JacketFlap connects you to the work of more than 200,000 authors, illustrators, publishers and other creators of books for Children and Young Adults. The site is updated daily with information about every book, author, illustrator, and publisher in the children's / young adult book industry. Members include published authors and illustrators, librarians, agents, editors, publicists, booksellers, publishers and fans. Join now (it's free).
Login or Register for free to create your own customized page of blog posts from your favorite blogs. You can also add blogs by clicking the "Add to MyJacketFlap" links next to the blog name in each post.
Blog Posts by Tag
In the past 7 days
Blog Posts by Date
Click days in this calendar to see posts by day or month
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: jessamyn, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 33
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: jessamyn in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
I really never thought that I would turn into someone who gave “pep rally” type talks, but I was asked to come to the Somerville Public Library and give a short, inspirational talk
to their friends group at their annual appreciation day and was told I could talk about whatever I wanted. As you may have realized by now, this makes my little activist heart grow three sizes and inspires good work (in my opinion). This is the talk I gave and I am very happy with it. The library posted this summary of the talk (there’s no audio/video other than some blurry photos) which I think is pretty right on.
1 Comments on Another talk: why libraries are the best thing, last added: 6/30/2014
Awesome “kick in the pants” type talk. Apols no video…
Did everyone know that the Library Bill of Rights turned 75 last week?? No, you don’t – because you didn’t attend this whiz-bang lecture… #internetfamous #youmissedit #rootbeerfloats
Apologies in advance because this isn’t really about libraries as much as about conferencing. Maybe more of an etiquette post than anything.
I skipped April. Not on purpose. I was supposed to go to TXLA and came down with a weird lingering flu. I’m usually a “push through the pain” person but not enough to get on an airplane with a fever and potentially make other people sick. No one needs that. So I missed TXLA which was a huge bummer. They were incredibly understanding about it. And then there was a week of school vacation where I teach so I decided to hunker down in MA and get well and make sure I could make it to the Rural Libraries conference in Michigan. Upstate Michigan. The UP, where it was still frozen enough so that the ferries we were supposed to take to Mackinac Island were possibly not running. So now I was in a situation where I was rarin’ to go but the conference might not happen at all.
My main contact, Shannon White from the Library of Michigan, did an amazing job with a very difficult situation. She gave low-drama email updates (to me but also all attendees) as we got news from the ferry and told me what the timeframe was in case we’d have to cancel. When I arrived in St. Ignace (via Michael Stephens’ place, so great to see him) the weather was terrible and the flight we were supposed to take was cancelled. Many people including us were stuck there overnight when we would have preferred to be at the conference venue, the Grand Hotel. I was put up in a decent hotel and fed dinner and we discussed jockeying for ferry positions the next morning. I had warned everyone in advance of even taking this speaking gig that I was not a morning person and someone graciously got up early and got a timestamped ferry ticket for me for later in the day. This was a huge deal.
The Grand Hotel is one of those places that is fancy but also deeply committed to service. All of their 385 rooms are different. When I finally got to the hotel at about 1 pm on the day I was speaking, I was put in a crazy-looking suite that overlooked the water. Which was terrific except that there was a crew of hotel-opener people (the hotel officially opened the day after the conference closed) that was going over the front of the place with leaf-blowers and lawn tools and who knows what else. I moved my room to an equally quirky suite on the back of the hotel where I rested after a day and a half of on-again-off-again travel.
My talk about the 21st Century Digital Divide was done in an oddly-shaped room without the benefit of slides. I’ve talked about it elsewhere (short form: people who could not see or hear me talked through it) but it was a suboptimal setup which we all tried to make the best of. I got a lot of positive feedback from the state library folks despite some of the shortcomings and they made a special reminder announcement before the next keynote about not carrying on conversations while people were speaking. I heard it was great, I was asleep. My workshop the next day about maintaining conference momentum went really well and, again, I got great support from the organizers as well as the hotel when I decided I needed last-minute handouts.
All in all, despite a situation where there were a lot of things that were out of people’s control, the conference was memorably great for me personally and I think for a lot (most?) of the attendees as well. As much as people made joking “Never again!” comments, there was something about working together in unusual settings through various kinds of adversity that brings people closer together. I felt well-taken care of and appreciated as well as well-compensated. And, personally, I had a great time. The people I talked to all felt the same. Thanks, Library of Michigan.
A few links for people who like that sort of thing
Jessamyn,
I’m really glad you could make it to Mackinac Island. I agree that Shannon and the rest of the Library of Michigan team were phenomenal in pretty crazy circumstances. I was very impressed with how well they kept everyone informed. As far as the attendees, it was interesting to see who tried to make the best of a tough situation and who would complain and cut in lines. I disappointed in some people.
Speaking of, I am so sorry that people were talking through your keynote. My table was hanging on to every word and we really enjoyed it. It was definitely not the best room setup for a presentation though.
Overall I had a great time at Rural and I’m sorry I did not get the chance to meet you. Hopefully another time.
I had a busy week. It wrapped up in the lovely state of Maine where I got to talk about the digital divide and ebooks to a bunch of Maine librarians. The digital divide talk is probably one you’ve seen various versions of, but the ebooks one is more or less new. My assertion is that the problem of ebooks is the problem of multiple perspectives [readers and authors and publishers and librarians don't even agree on the landscape, much less the trees] as well as the problem of metaphors. At its core, one of the difficulties in teaching people about technology is that it’s teaching people to manage real invisible things [files, websites, social content] through a series of metaphors ["folders" "tagging" "friending"] that are more or less complex depending on people’s level of existing knowledge. While the printed word and language generally is something of a metaphor, you can read a book without really having to think about that level of abstraction. We’re not there yet with ebooks and the metaphors confuse the reality, a reality that is still shifting, hopefully moving towards if not some standards, at least some etiquette.
In any case, both talks are here. I got a lot of good feedback on my general topic from Twitter and other social media interchange arenas. Thanks to those who helped me with this, and thanks to the nice librarians from Maine for coming to listen and talk.
1 Comments on an ebook is not a book, discuss?, last added: 9/26/2011
I’m adding another microjob to all the microjobs I have. Starting next week I will be the super-part-time IT lady at the vocational high school that I work at. This means that I’ll be the triage lady between the IT troubles at the school and the expensive tech consultants that do the networking and account management and mail server for the school. This is good news for me. I’ll even, sort of, have a classroom because there’s an empty one. I’m going to dial back my adult ed teaching in the evenings for a semester so that I can be around at night. So, for anyone curious or keeping track at home, here is my “what I do for work” list at the moment.
I run MetaFilter – I am one of two full-time moderators. In addition to the guy who owns the site and the coder who builts a lot of it, we’re it. Running Ask MetaFilter has taught me a lot about how people look for information and how they do or do not find it.
I give talks – as other people have observed, public speaking opportunities seem to be dropping off somewhat. I was turning down offers last year because I was overbooked, now I’m doing maybe one a month? Works out well for me, but it’s hardly a reliable income stream.
I am still automating the Tunbridge Library using Koha. It’s slow going. Some of that slowness is me, some is not. I work a few hours a week on it. We’re at the point where everything’s got a sticker and now we’re linking records to items. Exciting.
I’m writing a book for Libraries Unlimited about teaching people to use computers over on this side of the digital divide. Due in March and I’m doing my own index. Wish me luck!
I’m still doing drop-in time at the local vocational high school which is a different job from the IT job though also just a few hours a week.
I got a royalties check from Mcfarland for about $20 so I guess that’s sort of like a job.
I’m sure there are other things I’m forgetting. As usual, librarian.net is just a hobby blog and not something that brings in any money which is AOK by me. This is post #3001 after 10+ years of doing this.
6 Comments on the beginning of school, last added: 9/1/2009
Thanks for doing this for free! I’ve been reading your site off and on for years now (I’m only 22) but it’s really inspired my interest in thinking differently about information, libraries, and the digital divide. I’m not quite the radical queer librarian I hope to someday be, but my work as a community technology center coordinator is certainly in line with this arena of work, and hey, I’m now a volunteer librarian at a homeless shelter once a week so maybe that is the direction I’m going :)
Just wanted to say thank you for keeping up with this blog for so long, and I hope notes likes these suffice in lieu of no actual paycheck.
Scott R
San Francisco
jfox said, on 8/31/2009 8:13:00 PM
sounds awesome. can imagine you would be a great fit for high schoolers actually. please please send tunbridge updates too, really interested in the project there.
Judy Hauser said, on 9/1/2009 7:44:00 AM
Jessamyn – The high school gig sounds like a good one. You will be such a help to the staff (and the technology). I spent the last year writing a book for LU and it is exciting and exhausting. It comes out at the end of September and I can’t believe the project has come to completion! Anyway, your jobs sound interesting – it’s great to have variety. I really enjoy your blog PS… I love New England!
Mary Jo said, on 9/1/2009 9:17:00 AM
I am a 50-year-old library student who reads your blog, and I am so impressed by all you do. You inspire me, so thank you.
Rhonda said, on 9/1/2009 9:26:00 AM
Hey Jessamyn – I’m glad you’ll be helping out at RTCC. I still want to get over to Tunbridge sometime when you are there and peed at KOHA. Thanks for all your hard work – Rhonda
SEO said, on 9/1/2009 9:28:00 PM
MetaFilter is very useful to my daily search usage. Love it.
I have proposed two presentations for the SXSW conference in Austin Texas next March. There is a complicated series of steps to determining which of the proposals will actually get picked. Part of this determination (30%) is a very basic voting thing where you can thumbs-up or thumbs-down a particular presentation. Voting is now open. We are encouraged to use our powers of persuasion to get you to vote for our ideas. I would like you to vote for my ideas. Here is a link to all of the proposals. There are over 2000 of them and 300 or so will get chosen.
Voting involved signing up on the website and then clicking the thumbs up. I’d appreciate it if you’d consider doing this. I’m pretty into both topics but the first one is nearer and dearer to my heart, while the second one seems to fit in more nicely with the SXSW gestalt. A few other library-themed things you shoudl check out
Please vote early and often and for as many ideas as you like. There are a lot of great ideas in there on related topics like gaming and accessibility and web standards. Even if you’re not even considering going to SXSW, please take some time to vote up ideas you think should be getting exposure at a web geeks conference. Thanks.
