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Long Live Firefox!

Until I became a librarian, I never gave much thought to web browsers. In the past I used Safari when working on a Mac, Chrome on my Android tablet, and showed the typical disdain for Internet Explorer. If I ever used Firefox it was purely coincidental, but now it’s my first choice and here’s why. This month Mozilla launched Firefox 34 and announced a deal to make Yahoo their default search engine. I wasn’t alone in wondering if that move would be bad for business (if you’re like me, you avoid Yahoo like the plague). Mozilla also raised some eyebrows by asking for donations on their home page this year. I switched to Firefox a few months ago, prior to all the commotion, when I came across Mozilla’s X-Ray Goggles, an add-on that allows you to view how a webpage is constructed (the Denver Public Library has a great project…

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5 Tech Tools to be Thankful For

In honor of Thanksgiving, I’d like to give thanks for 5 tech tools that make life as a librarian much easier. Google Drive On any given day I work on at least 6 different computers and tablets. That means I need instant access to my documents wherever I go and without cloud storage I’d be lost. While there are plenty of other free file hosting services, I like Drive the most because it offers 15GB of free storage and it’s incredibly easy to use. When I’m working with patrons who already have a Gmail account, setting up Drive is just a click away. Libib I dabbled in Goodreads for a bit, but I must say, Libib has won me over. Libib lets you catalog your personal library and share your favorite media with others. While it doesn’t handle images quite as well as Goodreads, I much prefer Libib’s sleek and…

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Are you an iPad or a laptop?

I’ve never been a big tablet user. This may come as a surprise to some, given that I assist patrons with their tablets every day at the public library. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Nexus 7 tablet. It’s perfect for reading ebooks, using Twitter, and watching Netflix; but the moment I want to respond to an email, edit a photo, or work my way through a Treehouse lesson, I feel helpless. Several library patrons have asked me if our public computers will be replaced by iPads and tablets. It’s hard to say where technology will take us in the coming years, but I strongly believe that a library without computers would leave us severely handicapped. One of our regular library patrons, let’s call her Jane, is a diehard iPad fan. She is constantly on the hunt for the next great app and enjoys sharing her finds with me…

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The Password Dilemma

One-on-one technology help is one of the greatest services offered by the modern public library. Our ability to provide free assistance without an underlying agenda to sell a product puts us in a unique and valuable position in our communities. While one-on-one sessions are one of my favorite job duties, I must admit that they can also be the most frustrating, primarily because of passwords. It is rare that I assist a patron and we don’t encounter a forgotten password, if not several. Trying to guess the password or resetting it usually eats up most of our time. I wish that I were writing this post as an authority on how to conquer the war on passwords, but I fear that we’re losing the battle. One day we’ll look back and laugh at the time we wasted trying to guess our passwords; resetting them again and again, but it’s been…