Google Cardboard is getting a lot of press these days. It’s infiltrated fashion shows and classrooms and it’s coming for your Coke can. More importantly, it’s the next big thing for libraries. If you’re new to Cardboard, it’s essentially housing made of cardboard that turns your phone into a virtual reality (VR) viewer. The idea is simple, but the experience is nothing short of magical. I’ve been experimenting with my viewer for almost a year and the novelty still hasn’t worn off. Similar products include Oculus Rift and Samsung’s Gear VR, but they come with a hefty price tag. A Cardboard viewer, on the other hand, will run you about $10 or less; Google even provides the blueprints if you want to create your own from scratch. The low cost, minimal learning curve, and interactivity of Cardboard make it the perfect tool to engage your library patrons. Here are five…
Tag: programming
iPads in the Library
Getting Started/Setting Things Up Several years ago we added twenty iPad 2s to use in our children’s and teen programming. They have a variety of apps on them ranging from early literacy and math apps to Garage Band and iMovie to Minecraft and Clash of Clans*. Ten of the iPads are geared towards younger kids and ten are slanted towards teen interests. Not surprisingly, the iPads were very popular when we first acquired them. We treated app selection as an extension of our collection development policy. Both the Children’s and Adult Services departments have a staff iPad they can use to try out apps before adding them to the programming iPads. We bought a cart from Spectrum Industries (a WI-based company; we also have several laptop carts from them) so that we had a place to house and charge the devices. The cart has space for forty iPads/tablets total. We use an…
In Praise of Anaconda
Do you want to learn to code? Of course you do, why wouldn’t you? Programming is fun, like solving a puzzle. It helps you think in a computational and pragmatic way about certain problems, allowing you to automate those problems away with a few lines of code. Choosing to learn programming is the first step on your path, and the second is choosing a language. These days there are many great languages to choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The right language for you depends heavily on what you want to do (as well as what language your coworkers are using). If you don’t have any coder colleagues and can’t decide on a language, I would suggest taking a look at Python. It’s mature, battle-tested, and useful for a just about anything. I work across many different domains (often in the same day) and Python is a…
Midwinter Workshop Highlight: Meet the Programming Presenter!
We asked our LITA Midwinter Workshop Presenters to tell us a little more about themselves and what to expect from their workshops in January. This week, we’re hearing from Elizabeth Wickes, who will be presenting the workshop: Introduction to Practical Programming (For registration details, please see the bottom of this blog post) LITA: We’ve seen your formal bio but can you tell us a little more about you? Elizabeth: I once wrote an entire Python program just so I could have a legitimate reason to say “for skittle in skittles.” Attendees will meet this program during the workshop. I can also fix pretty much anything with hot glue. LITA: Who is your target audience for this workshop? Elizabeth: This workshop speaks to the librarian or library student who is curious about programming and wants to explore it within a very library-centric context. So many of the existing books and resources on programming…