3 Comments on please help me get more library content into SXSW, last added: 8/22/2009
Links and Things « Enter the Octopus said, on 8/21/2009 9:36:00 AM
[...] please help me get more library content into SXSW [...]
j's scratchpad said, on 8/22/2009 9:50:00 PM
Vote for Jessamyn West’s SXSW 2010 Conference Library Presentation Proposals…
Jessamyn West of the librarian.net blog has two library related presentation proposals for the SXSW 2010 Conference in Austin, Texas:
“I have proposed two presentations for the SXSW conference in Austin Texas next March. There is a complicat…
I spent Friday at the NELA-ITS CMS Day. I gave the keynote in the morning, just talking about what CMSes are and why they’re useful with a little overview of a few, and then hung out to see other librarians talk about how they’re using their CMSes. It was a great day. We had a wonderful, if chilly, room at the lovely Portsmouth Public Library and I learned a lot about how some New England area libraries are running their library websites with Drupal, Joomla, Plone and Wordpress.
Having the actual people behind these websites talking about what worked and what didn’t work — and people were very candid about what was good and bad about these CMSes — made for a fascinating day of show and tell. Add to this the fact that all the software demonstrated was free and open source and I really think we sent people away with some great ideas on how to save money and still deliver good web content. Not having the chilling effect of a vendor’s stink-eye [or lawsuit threat] was also delightful. I’m now done with public speaking stuff until October I believe. Glad to end this season on such an up note. Thanks to NELA-ITS and Brian Herzog for coming up with the idea in the first place. Notes for my talks — links to slides and a page of links to what i was talking about, are here: Website 2.0! why there is a CMS in your future. Thanks to everyone for showing up. Here are the links to other people’s presentations and websites.
4 Comments on Website 2.0 - why a cms is in your future, last added: 6/16/2009
agreed. There is so much information out there, organising it is the great task. Google can always index your content, and serve it to the world, but for those patrons of your website or blog … making it accessible increases your value immeasurable. There are all sorts of approachs — tags, thumbnails, even random posts! …. a different solution for each content site. CMS is a fascinating issue … and something like wordpress can act as a rudimentary way to arrange your content. No good blogging and creating good content if it stays hidden in the dark of archives!
this is definitely where the expertise of librarians comes in. So much more than a Dewey Numbering system … taxonomies of information are your domain.
Free Gifts said, on 6/14/2009 9:39:00 AM
This is so correct, thanks for publishing.
Deb said, on 6/15/2009 3:40:00 PM
This was a great conference! I learned so much about CMS and how real librarians can actually create websites with ease using open source programs like Wordpress! I went home afterwards and registered a domain name and got it hosted through Dreamhost; registered for a Wordpress account; installed Wordpress 2.8 through Dreamhost (soooo easy) and then began to create my library’s new website!
Thanks to NELA and all the presenters for a great day!
rmlrhonda said, on 6/16/2009 10:51:00 AM
Hey Jessamyn - Spotted you at the DMV yesterday but didn’t give a shout as was too crowded for my comfort level. Guess Monday is not the day to hit the DMV! I’ve been working on switching over to wordpress for our website. I’ll have to try to look at your presentation later to see if I can pick up some hints. Wish I could have seen this one live - Rhonda
So, I’m officially on a vacation which means I’m tootling around Portland Oregon visiting libraries and seeing friends. I am pleased to report that I am liking this vacation business and will endeavor to do more of it. My project as I mentioned earlier was to stay caught up on RSS feeds because I was starting to become one of those “who’s got time for all this?” people which was simply unacceptable. To that end, I used some stuck-in-airport time to cull down my list of RSS feeds I was following — deleting blogs that haven’t updated since 2005, removing blogs whose feeds have moved — and make sure everything I was following I was actually reading. I suggest you take some time to do the same. For the record, I follow about 150 feeds total. That includes friends, family, librarians, a few music blogs and some MetaFilter-work stuff. My next project is to catch up on all the music that needs listening to.
I have a short list of links to make sure I mention and then I’m all set and “caught up” in whatever that means for someone like me. I hope your Summer is treating you well.
I’ll be heading up to Burlington for the Vermont Library Conference both to attend and to present. I’ll be giving a talk on how I got the VLA website up and running with WordPress and Meredith and I will be presenting a Top Tech Trends talk on Wednesday. Both talks are at 1:45 if you happen to already be in the area. I’m looking forward to schmoozing with some of my favorite librarians and just generally immersing myself in Vermont library culture. Please say hi if you’re in the area.
5 Comments on Vermont Library Association conference this Tue/Wed, last added: 5/15/2008
Library » Blog Archive » Vermont Library Associa said, on 5/12/2008 1:13:00 PM
[…] jessamyn wrote an interesting post today on Vermont Library Association conference this Tue/WedHere’s a quick excerptI’ll be heading up to Burlington for the Vermont Library Conference both to attend and to present. I’ll be giving a talk on how I got the VLA website up and running with WordPress and Meredith and I will be presenting a Top Tech Trends … […]
Dan Kleinman said, on 5/14/2008 10:34:00 PM
Since you did the web work for them, and it looks really good by the way, please explain why a comment I added to a VLA blog was removed. Thank you.
jessamyn said, on 5/15/2008 6:18:00 AM
I don’t know, Dan. My guess is it was caught in an overzealous spam filter. The comments are moderated and I’m not sure what the moderation policy is there.
Lara said, on 5/15/2008 2:05:00 PM
Wonderful talks @ VLA. Thank you for, once again, sharing your engaging and humorous presenting style with the VT library community. I enjoy hearing your reminders about being “where the patrons” are and engaging them wherever they happen to be technology-wise.
Thanks for reminding me about metafilter — and encouraging us all to check it out.
Library » Blog Archive » Comment on Vermont Libr said, on 5/15/2008 4:32:00 PM
[…] The Virtual Handshake Blog | wrote an interesting post today on Comment on Vermont Library Association conference this Tue/Wed by…Here’s a quick excerptWonderful talks @ VLA. Thank you for, once again, sharing your engaging and humorous presenting style with the VT library community. […]
Just a quick note, I am teaching a one-day continuing education class at Simmons’ Mount Holyoke campus on Sunday afternoon, March 30th. The topic is Intellectual Freedom, basically providing the foundations of the idea and then going over current topic type issues that we’ve seen in libraryland lately. Here’s the official description. If you’re in need of CE credits or just want a refresher, feel free to sign up.
The importance of intellectual freedom is a cornerstone of modern librarianship in the US, and yet for many people is only understood as an abstract idea. This workshop will cover the foundations of intellectual freedom in American librarianship and provide concrete examples of how the concept applies to today’s library environment.
We will look at the Library Bill of Rights, the Freedom to Read Statement, and state library privacy laws as well as legislation which abridges the freedoms of library workers and library users. We will discuss the thorny issues that arise when intellectual freedom principles conflict with local practices and cultures and ways to unpack and address those issues. Social software and its implications for intellectual freedom in libraries will be another facet we will address. Participants will gain an understanding of ALA’s work laying down the foundation for intellectual freedom and leave with concrete examples of IF in action in today’s libraries.
3 Comments on Plug: Intellectual freedom: Fundamentals and Current Events, last added: 3/26/2008
How does the ALA handle a story such as “Librarian fired for reporting child pornography” at this website? Was Judy Hill justified in firing this librarian, or did he interpret the ALA intellectual freedom policy incorrectly? If she is justified, how is it possible for an organization to have a policy in place that would cause some of it’s employees to act in an illeagal manner?
I think the story you are referring to was blown out of proportion by the Worldnet Daily people and I think there’s more to the story. From what I understand from reading that article, the Library Journal article and a few related news stories, of *course* she shouldn’t have been fired unless there is something that I am misunderstanding.
I gave a talk this afternoon for a one day workshop given by the Michigan Library Consortium about teaching technology in libraries. It was a keynote-ish talk so more “big picture” talking and less “this is how we do it.”
To that end, I did a new-from-the-ground-up talk about technology instruction and even wrote out notes for all of my slides so people who weren’t there could maybe follow along later. As anyone who has seen me speak knows, I tend to extemporanize (sp?) quite a bit so while the bones of the talk are in the notes, I also told a lot of stories about the libraries I work in and waved my hands around a lot. You can see the notes and a mov or pdf of the slides here: Teaching Tech in Libraries: what are we doing?
I’m still trying to find a good way to put slideware talks online without having to re-give the talk and toss it into Slideshare. Big thanks to all the folks from Michigan for being such a great audience and Twitterfolks for giving me some good advice. (go be Flickr friends with Kevin to see more (admittedly, not that fascinating) photos of this event)
1 Comments on Teaching Tech - a talk for the Michigan Library Consortium, last added: 3/18/2008
I assume you’re using Powerpoint for your slides. If so, do you use the notes section. It provides you with space to put the comments you’re going to make to accompany the slide, you can read them on your PC but they won’t display on screen. (You can also print them out.) Had you thought about creating your slides and including your “notes”? That way people will get a synopsis of the remarks you made along with each slide. Just a thought.
The unLibrarian » Hi All! said, on 3/18/2008 9:30:00 PM
[…] my org held a really cool special program yesterday, Teaching Technology in Libraries. Our keynote was Jessamyn West, and she was great, of course, as usual. After the talk, we went out […]
If you’re at ALA you may have already seen this issue of Computers in Libraries. If not, you may be interested to know that I’m going to be co-editing (well alternating writing) the Tech Tips Column with Rachel Singer Gordon.
It’s hard for wordy old me to give advice in 1300 words but I do my best and even include a screenshot or two. I have the right to post my columns ninety days after they’re published in print so they’ll show up here eventually as well. The January issue has my advice on how to examine your web logs to figure out how, when and where users are accessing your website. The column I put to bed just today (I guess technically it’s a department, Dan Chudnov, now he has a column) due out in March is about Open Source software. I’m a little sad to see my favorite editor, Kathy Dempsey, move on to bigger and better things and I’m a little nervous about getting edited again, but so far it’s been great and just another way to get the word out.
