough's Truman biography, you've realized that biographies are really, really interesting. You can pick "History and Current Events" and "Biography and Memoir", give us your favorite email address, and BINGO, you'll get some super-spiffy-keen non-boring book suggestions (with pictures if you read the email in HTML). Once you get the list of books, you have links to the library's catalog so you can reserve them immediately. Cool, huh?

Head to the NextReads homepage to sign up. Go ahead, we'll wait for you.

Too high tech for you or you don't care much for the email thing? No problem. We've got another trick up our sleeve for you. Head to the reference homepage and check out the right column. But you say to yourself, "The reference homepage doesn't have a right column". Well, now it does. And it's sole occupant is the brand new "Author of the Month" feature.

Every month a trained Rochester librarian will hand-select a worthy author and insert he or she into the aforementioned right column for your perusing pleasure. This month features renowned religious scholar Karen Armstrong. To sweeten the deal, we'll even make the pictures in the column linkable to our catalog so you can go right to that author's books in our collection. All for the same price as we charge for our other library services (free).

Let us know what you think about our new web features!