Rochester Newspaper microfilm + Digital scanner = P-B PDFs PDQ

While the founders of Rochester weren't around for the signing of the Declaration of Independence (and it's a good thing that none of the Founding Fathers had a heart attack, because expert heart surgeons in 1776 weren't too, well, existing then), the history of our beloved city does go back quite a long way. And we've got miles of Rochester newspaper microfilm to prove it.

How far back you say? Well you can read for yourself the microfilm of Rochester Post Bulletin beginning in 1859, just shy of 150 years ago. For you kids, the internet was considerably slower than dialup at that time.

Okay, so libraries have had microfilm and microfilm readers since time immemorial, what's the big deal about a digital scanner? One word: PDF. Okay, let's throw in another word: adjusting image quality. And a last one for good measure: e-mail.

So where does that leave our math (other than a shaky definition of "another word")? You can make digital copies of the articles you're looking for and share them via e-mail just like digital photos. You can also do some adjustment of image quality before you save your image. That article about your great, great, great Aunt Pearl can make the rounds in one press of a button instead of dozens of envelopes and photocopies.

That's the beauty of the digital age.

Come in and give it a try.

All of the Senior Techies were winners in this class!

After spending lots of time in the judging booth looking at all the pictures we took at the senior techies introduction to digital camera class, we have to say that everybody won the first annual (or perhaps semi-annual) Senior Techies photo class. A few photos are posted here for prosperity.

We had overflow attendance and lots of people got the chance to learn about shooting digital photos. We spent a little time with the scanner getting ready for next week's more extensive scanner class.

The Senior Techies classes are aimed at teaching beginning computer skills to those senior citizens who may not be as familiar with computers as their grandchildren are.

Senior Techies topics range from computer basics to setting up an e-mail account to next week's class on e-mailing photographs. See our events calendar for details of upcoming classes.

This June and July we are also trying out a new program called "Senior Techies- Computer Practice" which will be an open lab with computers, a scanner, and digital cameras where seniors can drop by and practice thin they have learned in the previous classes and ask any questions that may have come up in the interim. The continuing interest in the classes has been a source of great pride for us here in the library. As long as seniors keep signing up for the classes, we're committed to adding them to our schedule.

Google: Threat or Menace? or If Librarians Ran Google....

It's fair to say that librarians have a funny relationship with Google.

Is it:

a) the single greatest living searching tool the world over
b) a plot to put librarians on the unemployment line
c) something librarians and library users need to think about
d) a great place to invest our retirement nest egg

This is, of course, the kind of question that you can't answer in 0.05 seconds on a search engine. Even without using Google, you know the answer is c, possibly d & a, and most definitely (probably) not b.

Librarians use Google quite a bit. There, it feels good to say that. It's a great place to go for certain kinds of quick information (phone numbers, addresses, Twins scores) or to begin a search (especially if you have no idea where to start looking). But, it's not everything. Despite what you've read, not everything is available on the web. Even with your credit card. And even when something is available, Google may not be able to find it.

If you're looking for newspaper or magazine articles that are more than a few days old, good luck. Either you pay by the article, or, more likely, they aren't available online at all. However, we have access to hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles (both electronic and print) and can generally get things we don't have.

Anyone who has used Google to find genealogy information or try to find quality information about obscure topics (or wade through lots of bad information to find quality information on not-so-obscure topics) knows how hard it can be. And if you're looking for information about, say, nursing homes, there are plenty of sketchy-looking sites willing to sell you information, but you can't be assured of getting what you pay for. People who have a vested interest in selling you products do their very best to make sure their names come up first when you search.

Ah, there's the rub. Or at least a rub. As of this writing, a Google search of the word "failure" directs you to President Bush's page on the White House web site. No matter where your personal politics may be, that's not great information. When pranksters or salespeople are successful at rigging Google, you don't win.

And let's not talk about the sponsored links. (Hint: Librarians don't have sponsored links.)

If librarians ran Google, you can bet that there would be a whole lot more informative asterisks* alerting users to the credibility level of the information.

That's where librarians shine. In addition to having access to a lot of information that search engines can't find, we're web experts and have a sense of who has good, bad or slanted information. Or, if we can't determine that, at least we can help you find out who is providing information. Search engines can't do that. Google often uses a popularity test, not a sniff test.

And there's the matter of searching. There are good ways to use Google, and there are, well, severely less good ways to search with Google. We know some pretty good ways.

The Google logarithms are many things (ingenious, complicated, propriatary) but they are not tenacious. Librarians are tenacious like the Hanson brothers in Slapshot (but with far less blood). It bothers us if we can't find the information right away, and we keep looking. I can guarantee that Google won't think of one last creative, non-intuitive place to look and come up with an information goldmine. We keep digging until there's no dirt left to dig in.

That's what librarians do, and if we could get Google to think and act that way, we may have to consider letting it have an honorary membership in the American Library Association.



*like this one letting you know librarians are credible

First Annual Senior Techie Photo Competition!

You read it here first. Later this month, one lucky attendee for the Senior Techie Introduction to the Digital Camera class, held Wednesday, April 18th from 9:30 -11:30am will find their digital masterwork posted for all the world to see on this very blog! As of this posting there are still some openings to the class, you can sign up here.

Now before people start thinking this is a thinly veiled attempt to get some people (perhaps the relatives of the eventual winner) to visit this page, let me confirm that is exactly our intention. And if every attendee of the class takes the sort of world-class photos we're expecting them to, there could be multiple viewings of this blog, er, winners.

Our popular Senior Techie classes cover everything from basic computer skills to e-mail to using a scanner to the exciting aforementioned digital camera photo taking. Check out our events page for more details.

NEW! Senior Techies Computer Practice

We will also be holding a new Senior Techies program called "Senior Techies - Computer Practice" that will allow Seniors to just "drop in" and practice on library computers under the supervision of a staff librarian. Computer Practice will be held on alternate Fridays in June and July (June 8, 22 and July 6, 20). If there is interest in this program, we will consider making it a an ongoing program.

Only slightly more than a week left to prepare.....