9 Comments on Computers in Libraries welcomes me, last added: 1/15/2008
Christian » Computers in Libraries welcomes me said, on 1/14/2008 3:08:00 PM
[…] Buzz Haughton wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIf you’re at ALA you may have already seen this issue of Computers in Libraries. If not, you may be interested to know that I’m going to be co-editing (well alternating writing) the Tech Tips Column with Rachel Singer Gordon. … […]
Computers said, on 1/14/2008 3:09:00 PM
[…] Lika Todadze wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIf you’re at ALA you may have already seen this issue of Computers in Libraries. If not, you may be interested to know that I’m going to be co-editing (well alternating writing) the Tech Tips Column with Rachel Singer Gordon. … […]
Computers in Libraries welcomes me said, on 1/14/2008 3:59:00 PM
[…] Lika Todadze wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIf you’re at ALA you may have already seen this issue of Computers in Libraries. If not, you may be interested to know that I’m going to be co-editing (well alternating writing) the Tech Tips Column with Rachel Singer Gordon. … […]
Christian » Comment on Computers in Libraries wel said, on 1/14/2008 8:39:00 PM
[…] Kristin Spack wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBuzz Haughton wrote an interesting post today onHere’sa quick excerptIf you’re at ALA you may have already seen this issue of Computers in Libraries. If not, you may be interested to know that I’m going to be co-editing (well … […]
Computers said, on 1/14/2008 9:16:00 PM
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptLika Todadze wrote an interesting post today onHere’sa quick excerptIf you’re at ALA you may have already seen this issue of Computers in Libraries. If not, you may be interested to know that I’m going to be co-editing (well alternating … […]
Computers said, on 1/15/2008 5:25:00 AM
[…] sanitarium wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptunknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’sa quick excerptLika Todadze wrote an interesting post today onHere’sa quick excerptIf you’re at ALA you may have already seen this issue of Computers in Libraries. … […]
Comment on Computers in Libraries welcomes me by C said, on 1/15/2008 6:09:00 AM
[…] sanitarium wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptunknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’sa quick excerptLika Todadze wrote an interesting post today onHere’sa quick excerptIf you’re at ALA you may have already seen this issue of Computers in Libraries. … […]
Jonathan Harwell said, on 1/15/2008 6:29:00 AM
Felicidades! Does this mean you might be coming to ER&L this spring in Atlanta? If so, holla.
Darren said, on 1/15/2008 7:11:00 AM
awesome! I’m looking forward to reading your column
I gave a talk yesterday at the NEASIS&T event in Providence Rhode Island. I was psyched to present with John Blyberg and Jill Stover (also at Designing Better Libraries) who have very different backgrounds but both gave great talks. I pulled the “after lunch” slot which is sort of what happens when I ask to not speak before 11 am but I thought it went really well. ASIS&T get togethers are generally a really good time because they are often filled with accomplished and interesting people. I’m not sure why this is, but it’s definitely something I’ve noticed. The topic for the day was From Guerilla Innovation to Institutional Transformation: Information Professionals as Change Agents which to me sounded a little silly, — I have change agent reflux disease — but everyone made really nifty stuff out of it and we had a good time despite being in a really weird room with iffy wireless.
Buoyed my my recent presentation in Michigan, I decided to write the talk I really wanted to give and talk a bit about how my activist background has informed my current work. Sometimes you have to say that something sucks [my suggestion is to go for “suboptimal”] and write a manifesto to get noticed, but that these are okay tacks to take if you’re really solving the problems and can do it without being a jerk yourself.
Anyhow, I did another Keynote presentation — I’m still in favor of a no-PowerPoint approach generally but I’m learning other methods for other occasions — and you can see my slides and links online here: Sleeper 2.0 - Agitprop problem solving. Thanks to Jill and John for giving such excellent talks and thanks also to ASIST&T for inviting me.
6 Comments on talk: what do do when your change agent is broken, last added: 12/4/2007
Jessamyn,
I agree with your no-powerpoint approach - I have heard information professionals of all abilities, ages and backgrounds use the term ‘Death by powerpoint’.
I have also seen an AlTiLAB presentation by an American who had (and insisted on using) a tablet PC. He slouched in a chair (all teeth and hair) drawing what eventually resembled a snake’s wedding on an interactive whiteboard (bore no relevance to the issue of Open source learning tools). Not good! The technology simply masked the fact that he had neither talent nor knowledge of any value to impart to his audience.
Take care
Shaun
annalaura brown said, on 11/17/2007 1:00:00 PM
Sounds like you had a great time. I agree with the no powerpoints as well. While I was in library school, we read a paper on why you should not do them for one of my classes.
Jill Stover said, on 11/19/2007 2:05:00 PM
Hey, Jessamyn! I wanted to catch you before you left to say I had a great time listening to your talk - very captivating and fun. :-)
[…] closed the session with a captivating talk on Agitprop (a combination of the words propaganda and agitation). I have far fewer notes on her talk because I […]
I knew something was up when I got an email from the President of the Vermont Library Association this morning saying “Wow nice podcast!”
I was pretty sure she wasn’t referring to the MetaFilter Podcast — though those are quite nice — so I emailed her back asking wtf as politely as I could. That’s how I learned that the interview I did with the Chronicle of Higher Education from a hotel room in Halifax (setting the alarm so I could be alert at 9:30, do I sound like I just woke up?) was part of the CHE podcast and was excerpted, along with the succinct commentary from many other “young librarians” (oh gosh, I laugh and laugh) including my pal Casey and other names you’ll recognize. I’m not entirely sure how to link to CHE articles for non-subscribers, but you can maybe see the article and the amusing iphone photo here. Apologies, as always, for swearing.
4 Comments on Hello Chronicle of Higher Ed readers/listeners, last added: 10/20/2007
If the title sounds familiar, it’s because it is. I’ve been trying to combine more of my public speaking trips which means more weird weeks like this one and that one, but it works out a lot better on my end. After I got back to Massachusetts from Access, I drove over to NELA and gave three talks there. I really enjoy NELA but there were some complications this time around mostly involving iffy wireless (and hotel staff who were just repeating what their outsourced IT told them which the IT-librarians knew was a little fishy-sounding, but I digress) which means I wasn’t doing much blogging and had a period of radio silence here and on Flickr and on Scrabulous, etc.
I got home today and I’ve uploaded the latest talks. One was all new, one was a modified version of an earlier talk and one was a talk I gave earlier, but with twice as much time. All of them went really well but I have a sore throat and will be heading to bed as soon as they’re linked here so that I can be bright and bushytailed for work which starts tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who made my trip easier, more pleasant, and fun.
My talk went well. It was scary (keynote!), early (8:30!), and multimedia (slides, video, me doing the blah blah part). I have this problem basically not being able to remember a thing I said after I get off the microphone BUT this time I wrote the talk out first, and this time I think it was even recorded. I’ll keep you posted on that. Here are my slides, notes and some more links. Thanks to everyone who paid close attention, blogged about it, and/or laughed at my jokes, and thanks to the conference planners for inviting me and encouraging me to make the trip.
5 Comments on Access 2007 - quick report from the floor, last added: 10/12/2007
It was a great talk, especially the IT Crowd clips. Have you seen the 2nd season yet? It is even better imho.
Rhonda said, on 10/11/2007 2:07:00 PM
Hi Jessamyn - Just looked at your slides and notes. Nice job! Rhonda
Guybrarian said, on 10/11/2007 5:17:00 PM
I love that you begin by owning that you are an ‘imposter.’ I do that too, usually by saying ‘I have no business being here.’ Then I go right to the dirty pictures. Last Monday in Everett I got to show folks the cover art to ‘Thong on Fire,’ by Noire. Highlight of my day, pretty much.
William Denton said, on 10/11/2007 8:48:00 PM
Good talk, Jessamyn! Everyone liked it.
Talking Books Librarian said, on 10/12/2007 9:37:00 AM
Thanks for sharing the slides and notes, so those who couldn’t be there can enjoy them! :)
I have a month pretty free of travel and speaking stuff so I’ve been doing more little library work in August. Here are a few things I’ve done this week both here and online.
Stopped by the Tunbridge library in Monday to help a woman who is re-entering the workforce brush up on her Excel chops. I had to tell her that while Excel hasn’t changed much, the amount Excel tries to help the user has. That is, there are all these wizards and auto-widgets that try to make Excel easier but have the end result for novice users of making Excel harder. The main problem my student was having, however, was trying to figure out where her missing Word toolbar went and no matter how many times I said I pretty much couldn’t troubleshoot a personal computer problem remotely (and offered alternatives like a good manual or the help files) she sort of couldn’t stop talking about it. I see this fairly often. I suggested that she buy a USB drive so that I could give her homework assignments that she could take home.
I talked to the Tunbridge librarian about a Photoshop problem she was having which was actually a much more complicated problem. She has taken photos of flowers for the library’s flower sale, but the way they show up on the screen and the way they print doesn’t reproduce the colors accurately. I showed her how to do some color adjustment in Photoshop but said that tweaking the printer to get things just right was likely overkill for what she was suggesting. Explained how color calibration works. Sometimes good tech support involves telling people that what they want to do is going to take significantly more time than they have budgeted, and suggesting an alternate plan. This sort of time estimate thing is fairly easy for me and seems to be a big difference between someone who is really comfy with computers and someone who is still in the early stages of getting to know how they work.
The lady who lived next door to the library brought her laptop over to see if it had any “network card” in it so that she could use the library’s wifi instead of her dial-up. Answer: no, but I explained to her how she could buy one if she wanted to.
Visited the Royalton Library to help the librarian figure out why the computer keeps asking for some sort of HP Setup CD when it starts and pops up a zillion messages, sometimes freezing the computer. Figured out how to turn off the thing that requires it. The staff computer also has some sort of virus file (according to AVG) that throws up random pop-ups but we couldn’t remove it even following Symantec’s instructions. Switching to Firefox at least made the pop-up problem go away and bought us some time.
No one came to my Tuesday drop-in time. The network was down anyhow, for unknown reasons. The IT company who has the school contract wasn’t sure what the problem was and could give no firm ETA so I went to donate blood instead of waiting to see if anyone would show up just to tell them that our Internet was down. Even though my drop-in time is just “computer time” 90% of the people who come in use the Internet in some form or another.
Wednesday I went with my friend Stan to the Tunbridge World’s Fair office. They are using some sort of Fair Management software that doesn’t play nice with the network. I knew I was in over my head so I brought my pal Stan in for a consult. He mostly hammered the software into shape while I cleaned up the office, organized things, and hung up a few years’ worth of ribbons. One of the library trustees who also works part time for the fair bought us lunch and offered us free tickets when the fair starts next month.
I stopped by the Kimball Library in Randolph before drop-in time on Thursday. I’ve been working with the librarian who works on the website, helping make the site more functional for the staff as well as for patrons. I showed her how to get her web log files and run them through Webalizer and we looked at he traffic the site has been getting since we added the online catalog a few months back. I also helped her get a Kid’s Page started in the hopes that it will inspire the (very busy) kid/ya librarian to give us suggestions of what to put there.
