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.....

Not Billboards, Bill-exciteds!

It's sad that this sort of pun passed muster, but there you go. You may have seen the library billboards around Rochester these past few weeks, trying to get out the word that we have resources here that you may not be familiar with.

You can take practice tests for the ACT, SAT and other tests with our Learn A Test resource, find car repair specs and diagrams at the Auto Repair Reference Center, do genealogy research on Ancestry Plus Genealogy Search*, research full-text articles from newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals and more through EBSCO, not to mention the biographies available from the Biography Resource Center (okay, they were just mentioned) and Spanish language resources such as Informe, Netlibrary online books, and many, many more. Click here to go directly to the list of electronic resources.

Almost all of these resources are available online 24/7 if you have a Rochester Public Library card in good standing. Go ahead and make the books jealous, just this once, and connect yourself to some of our somewhat underheralded electronic resources.

*Please note that Ancestry is only available for use while you're the library, but you're going to have some questions for Greg or Susan anyway, so it's worth the trip in.

MNLINK Limiters Liberate (Inter)Library Loans

Interlibrary loaners rejoice! MNLINK (your one-stop shop for all things interlibrary in Minnesota) has recently upgraded its software so that you can search for items by item type, language and intended audience level. What does that mean to you, the interlibrary loaner? It means, my friend, that when you look for the Sound of Music on VHS, you can limit your search so you won't be wading through the Sound of Music on DVD, the Sound of Music score, books about the Sound of Music, magazines devoted to the Sound of Music and so on. Ditto for foreign language materials and materials targeted to a certain age level. Click on this beautiful link to give it a try https://www.mnlinkgateway.org/zportal/zengine?VDXaction=ZSearchAdvanced.

Top question this week: Where are the Newspapers and Magazines?

As many of you have noticed, we've made some changes up on the palatial second floor reference area of Rochester Public Library over the President's Day weekend!

All of the new magazines, newspapers, new nonfiction items, and foreign language materials have been moved over to the rotunda area (to your immediate right as you reach the top of the second floor). Magazines have been consolidated into new spinning racks and the new non-fiction items are displayed face-out on the wall so that you will more easily be able to judge our books by their covers (although we're sure you'll judge them on their merits as well).

Now you can read the Post Bulletin, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other newspapers and magazines while taking in the semi-breathtaking view of downtown Rochester in the sunshine.*

Nonfiction VHS tapes, books on CD, and books on cassette have moved over into the former magazine area (to your immediate left as you reach the second floor). Once you get over the immediate shock of not being able to find your favorites in their same places, let us know what you think of the new layout.

*Actual experienced sunniness may vary. Only guaranteed during the daytime on cloudless days. Tanning oil not provided by library.

Thank you for visiting us at the Healthy Living Fair!

We had a really great turn out at the Healthy Living Fair. Thanks to all the city and county employees who stopped at our booth with questions (and even checked out some items at our booth!)

For those of you who haven't got library cards yet, we hope to see you soon at the library to sign up. We had several positive comments about the new web site design and got lots of good suggestions/questions - can you get more downloadable audio books, does the library have wireless internet (Yes, we do!), and others.

We hope to see you at the library for all of those exercise videos, healthy diet books, lifestyle change books (and even chocolate cookbooks which falls in that grey area in "healthy", but definitely makes a positive statement in the "living" column!)

What's your favorite exercise activity? Tai chi, yoga, and pilates are the new trendy subjects popular at the library. Check out books, DVDs and healthy living magazines at the library.

Did you know the library has deposit collections at Rochester fire stations? Sorry, just for firefighter reading, not the public.

LIVE! Healthy Living Fair

We are in the throng of city and county employees, and a lot of our exercise and cookbooks have been popular. Lots of healthy (and slightly less-than-healthy) folks here checking out all of the exhibits at the Civic Center. Free yogurt abounds, and there are more heart shaped balloons here (perhaps because of Valentine's Day) than one generally sees.

Lots of traffic here over lunch and at least one comment that Hershey's kisses may not be completely within Health Fair guidelines.

More later...

RPL Live blogging at the Healthy Living Fair on Feb 14!

Okay, we've got this spiffy new Reference blog to compliment our spiffy new website, so now those we're going to do something we've never done before - live blogging! We'll be at the Mayo Civic Center during the Healthy Living Fair for city/county employees describing the action, live! And some of you thought libraries weren't exciting.

