Lesson 4: Databases – EBSCO

In regular, day-to-day work, I rarely use the databases, but it’s good to know how to use them, for when you get that student who needs sources but you have no books on the shelf for his chosen subject.

I love that we can access Consumer Reports thru our databases! It’s one of the titles that seems to walk out, so it’s good to have several years worth of articles available. I especially like that the articles are available in PDF – it’s just like making a copy of the actual magazine page.

The June 2014 issue alone has 36 articles on subjects ranging from food processors, humidifiers, insect repellent, and ice cream.

May 2001 lists 29 articles. I’m not sure how useful 15 year old reviews are, but there is a wonderfully thorough article on summer flowering shrubs that is still useful for home gardeners.

Volume 80, issue 9 – or September 2015 – has 26 articles. It includes several articles on customer service, which may be worth reading thru.

Lesson 3: Marketing

Canva and PicMonkey are services I’ve heard of but never used before, so I’ll definitely be playing around with these 🙂

I use the marketing template often, for book clubs

 

and have requested and used stock photos for displays at my branch.

It can be a lot of pictures to go thru, but if you can get the right search terms, you can find some really great shots. And the marketing staff is super quick to get your requested photos to you, so it really doesn’t take long to make your flyer. Just remember to proofread it before distributing!

 

 

Lesson 2 – Online Safety and Privacy

• A customer comes up to you and says they think their Facebook account was hacked, but they’re not sure. What would you do?

It’s important to remember that not everyone who comes in to use our computers is as tech savvy as we are. It may be second nature for us to always sign out of sites we’ve signed in to, but not everyone does.

And have you noticed that our new system doesn’t always log off inactive users? It has a tendency to extend sessions instead, leaving a signed in computer easily available to another user. What if the first user didn’t sign out of their email, or Facebook, or their bank? While most sites will sign users out after a period of inactivity, not all of them do.

If a customer asked for help because they thought their Facebook account had been hacked, I would strongly encourage them to sign in to the website, change their password and check the security settings for their account.

The next step I would recommend is checking their account activity. Facebook will show you posts that you’ve liked, comments you’ve made, even searches you’ve done. This will help the customer decide if someone else has been using their account.

Next up is to find the list of where an account is open. Facebook will show you every device where your account is signed in. From here, the patron can close anything that they don’t recognize. Actually, I would recommend they close all other locations. This may include their mobile device, but since they’ve recently changed their password, they would have to sign in to the service on their phone again anyway, so closing it shouldn’t hurt anything.

Lastly, I would recommend that the user enable two step verification. When the user signs in to Facebook, from anywhere, it will send a text message with a verification code to the user’s phone. The user must enter this code, along with their password, before the application will open. Facebook can also send a notice to the user whenever their account is opened from a new device or location, which may alert them to unauthorized use in the future.

Hopefully these steps will help the patron to secure their Facebook account.

Lesson 1 Part 3, Troubleshooting

When I help a patron get set up on a computer, I always recommend that they use the Chrome web browser. I think it’s easier and faster than Explorer, but the best reason to recommend it is when it comes to printing.

Selecting Print in Chrome automatically generates a print preview and the dialog box is much more simplified than in Explorer.

The picture above is the Chrome print dialog box. The number of pages is clearly visible, as are your options for changing printers, number of copies, page selection and page orientation. I also like that the Print button is a different color.

Explorer print dialog does not tell you how many pages and you have to poke around a bit to find page orientation.

 

Earning badges already

Complete Lesson 1 – Part 2 and you will practice using Dropbox and earn a new badge to add to your collection.

Dropbox is really great for storing and sharing large files and I use it often to share picture albums with friends and family. It’s also good for transferring video files, which are often too large to send via email. I really appreciate that I can add a file from my home computer and it’s accessible from my phone, the computer at my Mom’s house, or any other device or computer I may use. It’s like a flash drive that you don’t have to worry about losing.

Not interested in signing up for Dropbox? Don’t worry, you can bypass signing up for the service and go straight to downloading the 11.5 COSAs file, just look for the line at the bottom of the box that let’s you download without registering:

The hardest part about starting again…

is remembering passwords! Take a minute or two to figure out your WordPress or Blogger passwords because 11.5 COSAS, part 2 is just around the corner.

If you haven’t completed Part 1, it’s not too late to finish that part off. You can still earn badges and a SAPL branded flash drive, and will be ready to jump in to Part 2.

Part 2 has some great lessons for you: online mapping, fun with attachments, coding, and even more database exploring.

Welcome back, and as always, the team is always available to answer your questions.