Thursday I had one student at drop-in time, a teacher from the high school who was trying to make a list of donors for the Crafts Center Restoration project in town. Someone had typed the list up originally and she needed to know how to add a name to the list she has on the disk. She wanted to use her computer at the school but it didn’t have a disk drive. So we muddled through that and I asked if she had any other questions and showed her how to make a mailing list using her ISP’s webmail program and also how to attach a photo to an email message.
Meanwhile this week, I’ve been going back and forth with some folks from VLA about changes we’re planning for the VLA website, bought tickets to Nova Scotia for a few talks I’ll be giving there in September, accepted an invitation to join the Steering Committee of the MaintainIT Project, made plans to do some work with Casey and the Scriblio project, firmed up plans for a talk in Rhode Island, passed on a talk in Delaware that conflicted with a talk I’m giving in Kansas, and started making plans for my next week of library visits and my next month of travel/talks. I have a friend who is another local librarian who is working possibly switching her library to an open source OPAC and we’ve been scheming about that. I got my inbox down to single digits by replying to almost everyone who had written me after the NYT/WSJ articles. If I haven’t replied to you yet, I swear I will this week.
That’s the report for now. Today is a day for guests and swimming in the pool and maybe some grilling in the backyard if the weather holds.
Yay for the Kimball, Randolph is where I grew up! It is wonderful that you support the entire community, they need more people like you.
mona said, on 8/10/2007 6:25:00 PM
your blog always adds value, but i especially love these posts that let us glimpse into your daily life as a librarian. thanks.
colin said, on 8/13/2007 8:39:00 AM
Good luck with calibration. I sat through a 300-level Digital Art class in art school, after which *maybe* 30% of the students could even explain what calibration was, let alone do it.
Michael blogged about this last week I figured I’d add some more information. These are two students of mine that I visit irregularly at the Tunbridge Public Library. They’ve got pretty good computers and sharp minds but don’t know the first thing about how to navigate a file system or compose a message to save for later. We sit down and talk about how to do the things they want to do. The last time I was there, I made a little video and you can see it on YouTube.
I feel like I can just say “blah blah insert digital divide lecture here” but really, the library is doing an invaluable service here, and the job I have isn’t even paid for by the library. I’m an employee of a local technical high school that happens to take its outreach mandate very seriously and sends me to these places that happen to be libraries. If I had any tips for people wanting to do this same sort of thing, here they are.
Encourage people to get laptops. I’m not a real Dell fanatic, personally, but because of them laptops aren’t as fiendishly expensive as they used to be. I really liked that my students were both using Macs because a) it’s the same kind of computer that I have and b) I find them much easier to use for someone who has never used a computer before. No need to start a flame war, but I’ve been doing this for several years and I’ve observed that my Mac students are happier with their computers. You can save people serious money if they have a laptop and they can use the library’s internet service occasionally and not have to pay to get broadband at home.
Invest in wifi. If students have their own computers then you can teach them about the internet using their own computers. No matter how awesome our public access computers are, they’re not identical to the computers our patrons have at home, they’re just not. Students can learn things on the computers and then take them home and practice the exact same things.
Solve problems. I used to teach a basic email class at the public library I worked at. It went great. However I would find that time and time again people would come to the class and sit through it because they had one loosely email-related question to ask. They didn’t even need an email class but there was no other way to get five minutes of dedicated staff time to ask a computer question. Consider being available in a way so that people who want a class get a class and people who just have questions can ask them. Also stress that they should come in with a problem to be solved, not just “I want to learn about computers” People who just want to learn about computers should probably go to a class.
Larger groups help everyone learn. My two students got along great and it was excellent to have them learn from and teach each other as well as learn from me. Having multiple students (not a ton, maybe just two or three) encourages people to see tech support time as a limited resource, lets people see other people’s computers and their problems in a larger context, and makes computer time more sociable and less like school. Also I think people are less likely to let their technostress get the best of them if they are not in a private session with you.
Keep it regular and keep it brief. Have set times when you offer tech support help. This keeps people queueing their questions to bring to you, can free up other less-savvy staff to refer people to you appropriately and the time limit means people will ask pressing questions first and prioritize their own concerns.
Share with staff, create a FAQ. If I solve a problem that I see frequently (for example: how do I print just part of a web page) I’ll often share the solution with the staff so that they can know how to help people who come in with the same problem.
Know when to say when. Unfortunately, the biggest problem in my area is that people need help at home, figuring out their printer, or their network or their desktop machine. I decided early on that going to people’s houses would not be part of my job. There has been a rare case where a patron got DSL and wasn’t sure how to do the self-install and I’ve traded help for a free dinner or something. Usually I’ll refer people to the professionals when they need help either buying equipment, installing something at home, or fixing a complicated problem with some legacy frankenstein PC. It’s too easy to own all of people’s future problems if you get too involved with some of these situations and I’ve sometimes had to tell people that I won’t be able to keep working with them unless they get a more stable computer or start practicing better computer hygeine.
Those are just some top-of-the-head ideas. My library background doesn’t make me special in this regard. Anyone who is okay dealing with people and knows technical stuff well could be part of an informal tech support program at your library.
Great stuff, Jessamyn! As a big fan of ellipses, I love the end of the video. Way to go, Don!
meeyauw said, on 7/10/2007 3:39:00 AM
I like all your ideas and they will all be useful to me in school.
I have given very few computer/Internet classes (only 1 a semester) but I find that more than two or three students is good. If I help one student and another is patiently waiting, there may be a person in the class that can help. They share information, teaching each other tips and tricks. Two to three students feels like one student; the other one or two waiting for me will be so polite that they may not share problems. I agree that the one-on-one help seems to emphasize stress. It always surprises me.
But. Am I now so old that the people you call “seniors” to me are not? Perhaps I am simply attaching negative connotations to a word I never liked. Watch me: when I reach the age for discounts in restaurants how quickly I will holler “I’m a senior.” But I can’t call these people in the photo “senior” (they can’t be more than 20 years old than you!). OK, nitpicking is over.
Enjoy your work and view points.
jessamyn said, on 7/10/2007 7:34:00 AM
Actually both the people who I was helping are fully 30-40 years older than me. You either think I’m older than I am or you’re swayed by their hip attitudes and sharp minds :)
meeyauw said, on 7/10/2007 9:05:00 AM
Wow. May I be as lovely and happy when I am that age in 10-20 years.
Sarah Washburn said, on 7/10/2007 1:42:00 PM
jessamyn,
i have much to say. i’m so impressed by your concise categorization of how to organize and implement training. many librarians are overwhelmed by the prospect of showing patrons how to use computers, and your suggestions distilled practical tips into manageable chunks. nicely done!
and then i watched the video. at work. with tears–i’m a sap! as a lifelong supporter of libraries (personally and professionally), and as someone whose 70 year old dad teaches seniors (who are likely his junior) how to use computers, i was so touched by your video. i’m sending the link to my dad, to encourage him to capture his students, and to show them the successes of ellipses and file management.
Me at work, seniors learning computers said, on 7/11/2007 9:05:00 PM
Me at work, seniors learning computers…
Great post. Thanks! I’ll add a link to your post….
Glenn said, on 7/13/2007 7:07:00 AM
Excellent points! When I started as the tech trainer at the Genesee District Library last year, I set up a series of classes with these exact points in mind. They work very well in practice. The only thing I can stress is that it’s terribly important to foster a question-friendly environment. I try to act more like a facilitator than a teacher, too. This helps the other students feel more comfortable offering their advice/assistance to other members of the class. My ideal class size is between 5-7 people. Any more than that and you end up lecturing and not facilitating.
One thing I can add here is the item about encouraging people to get laptops. I certainly to advocate laptops over desktops for most of my students, but I encourage them to come into the library and get comfortable using OUR computers first. By the time they are comfortable, a laptop that fits their needs will be significantly cheaper. I compare it to owning a car before you know how to drive. Practice on someone else’s computer before you go and invest in one yourself. May times I have patrons come to the library and tell me how they bought a computer, but they don’t even know how to unpack it. When I ask how long they’ve had the machine, they tell me “oh…about 6 months now, I guess.” Not good.
As for item 5, I have what are called “Open Computer Labs” where I go to branches for a few hours and simply make myself available to patrons on a first-come-first-serve basis for asking questions. These have proven VERY popular (most patrons have difficulty believing that we offer this service for free). My name on this posting is linked to my class web page…take a look. Thanks for such a great list!
The fashion section of the New York Times has an article titled A Hipper Crowd of Shushers which, despite the title is less annoying than the usual “librarians, they’re not as lame as you think!” articles that we see about the profession. I’m quoted in it, there’s a great picture of Peter Welsch DJing, a quote from Sarah Mercure and a bunch of other fun pictures and quips. The New York Sun has its own article on a very similar topic.
Jessamyn West, 38, an editor of “Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out” a book that promotes social responsibility in librarianship, and the librarian behind the Web site librarian.net (its tagline is “putting the rarin’ back in librarian since 1999″) agreed that many new librarians are attracted to what they call the “Library 2.0″ phenomenon. “It’s become a techie profession,” she said. In a typical day, Ms. West might send instant and e-mail messages to patrons, many of who do their research online rather than in the library. She might also check Twitter, MySpace and other social networking sites, post to her various blogs and keep current through MetaFilter and RSS feeds. Some librarians also create Wikis or podcasts.
“A Hipper Crowd of Shushers which, despite the title is less annoying than the usual “librarians, they’re not as lame as you think!”
It is weird how librarians automatically get that schoolmarm rap. The press seems mystified by the idea that academics know how to have fun. I get the same issue with my Web site–don’t these folks know that “hot librarian” is the world’s most exciting fetish? :-)
K.G. Schneider said, on 7/8/2007 6:29:00 AM
between “guybrarian” and mentioning your age, the article irritated me. It’s a typical NYT piece that sees the world through Manhattan-colored glasses.