Okay, the deal is this: If our internet connection is alive and well for the RPL Reference Mobile Specialty Laptop, we will post some live blog entries for your digital consumption. If not, well, maybe we'll write some things down and post them later and pretend they're live.

You're saying, I don't know if I want to read a blog from the Healthy Living Fair, is there anyway I can prevent this?

YES! Stop in at our booth at the Healthy Living Fair at the Mayo Civic Center this Valentine's Day from 10:00AM to 4:00PM and keep us busy at our booth. Pepper the Reference staff with your questions about our online reference resources related to health and well being.

From the Health & Wellness Resource Center to MedlinePlus, we can show you were to get the skinny on getting skinny and other vital health issues.

Either way you win: either scintillating live blog reports or great health information from your library. Come down the the Mayo Civic Center on Valentine's Day and put us to work.

Give us the Good, Bad and the Ugly of our new website!

By the time you read this, Rochester will have unveiled its shiny new website. Along with clearer functions, a cleaner look, and a general overall better vibe, we're excited to hear what you think of it.

That old quote about how paintings are never finished, but they only stop in interesting places applies about a thousand-fold to web sites. Let us know the good, the bad and the ugly (although hopefully you'll phrase it a little more kindly than "ugly") about the new site.
We're constantly trying to improve it. Send us an email (reference@rochester.lib.mn.us), IM us (screenname: RPLmnInfo), or use one of the feedback forms on the new site to tell us what you think.

Also, we just got the book on CD of Lewis Black's Nothing's Sacred. And if you think I'm mentioning it because I both think he's hilarious and I want a picture for my post, you would be right.

"Secrets" of the Rochester Public Library

As a new librarian, I am quickly learning about some of the "secrets" here at RPL, and I am here to tell all.... Or at least two to begin with...

1. We have Graphic Novels for adults. The library has two of the most interesting compilations fom the previous year. Featuring old and new graphic novel material, The Best American Comics, edited by Anne Elizabeth Moore and guest editor Harvey Pekar, and An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons & True Stories, edited by Ivan Brunetti. Even before comic books written for the literary set went mainstrem, RPL was there. These are two collections well worth reserving for fans of graphic fact and fiction.

2. Fantastic Online Databases Okay, the word "database" is boring. But when I can have newspaper and magazine articles about whatever topic I am interested in (say, news about the last few episodes of The Sopranos) delivered to me via e-mail, it's not such a boring word.

One of the things I have discovered is that not all of our patrons know about the fabulous online databases we subscribe to. Instead of thinking of it as an "online database", think of it as a smart way to flip through thousands of newspaper and magazine articles at one time using our (or your) computer. Think of it as "Google" without all the advertisements or "not-really-what-I'm-looking-for" links. And the best part is that you can access most of our databases from home on your computer (go to www.rochesterpubliclibrary.org, select the "research page" link and then scroll down the list for something interesting. You can get articles for your school papers from sources that your teacher will acknowledge (sorry, Wikipedia).

More secrets to come....

WELCOME! Welcome to our new Reference News Blog. Watch this space for Rochester Public Library Reference Division news and announcements of new resources and services.

TWO “NEW” FULL-TIME REFERENCE LIBRARIANS:

You will soon be seeing more of two familiar faces at the Reference Desk. Brian Lind and Susan Hansen have recently joined our staff as full-time Reference/Web librarians.

Brian has worked part-time in Circulation Services since 2002. He has since completed his Master of Library and Information Science degree from the College of Saint Catherine. Brian also does freelance writing for some local publications. You may have read his Hot/Not lists published in the Tangent section of the weekend Post-Bulletin.

Believe it or not, Susan has worked at Rochester Public Library for over 20 years! Now that her sons are in high school, she is glad to be back to a full-time library schedule.

In addition to helping library users at the Reference Desk, Brian and Susan will also be working on designing and implementing the new library homepage.

EXPRESS INTERNET STATIONS: We have added two new Express Internet stations. Sessions on the Express stations are limited to 15 minutes. If more time is needed, you may make additional reservations (up to 90 minutes per day).

COLLEGE STUDENTS: Are you a college student home on break? Please feel free to use our library to study and make use of our print, electronic, and audio/visual materials. There is a large quiet study room on the second floor and small study rooms are also available. With a current Rochester Public Library card, you can make a reservation to use our Internet computers or bring your own laptop to take advantage of our Wi-Fi hotspot. While we won’t have the kinds of scholarly or specialized materials you are used to finding in your college or university library, you may be able to access electronic books and full-text articles to supplement your research.