By the way, I’m using Firefox on XP and this comment box sets the font very very very tiny, almost too hard to see. Otherwise I like your theme… pretty!
jessamyn said, on 7/8/2007 7:09:00 AM
Thanks for the tip on the font size KG, it’s decent on the Mac but I’ll bump it up some. That age thig just seems to be something that reporters do that I’ve had to get used to. I’m always curious who else besides the reporters care how old anyone is.
jessamyn said, on 7/8/2007 7:25:00 AM
fixed it!
christine said, on 7/8/2007 9:24:00 AM
The third comment on Gothamist’s post on this article was interesting…
My friend just sent me a link to the article, so I blogged about it and decided to drop you a line. I thought it was rather entertaining, and I find that the more positive press we get about librarianship the better, (even though it may seem like a big “duh” to those of us in the field.) I am STILL constantly fighting the “you don’t look like a librarian!” fight. We probably need a little more ammo like this here in the suburbs of Texas than in NYC, though! Love your blog, btw…
J said, on 7/9/2007 5:20:00 AM
Although I was pleasantly surprised to see you in my Sunday morning NYT, something about that article really set me off (and I would probably qualify as a “hipster librarian”, even). This blogger sums up my feelings nicely.
Articles like this one reinforce my belief that a lot of library school students have no idea what it means to be a librarian. That worries me.
Abby said, on 7/9/2007 7:24:00 AM
Is there anybody else out there who is sick of this “new” phenomena of the hipster librarian? When I worked at the reference desk of a major midwestern land-grant university in 1986 and 1987, I had pink hair. On my first day of work, I was thrilled to meet a colleague with purple hair. Shame on the media for just figuring out that those uptight stereotypes are older than the Dewey Decimal system. And sorry, Gen X & Y librarians, you aren’t the first class of hip!
sarah said, on 7/9/2007 8:24:00 AM
Thanks for the shout out. I have to say that the article was more fluffy than I’d hoped it might be but better than it could have been.
Oh well.
librarians, and hipsters, and cocktails, oh my! & said, on 7/9/2007 8:37:00 AM
[…] At the end of the day as Kendra notes, the article wasn’t for us, us being library types. Jessamyn points out that, “As someone who talked to the author of this article at length about politics, I think the problem was that the publishable article was about hipness but the article the author *wanted* to write about was about progressive politics… I agree, fluffy article, but if it can get a little more attention to the leftist aims of some librarians, I’m all for it.“ […]
I decided to do something for the BIGWIG Social Software showcase even though I wasn’t going to be at ALA. I think I missed out on most of the awesome parts of this excellent idea/event, but I was still happy to put a little something together. Then I went to NYC for a long weekend, and ALA happend in DC and I sort of forgot about it until now.
I have to say, a wiki with the exhortation “Please note that all contributions to Social Software Showcase may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you don’t want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then don’t submit it here.” (as all mediawiki wikis have) seems like an odd place to put presentations that you’d sort of hope wouldn’t be mercilessly edited, but that’s a small gripe in an otherwise enjoyable exercise. My presentation is called Socially Portable and is a short and hopefully amusing look at portable applications (for Mac and Windows) for people interested in having identities that are not just flexible but actually mobile. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks very much to Michelle, Jason and Karen for putting this together.
There’s something very wrong with the formatting on that document. On Portable Firefox (heh) version 1.5.0.12 it shows up with very wide margins, so that the text is all squeezed into about an inch of space in the center of the screen.
In terms of content (I read it from the Printable Version, which is more readable, but not by much), I loved it. I’m a big PortableApps fan!
K.G. Schneider said, on 6/30/2007 6:15:00 AM
Jessamyn, I had the same double-take about the wording on the wiki… I mean to bring that up. Thanks. I don’t mind editing for clarity, but it’s interesting how (speaking strictly for myself and in a broad, thinking-about-wikipedia-et.-al sense) I’m not crazy about being the “contributor” and then facing the prospect of having my “contribution” “mercilessly” edited. I wouldn’t have qualms about an anonymous entry… but then I wonder, would I do one?
I did a short tour of some New Hampshire libraries over the past few days. I did a little talk called MyWhat? Decoding social technologies.. It’s only about five slides but most of it was doing a tour of some of the more popular social networks [Facebook, MySpace, Flickr] and showing how they worked, how kids were using them and what parents and librarians should know.
Remember that a lot of the digital divide that we deal with now isn’t that people don’t have computers per se, it’s that they’re not in networks and groups of people that understand them and can answer complex questions about them. The library is often an integral link in this equation. A lot of my time at these talks is spent answering questions about how these social tools work, how I use them, how librarians might use them, and how kids and teens can use them safely and effectively. A lot of the print materials I’ve come across err on the side of caution which is not a bad idea but often there’s no “Hey you really SHOULD try this” couterpoint. I hope I was able to offer that somewhat.
Social Networking Bulletin - » be social - said, on 6/12/2007 1:01:00 PM
[…] Continued here: jessamyn […]
Social Networking Bulletin - » Comment on b said, on 6/12/2007 4:04:00 PM
[…] More here: unknown […]
sarah louise said, on 6/13/2007 2:23:00 PM
As someone who tried blogging b/c you said “try it,” I am grateful also for this information.
What you do, you do well. THANKS for that.
xo,
SL
Stephanie Chase said, on 6/14/2007 4:45:00 PM
You definitely succeeded, as the librarians at the Nubanusit Co-op were most thankful. Especially after that AccuCut discussion.
Anne205 said, on 6/16/2007 10:44:00 AM
I am an undergraduate student studying education at a university in Michigan. I am currently taking a class called “Computers in Education,” and we have recently been discussing the “digital divide.” I truly feel that the answer to this problem lies in education. If we can expose students to computers and technology as young children, they will be more comfortable using those types of things in adulthood. We can also offer night or weekend classes or workshops for adults who would like to learn more about using technology and computers. If we educate people about how to use these tools and why it is important for them to use them, maybe we can lessen the digital divide. Who knows, maybe it would even improve our economy to have more people that are technologically literate. So, in conclusion, I support this program, and I hope to see many others like it in the near future.
Blog Response 3 « Anne said, on 6/16/2007 10:45:00 AM
Wow, so that was a crazy 36 hours or so. I posted that video, went to bed and woke up to find I was a minor media sensation. The video has been seen almost 14,000 times. Cory Doctorow called me an “Internet folk-hero” (which cracks me up). I wrote a bit more about that on my personal website. When people ask about social software and what it’s good for, I can now safely say that it’s good for having someone ship you a few boxes of your favorite open source OS on CD (you can get some too!), a few random marriage proposals from guys with hotmail addresses, and leveraging whatever your position is so that more people can know about it. More knowledge is good. The biggest piece of overall feedback I got was that my little video made installing an operating system look “fun” and when was the last time you had fun installing an operating system?
I do need to come clean and say that I haven’t even gone back to the library to see how the desktops are working out yet. I’m there for 90 min or so every week or every other week. I still haven’t tackled stickier issues like Internet and printer drivers. I have to change the root password now that everyone has seen it. I have installed Ubuntu a grand total of four times, once with an awful lot of help. Both my PC and my Mac laptops run Ubuntu but while it’s my OS of choice on the PC, I like the Mac OS better on the MacBook and I apologize for not being a True Believer. Here are some good Ubuntu links that people sent me either over email or in the comments. If you’re Ubuntu-curious, they will help you.
The Open Source Software Institute has a mission to “promote the development and implementation of open-source software solutions within U.S. federal, state and municipal government agencies and academic entities.” Is this you? Look them up. Yes that is me on their blog.
If you’re just never ever going to part with Windows, consider using free and open source software on those machines anyhow. Here are two places to get ready to use CDs chock full of open source goodness: TTCS OSSWIN CD and The Open CD.
Dear Jessamyn:
Let me contribute with some links you might find useful related to your nice video of the other day.
As I told you in a comment to your video post, there is a superb Free Software option to manage libraries called KOHA at http://www.koha.org
Here you have a list of some libraries with public accesible catalogs you can check: http://www.koha.org/showcase/opacs.html
This is a step further in adopting FLOSS for your library and one more complex than installing Ubuntu, but maybe you can propose the software to be adopted as project for improvement for a group of libraries of your environement (maybe at a council level?, were you planning to upgrade from an older system sometime soon, this might save quite a lot of money)
Another area where you can benefit from FLOSS is in the website of your library: you can set up a dynamic site like Drupal, Joomla, Xoops (or even Wordpress), etc so it is much easier to update your website, post news, activities, notices, etc related to your library.
Hosting service for these websites are really cheap nowadays (150$ for two years or so), you can test demos of any of these systems at http://www.opensourcecms.com
Another compilation of Free Software for Windows can be found at: http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/apps/en/index.html
There is an educational variation of Ubuntu, called Edubuntu that you might find of interest if you get young readers to use your library’s computers, it includes part of KDE edutainment suite (although it runs gnome), I think it is worth checking (maybe you could suggest the idea to your local school, so they do the same as you in case the get donated PCs or set up a computer lab): http://www.edubuntu.org/UsingEdubuntu http://edu.kde.org
To end with my coment: I saw a troll or microsoft drone commenting on your video post: expect some of them coming now you have become a popular example to follow: this is whattthey fear and they must figh against, but don´t worry: you have all the support of hundreds of thousands of happy Linux users around the world!!!
Again, sincere congratulations and best regards.
David B. Spain.
Software Livre no SAPO » Blog Archive &raqu said, on 5/12/2007 2:52:00 PM
[…] Uns dias depois publicou um outro artigo, onde revelou a sua surpresa por inesperadamente se ter tornado numa pequena “estrela” da comunidade. […]
Heimo said, on 5/13/2007 8:43:00 AM
Your video was linked on Ubuntuforums (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/) and now it’s also on Groklaw (http://www.groklaw.net/). Very nice! If you haven’t yet accepted any of those marriage proposals, you’ll find me at Ubuntuforums. ;-)
Vermont’s Librarian | Tiago Boldt Sousa said, on 5/13/2007 8:54:00 AM
[…] After the success she had with that initiative, she’s also written a follow-up, with some tips on how to install Ubuntu. […]
Dee said, on 5/14/2007 6:48:00 AM
Your video is really cute and cool. It’s really made it way over to many internet sites and forums(even ones from Singapore)!
Jonathan said, on 5/14/2007 2:32:00 PM
I appreciate you helping to bring so much attention to the existence of good accordion music.
Paul said, on 5/18/2007 7:46:00 PM
Hi
Enjoyable little video. I am wondering how the clients are enjoying Ubuntu.
Greywulf said, on 5/26/2007 3:27:00 AM
Well deserved praise and fame for a brilliant video :)
Congratulations and thanks for posting the video up in the first place.
Here in the UK we love ya!
Mor e Ubuntus (can Ubuntu be plural? Ubuntii maybe) in libraries we say.
Consider yourself rss’d.
oldvermonthome.info » Supreme Court of Geor said, on 6/3/2007 10:44:00 AM
[…] We’ve started putting up useful or fun YouTube videos, one a day, to demonstrate the significant noninfringing use of the service. Also because we’re having fun. At first, I was putting them in News Picks, but this one is too great not to put right here. It’s a librarian in Vermont, USA, who installs Ubuntu on two rickety old donated computers in less than an hour and then shows Ubuntu off. The computers didn’t come with valid licenses to any operating system, so she tried Ubuntu. As you will see, she is impressed at all the applications that come with it, including OpenOffice, and she shows you how to save an OpenOffice document as Microsoft Word format. Here’s the Ogg version of her video. If you would like to do the same, and she does make it look fun, here are some instructions she posted afterwards, but as you will see in the video, Ubuntu does the ubuntuing without much input from you. You can even ask and they’ll send you a free CD in the mail of Ubuntu, Edubuntu, or Kubuntu, if you don’t want to burn your own. I use Kubuntu myself. Edubuntu is for schools. If you are a business, this page about applications tested to run on Ubuntu and where support is available will interest you. But Ubuntu, as they say, is and always be free of charge: Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing. We issue a new desktop and server release every six months. That means you’ll always have the the latest and greatest applications that the open source world has to offer. […]
Check me out, I made a little video with me in it and I’m putting it here.
I installed Ubuntu on two of the donated PCs at my library yesterday. It took less than an hour. In fact, if I hadn’t been making the little movie at the same time [with my laptop and my little Canon digital Elph; I don’t have a video camera] it would have taken me even less time. Ubuntu comes bundled with a lot of the popular Open Source software titles like OpenOffice, Gimp and Firefox. The Calef Library has two Windows PCs already so if people need specific software that doesn’t run on Ubuntu, they can use those. I’d like to get them a Mac as well and then they can be the only library (to my knowledge) that is triple platform in the entire state of Vermont.
Note: I have not connected these machines to the Internet or the printer yet, so I’m sure there may be pitfalls waiting for me along the way, but I think that would be true no matter what platform I was using. Ubuntu is free. My install process went like this: download and burn the Ubuntu disk image to a CD. Turn on the computer with the Ubuntu CD in the CD drive. The computer boots Ubuntu from the CD. You have the option to run it this way or install it to the hard drive. You have the option to install it on a partition (and keep Windows also) or just erase the drive and install Ubuntu as the only operating system. You restart the machine and it runs Ubuntu and it Just Works. For the Ubuntu curious (I just like saying ubuntu over and over ubuntu ubuntu ubuntu…) you might enjoy this website How to install ANYTHING in Ubuntu. If you’re just Linux curious, you might enjoy this article on how Howard County migrated more than 200 PCs to Linux, and this was in 2004. Hope you like the little movie. Please drop a note in the comments if you’re using Ubuntu at your library.
A typo in the first sentance makes it unclear whether you _installed_ or _uninstalled_ Ubuntu.
I’m guessing _installed_ … but you never know.
: )
jessamyn said, on 5/8/2007 8:33:00 AM
Thanks Silus, fixed it!
Courtney said, on 5/8/2007 8:39:00 AM
Thanks so much. Love it!
joshua m. neff said, on 5/8/2007 10:42:00 AM
I love the video, and I’m in awe of a public library having both Windows and Ubuntu available.
In my own use of Ubuntu, I’ve never had a problem connecting to the internet. Even wifi was easy (although I got my card by asking for help on the Ubuntu forums and buying a recommended card, rather than getting a card first and trying to figure out how to get it to work).
Rafe said, on 5/8/2007 11:24:00 AM
Nice production values! Well done.
acro said, on 5/8/2007 11:28:00 AM
Hiya,
MarkPilgrim’s Ubuntu Essentials post was helpful for a recent install (tips how to get the non-default codecs, flash, etc. done quickly).
Lindsay said, on 5/8/2007 11:30:00 AM
Hey, is that the Michot Brothers playing in the video??
Scot Colford said, on 5/8/2007 11:35:00 AM
Hey that was a fantastic video! I want to install Ubuntu at a tiny library now. And if you want to learn to screencast, I hear there was an excellent program at the Mass Library Assn conference last week. Oh wait, you were there … and you missed it! ;-)
Richard Ahlquist said, on 5/8/2007 11:36:00 AM
I haven’t watched the video yet but let me say it is very refreshing to see someone embrace something different and free, rather than let those machines waste away. Kudos!
Ubuntu @ The Library: Like “Blair Witch,&rd said, on 5/8/2007 11:48:00 AM
[…] do you ubuntu? [Librarian.net] tr { border: 0px } td { cellborder: 10px} table { border: 1px solid black } […]
Internet Brain » Fun Ubuntu install vid said, on 5/8/2007 11:50:00 AM
[…] FYI, Jessamyn is one of the premier library tech people. I just always wondered about UNIX. Tanya, where’s your old pc … […]
Amy said, on 5/8/2007 11:50:00 AM
Nifty. Was that Michael Doucet/Beausoleil on the soundtrack?
jessamyn said, on 5/8/2007 11:56:00 AM
Yeah the song is the Eunice Two-Step by Beausoleil.
Joslin said, on 5/8/2007 12:07:00 PM
I love OpenOffice–very cool! I tell my students about it all the time. Great little video!
Tyler said, on 5/8/2007 12:18:00 PM
Definitely a good idea to check out which sorts of wireless cards are best before trying to connect to wi-fi… I really struggled with this part of the setup.
Lee Schlesinger said, on 5/8/2007 12:21:00 PM
Nice work - thanks for taking the time to make the video.
Andrew said, on 5/8/2007 12:33:00 PM
Did you create the video on a Ubuntu machine? What did you use? Did you like it? I haven’t found a video editor I like for Linux yet….
Justin Watt said, on 5/8/2007 12:36:00 PM
Maybe it’s just me, but I think this video could have effects beyond Washington, VT. Nothing like a dead simple and entertaining demo to demystify “exotic” technology. The zydeco helps too.
BEERORKID - A bunch of useless crap Lincoln Ne &r said, on 5/8/2007 12:43:00 PM
[…] Ubuntu @ the Library By beerorkid her blog […]
Kates Journal » Blog Archive » Librar said, on 5/8/2007 2:27:00 PM
[…] Linky (bizarrely, you have to click read more to get the link) […]
weapons of massdistraction said, on 5/8/2007 3:20:00 PM
[…] Bonus: This morning a co-worker pointed out GreenDimes. It’s a service that will do the work for you to get your name off junk mail lists, to reduce the amount that makes it to your mailbox, and then they also have a tree planted for you monthly. Neat. Plus: I’ve been a long-time fan of Jessamyn but must admit, I haven’t gotten over to libarian.net lately. But she was boing-boinged today for making a video about how to install Ubuntu - on some machines that were donated to her library. So awesome. And yes, I do Ubuntu too. And: Poor Galadriel is looking more like a zombie queen than an elf queen. I don’t think all shall love her, but we might just despair. […]
James said, on 5/8/2007 4:15:00 PM
ugh, ubuntu linux. congratulations on your awesome trend following.
Andrew said, on 5/8/2007 4:34:00 PM
Hey Jessamyn! CitrusFreak12 here. Loved the video! You are my favorite internet folk-hero!
Kendra said, on 5/8/2007 5:08:00 PM
Hi weapons of massdistration- Thanks for mentioning GreenDimes in your comment! We really appreciate your taking the time to tell others about the service.
Kendra
Sam Chupp said, on 5/8/2007 5:32:00 PM
What a very cool video! Maybe if I play it for some of the more wrongheaded of folks in my office, they will change their minds a bit more about Linux.
Thank you for making it!
Ken Buck said, on 5/8/2007 5:42:00 PM
While I am no fan of Ubuntu/Kubuntu, all I can say is “great job”!. Not only have you helped out your library, but you have also helped out the Linux community. Ubuntu does have good community
support, with their user forum and wiki.
james m said, on 5/8/2007 5:56:00 PM
Great idea, and the vid was put together nicely, too.
Unfortunately the pic they used on boing boing makes it look like someone is goosing you. :P
jm
Cameron said, on 5/8/2007 7:26:00 PM
Great video! You should burn about 10 extra cds and give em out if anyone shows an interest.
My View » More Ubuntu Love said, on 5/8/2007 8:15:00 PM
[…] A Librarian installs Ubuntu in the basement on two donated PC’s. She made a video of her adventure. Thanks to author Corey Doctorow for that link. […]
Kurt von Finck said, on 5/8/2007 8:16:00 PM
Cameron,
Too late. We at Canonical have found Jessamyn’s video, and we’re sending a few hundred officially pressed CDs to our friends in Vermont’s libraries. :)
And if anyone wants officially pressed CDs, just hit https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ and we’ll send you some for free.
The video is quite popular at the Ubuntu Developer’s Summit this week, and we wanted to say “thanks” for making us smile.
Rock on, Jessamyn! Ubuntu loves you!
Ubuntu @ The Library: Like “Blair Witch,” But said, on 5/8/2007 8:20:00 PM
[…] do you ubuntu? [Librarian.net] […]
me said, on 5/8/2007 10:42:00 PM
Writing as a software engineer who recently married a librarian, I’ve believed for years that geeks and librarians are just different clans in the same tribe. Rock On.
Tech Explorer Using Ubuntu in Libraries « said, on 5/8/2007 11:02:00 PM
[…] Using Ubuntu in Libraries May 9th, 2007 — techxplorer I saw this post on the blog of Jessamyn West and thought it very funny, as well as inspirational. In a short amount of time she takes two donated PC’s and turns them into Ubuntu workstations in a way only Jessamyn could. […]
Librarian Shares Ubuntu Love in Home Video at Tec said, on 5/8/2007 11:09:00 PM
[…] Watch the video, and follow the discussion around it on her blog and notice the amount of fun these people, who are very non-technical it would seem, are having with the Ubuntu OS. […]
NickFera said, on 5/9/2007 12:25:00 AM
Mrs. West, do you use Ubuntu in your laptop? If not, why?
paolo said, on 5/9/2007 1:16:00 AM
Great video!!! ;-)
LinuxUser said, on 5/9/2007 2:22:00 AM
Congratulations for choosing freedom by using Linux.
You will discover that is is much less messy (no virus, no spyware, more robust and secure) than windows, so it wont be any problem to connect these machines to the internet.
There is also have free (as in freedom, although it is also costless) software you can use to manage your library: http://www.koha.org
Regards from a spaniard Linux user
marlene said, on 5/9/2007 2:31:00 AM
Hey, it seems to be much easier than downloading an audio book from Overdrive ;-)
weirdwilly said, on 5/9/2007 3:27:00 AM
will you marry me? you probably won’t but i thought i’d ask anyway. thanks for a cool video. yes, i do the ubuntu and a few others as well. love ‘em.
note to self: visit the library more often.
Too many topics, too little time. » librari said, on 5/9/2007 4:16:00 AM
[…] librarian.net » do you ubuntu?: do you ubuntu? […]
SubSónica :: Una bibliotecaria que NO acepta la said, on 5/9/2007 4:41:00 AM
Are you Still have troubles with internet conection?
Regards
RedOscar said, on 5/9/2007 7:48:00 AM
Jessamyn, great job on the video. It should be an inspiration to a lot of future Ubuntu users. I started using Linux in 2003 and haven’t looked back. I use Ubuntu on my Acer laptop, and it works great. Just remember, there are lots of other great Linux distributions.
As a librarian, you will want to read Glyn Moody’s “Rebel Code” which gives a good account of the birth of the open source movement. Plus check out the documentary film “Revolution OS” by J.T.S. Moore available on DVD. Keep up the good work.
Red
Mr Everybody said, on 5/9/2007 8:24:00 AM
Nice O.S., unless happens that some piece of your hardware is non-linuxfriendly,especially modems
Joey Stanford :: Ubuntu in the Library said, on 5/9/2007 8:37:00 AM
[…] This video by Jessamyn at the Washington, Vermont, USA library just makes me smile. Proof that some people “Just Get It”! […]
TomHung said, on 5/9/2007 8:59:00 AM
Great video. Ubuntu / Linux is also great on Kiosks. ISLUG (out LUG) has installed kiosks in a coffee shop and local bar.. umm beer!
Keep up the good work.
Tom
PlasticBoy » Blog Archive » Jessamin said, on 5/9/2007 9:36:00 AM
[…] Jessamyn West installed Ubuntu on some library computers and made this cute video of it. […]
NiKo said, on 5/9/2007 9:41:00 AM
You simply kick asses, I’m in love :)
WildBill said, on 5/9/2007 10:50:00 AM
Great job Jessamyn! Love seeing stories like this - it warms the cockles of my heart (whatever cockles are).
FYI, I’m one of the authors of O’Reilly’s _Ubuntu Hacks_ book - if you’ve got Ubuntu questions you should pull it off your shelf there at the library (it *is* on your shelf, right?) and flip thru it. :)
Bittersweet said, on 5/9/2007 10:59:00 AM
Ubuntu is pretty good isn’t it.
However, you may want to check that any things you would want to attach will work.
I found out the hard way that the printer I have at my parent’s house doesn’t work with *any* linux.
Ah well, que sera sera.
jc said, on 5/9/2007 1:18:00 PM
So is there a way to lock down these ubuntu boxes without using a kiosk load? Specifically can you auto purge the browser history, clear OO files, and prevent unwanted activities (e.g DL .exe, install software, etc).
Last time I played with linux for public PCs there was no tool similar to policy editor/shared toolkit for locking and purging the machines after ever patron use, something I find essential for privacy.
Excellent video. Congrats on giving Ubuntu a try. It gets even better. Wait until you discover all of the software, including a growing number of educational titles you can put on those PC’s.
I have been using Ubuntu for about a week and think this may the first Linux distribution I leave on the family PC.
Enjoy.
Phil
Shawn Romine said, on 5/9/2007 4:53:00 PM
awesome video! More! More!
Shawn Romine
Library Computer Support Tech
Douglas County Library System
1409 NE Diamond Lake Blvd.
Roseburg, OR 97470
541-440-4228 phone
541-957-7798 fax
zagboodle said, on 5/9/2007 5:33:00 PM
That was awesome! Long live open-source, libraries, and librarians!
holotone.net said, on 5/9/2007 5:36:00 PM
[…] librarian.net » do you ubuntu? - I installed Ubuntu on two of the donated PCs at my library yesterday. It took less than an hour. In fact, if I hadnât been making the little movie at the same time it would have taken me even less time. 9. May 2007, 17:32 o’clock […]
j's scratchpad » Blog Archive » said, on 5/9/2007 8:50:00 PM
[…] BoingBoing links to a video Jessamyn West made about installing Ubuntu Linux on some of her library’s computers. If the library gets a Mac, she thinks it will be the first library in Vermont to offer three operating systems. Her post has more information about Ubuntu and using it in libraries. […]
Shane said, on 5/9/2007 10:33:00 PM
Yay!
More power to you! Thank you for the great video and for showing all the nay-sayers how its done.
Shane.
How Difficult is Ubuntu? « J Random Aspie said, on 5/10/2007 3:35:00 AM
[…] For the inquisitive, the link is here - […]
Librarian installs Ubuntu « … in a t said, on 5/10/2007 4:45:00 AM
[…] This librarian uses the much less newbie-hostile ubuntu default desktop, and shows how easy to install and easy to use it is, and how much great software is installed by default. Now that is how one promotes GNU/Linux! […]
How are the patrons liking using Ubuntu stations? We’re contemplating looking into suggesting it for our system libraries and we’re curious what the feedback has been from the patrons in this library. Thanks!
Carol Mulliganing o said, on 5/10/2007 7:07:00 AM
After reading your post about installing the PCs in the library I went and downloaded Ubuntu on a spare laptop. I did a clean install. I love it! It’s on the Internet now. I haven’t messed much with the printing yet.
Tavis said, on 5/10/2007 8:42:00 AM
Congratulations for entering the wonderful world of free and open source software.
I have Kubuntu installed on all of my school library PCs (and an old iMac).
Just wonderful things » Librarian’s v said, on 5/10/2007 11:53:00 AM
[…] Link […]
SarcasticSmarmyGuy said, on 5/10/2007 2:44:00 PM
Wow! It only took you ten seconds to start up Open Office!? :-)
Listen, you get what you pay for. I tried using Ubuntu Linux for about two months and found it to be clunky and slow: Firefox was a dog and OpenOffice was unusable; Gnome was unresponsive. Reinstalling Windows was a breath of fresh air. My current setup is: a Windows machine for everyday browsing, email, and Office applications and a Linux machine for the occasional Linux-only application. I also use a Mac laptop because it makes me look cool in public, and believe me I need all the help I can get :-)
Another point I’d like to make. People often make a big deal about how easy it is to install Linux and how much software it comes with. The fact is that the vast majority of computer users will never install an OS in their lives; their computers come with an OS installed. And much of the time their computers come with all the other stuff you need installed as well (Office, etc.). And, I positively garantee that you’ll never use close to half of the stuff that came installed on your Ubuntu install. These facts make the mere hour you spent installing look kind-of wasteful. Think of the things you could have done with that hour! :-)
This is not to say that I don’t understand or sympathize with all the cool counter-culture reasons to run Linux and stick it to Microsoft. But, just like the Mac commercials that imply Mac’s are somehow immune to Viruses and incompatibility problems, a public disservice is done when you tout advantages that really aren’t there.
Thanks for giving me the forum to get this stuff off my chest. :-)
Roy Schestowitz said, on 5/10/2007 6:17:00 PM
Well done! Thanks for the video.
Alan Pope said, on 5/11/2007 9:07:00 AM
Great video!
Mark Shuttleworth played this video to the developers at the end of the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Sevilla, Spain today. It was received very well.
Congratulations.
A Librarian Install Ubuntu « Glass::Brian-& said, on 5/11/2007 9:11:00 AM
[…] A Librarian Install Ubuntu Posted May 11, 2007 In this video a librarian for a small library in Vermont installs Ubuntu on two donated PC’s without an operating system. This is a really entertaining video. Read about it and watch it: […]
Mike Cretella said, on 5/11/2007 9:59:00 AM
You are Heroic.
Bring this idea to other local librarians! The library is all about freedom of information, and that’s what Linux and Ubuntu are about!
Bruce said, on 5/11/2007 5:27:00 PM
Great video!
Now use “System > Administration > Synapic” to install “ubuntu-restricted-extras” flash player, java, more fonts and some multimedia stuff.
Best of luck with Ubuntu!
Joel Carter said, on 5/11/2007 5:46:00 PM
Also try other live distributions, PCLinuxOS, Mepis etc. Love the video!
dfowensby said, on 5/11/2007 7:14:00 PM
prepare to get Slashdotted. i thot you worthy!
<CONTENT /> v.4 » links for 2007-05-1 said, on 5/11/2007 7:21:00 PM
[…] librarian.net » do you ubuntu? a librarian installs Ubuntu (tags: DIY library ubuntu friday_fun) […]
Helene Blowers said, on 5/11/2007 7:48:00 PM
J - Finally got around to watching the video. You seriously rock!!!
Kent West said, on 5/11/2007 9:51:00 PM
Greetings to Mrs. West from Mr. West :-) (no relation)
This video is great; wonderful viral advertising for Ubuntu.
Another way to install GNU/Linux, albeit Debian rather than Ubuntu (although Ubuntu is Debian-based), is to point your Windows web browser to http://goodbye-microsoft.com and click on the Debian icon. The process sets up a dual-boot, walks you through the partitioning of your drive, and downloads what’s needed from the ‘net and installs it, all without having to burn and boot from a CD.
Again, thanks for the video! Lotta fun!
ubuntu open space said, on 5/11/2007 10:46:00 PM
Thanks, Jessamyn!
great -nice-happy video!
links for 2007-05-12 « The Wayward Word Pre said, on 5/11/2007 11:22:00 PM
[…] librarian.net » do you ubuntu? “I installed Ubuntu on two of the donated PCs at my library yesterday. It took less than an hour.” Good news indeed, as libraries with their scarce resources need all the help they can get with their IT infrastructure. (tags: via:BobSutor open-source education Linux ubuntu libraries) […]
The Invisible Library » Blog Archive » said, on 5/12/2007 12:12:00 PM
[…] For those who haven’t seen it yet, Jessamyn at Librarian.net has a video of her installing Ubuntu Linux onto three computers at a small library. This comes fast on the news from last week that Dell will be offering Ubuntu as an alternative Operating System to Windows Vista. After years of quietly percolating in the background, Linux is finally catching on in the popular imagination as an alternative to the ham fisted monopoly of Microsoft and I couldn’t be happier. That it’s Ubuntu that is making the noise is even better. It makes me almost want to buy a PC just to help the cause. Maybe I can convince my parents to switch? That might be a nifty little series, following the procedures, from talking my parent sinto the switch all the way through the install process… hmm, yes… […]
sam said, on 5/12/2007 1:46:00 PM
Just connect them up to the Internet with nework cards which are usaly always supported, I bet the windows machines are connected to a rooter some ware and ae on the net because of that, I recon you shoud network up the printer too so all machines can use the printer.
sam said, on 5/12/2007 1:49:00 PM
Don’t for get to Find the Ubuntu fourms too get help that you may need, have alook around the net.
Software Livre no SAPO » Blog Archive &raqu said, on 5/12/2007 2:50:00 PM
[…] Aproveitou para filmar a sua “Install Party” privada, num vídeo intitulado Jessamyn installs Ubuntu @ the Library, disponível no formato livre Ogg e no formato proprietário Flash Vídeo, embebido na sua página. […]
Ubuntu na biblioteca at Bibliotecários Sem Front said, on 5/12/2007 4:04:00 PM
[…] Jessamyn, do librarian.net, filmou a experiência de instalar Ubuntu em 3 computadores que foram doados sem sistema operacional. Cai muito bem no Brasil. […]
al said, on 5/12/2007 6:13:00 PM
Great video! I’m looking to try ubuntu on Dell starts selling hardware with ubuntu preinstalled.
Elwyn Jenkins said, on 5/13/2007 12:09:00 AM
Great little video. What about making a video of people learning the new system.
Shaun Holt said, on 5/13/2007 7:44:00 AM
Well Done - Kudos - Check out the koha project.
Shaun
Vermont’s Librarian | Tiago Boldt Sousa said, on 5/13/2007 8:55:00 AM
[…] Jessamyn West, a librarian from Vermont has made an awesome video on installing Ubuntu. […]
SilverWave said, on 5/13/2007 10:42:00 AM
Great - looks like you had a lot of fun.
I wonder if this kind of thing will force MS into letting non-profits install a MS OS (for free)…
Not holding my breath ;) …although it would be the smart thing to do.
James said, on 5/13/2007 11:16:00 AM
SarcasticSmarmyGuy: If Ubuntu was slow and unresponsive for you, you’ve got an older machine. Xubuntu works great on those. ;-)
Ubuntu does have higher system requirements than Windows XP. It’s also newer. It’s also a ton lighter than Vista.
I’m not entirely sure what advantages she talked about which weren’t there. Ubuntu is free, it comes with a lotta software, and installing it took less time than it would to have gotten an equivalent Windows XP system with all the fixings up and running. (Yeah, the boxes already had 2000 on them, but they may have been donated on the condition that the computer be wiped; a fairly common and not unreasonable request, actually.)
—
All in all, this was a pretty great video. Good job, Jessamyn.
copy this blog » Jessamyn + Ubuntu makes Gr said, on 5/13/2007 11:20:00 AM
[…] was written by Carlos and posted on 5/13/2007 at 12:20 pm and filed under Open Source. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback:Trackback URL. « EFF’s a bit off about one thing. ^_- […]
NeilG said, on 5/13/2007 11:49:00 AM
Jessamyn,
Love your little video :^)
Love your little dance at the end even more… Joy.
SarcasticSmarmyGuy: You have no idea what it’s like having to use donated equipment. “You get what you pay for”. Quite.
Go girl.
Working with VT Library too said, on 5/13/2007 12:56:00 PM
[…] I read a great blog from a Librarian who installed Feisty Fawn on some donated workstations and videotaped it. See it here. This is definitely inspiring and made me wonder about donating some old PCs to local schools. […]
Linux at School « Megan Golding said, on 5/13/2007 6:07:00 PM
[…] 13th, 2007 · No Comments As I prepare to install Ubuntu on some older computers at school, I am inspired by thislibrarian’s Ubuntu story. […]
Why Now? » Blog Archive » More Ubuntu said, on 5/13/2007 7:16:00 PM
[…] Via Keith at Invisible Library, a video that Jessamyn at Librarian.net made while installing Ubuntu Linux on some computers donated to her library. […]
Rebecca said, on 5/13/2007 7:24:00 PM
You might also be interested in this site - http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php - which gives a quiz to help choose which distro may be the best fit for you. It returns 2-4 possibilities, and is fairly accurate!
I hope lots and lots of people see your video. This is great!
Open Souce is the way to go... said, on 5/14/2007 5:36:00 AM
See this link: http://www.meadvillelibrary.org/os/
Has interesting information about using open source filtering tools.
Of course by using proxy servers over the internet, and remote management tools, then access and filtering, and system administration for small public libraries can be centrally managed in one location for the benefit of many small libraries that don’t have the budget to go it alone. The Open Source Software model makes this flexible and leaves room in budgets for smaller libraries and larger libraries to team up to solve common problems (without hurting the budgets of either large or small, if the philosophy and tech understanding at all levels is “dialed-in” to a proper course of action that is long term). Note that many “local” historical clubs are trying to digitally document local history and are using proprietary tools to do this (and some local libraries are being used as sites to store the data). If they choose a software product that locks them into where for the next 200 years they MUST use this choice of products, then they might find that this is not the best solution. The Open Document Format model (ODF) is one that these groups should be using (as then their choice of vendor is not important, because they can move their data between software products seemlessly and quickly). The mistake is choosing the “lock-in” software solution, as then you are no longer independent. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument
Adam said, on 5/14/2007 6:24:00 AM
In the video, you showed the username was “library” and the pass was “library.” Although you probably don’t get many people wanting to take down library computers, what do you intend to do about people doing “sudo” commands in the Ubuntu terminal?
sudo rm -r /*
wouldn’t turn out too well.
Larry Keyes said, on 5/14/2007 7:24:00 AM
Hi….quick suggestion, you may also want to check out the education version of Ubuntu, (if you haven’t already), called Edubuntu. It is modified to include extra math and science software. It usually is issued very shortly after the “base” Ubuntu is released.
jessamyn said, on 5/14/2007 8:08:00 AM
Thanks adam and others. I’ll be changing the password before we put the machine on the live internet.
Adam said, on 5/14/2007 9:18:00 AM
If you know the password of the user to login, you’ll be able to use sudo to get root-level power over the computer. If you use sudo before a command, it’ll ask for the password of that user, so I would consider a solution that involves having the users not know what the password is at all, that way you completely block the ability to delete protected files and directories :)
By the way, I totally loved the video!
Ubuntu in biblioteca « fraseggio e folleggi said, on 5/14/2007 11:04:00 AM
[…] Ubuntu in biblioteca Il divertente resoconto, con video, dell’installazione di Ubuntu in una biblioteca del Vermont. […]
jankkhvej » Blog Archive » Библи said, on 5/14/2007 3:06:00 PM
[…] Нашёл тут. […]
Antônio said, on 5/14/2007 6:04:00 PM
To much fun! :P
Keep it up, you are setting standards in how public services must have initiative!
Here in Brazil we say: “knowledge makes the time, does not wait to happen”
PS. Marry me?!?!!?
I promise I’ll learn english! :P
taylor2nd said, on 5/15/2007 2:26:00 AM
haha. Way too go *thumbs up*
FreeSoftNews » Blog Archive » Ubuntu said, on 5/15/2007 11:36:00 AM
[…] * Jessamyn Charity West, a librarian at Calef Library, in Washington, Vermont, created a video of installing Ubuntu on donated computers. Three computers came with no legal licenses for Windows, so Jessamyn burned an ISO of Ubuntu and proceeded to overwrite Windows. She comments how Ubuntu is instantly useful since it comes with Open“Office and Gaim pre-installed. See the video at http://www.librarian.net/stax/2042/do-you-ubuntu/ […]
auch1 » Blog Archive » do you? said, on 5/16/2007 9:02:00 AM
[…] ein grund weswegen linuk gewinnt: weil einfach keiner so viel spass hat wenn er windoof installiert. […]
Chris Turner said, on 5/18/2007 11:17:00 AM
Jessamyn, Quite a watershed event for libraries and linux, and well documented as well, the music was an especially nice touch, and the editing was great.
Chris
Blog de Alejo » Blog Archive » Code M said, on 5/18/2007 6:48:00 PM
[…] Una señorita instaló Ubuntu en la biblioteca de su ciudad. […]
Punctuation said, on 5/19/2007 2:32:00 AM
Very nicely done video. Not sure whether or not you realise this but your You Tube video is fast becoming a popular “this is why you should use Ubuntu” meme. Well done.
Ubuntu in 10 Minutes « Random Mind said, on 5/20/2007 11:57:00 AM
[…] Ubuntu in 10 Minutes May 20th, 2007 Here’s a beautiful little video done by Vermont librarian Jessamyn West to show people how easy it is to install Ubuntu on a couple of old, donated computers. Ubuntu is a free open source linux-based operating system, and it’s great for schools & non-profits. […]
Heavy Metal Librarian » Blog Archive » said, on 5/21/2007 10:08:00 PM
[…] These are witchy times for Microsoft. Windows Vista, which was years in development, is an underwhelming, ridiculously expensive, resource-hogging, bug-ridden, crash-prone lump of crap. Internet Explorer is still losing market share to Mozilla. Ubuntu, the current star of the Linux universe, is getting rave reviews, and will soon be available pre-installed on new Dell PC’s. Hell, even A-List library bloggers are making videos to guide laymen through Ubuntu installs and conversions. […]
Northern Grep - The blog of Shaun Holt » Do said, on 5/23/2007 11:40:00 PM
[…] Here is a charming little clip of a pro-active librarian, Jessamyn West. Every library should have a Jessamyn and I have added her site librarian.net to my blogroll. Ubuntu is an excellent linux distro suitable for all levels of computer knowledge. Recycled PCs may be made useful again at almost zero cost. Ubuntu has been around for over three years now but there are still many people unaware of it. When you use or see Linux every day it is easy to forget that other people still haven’t heard of it. This video shows how straightforward linux is to install (compared to the old days) and the amount of free (open source) software that is included in a standard setup. I liked the deep south, American folk music too! […]
Oleg K. said, on 5/24/2007 8:40:00 AM
Just wanted to chime in…
Your video is AWESOME!
I’m still smiling.
Thank you!
Chris mankey said, on 5/24/2007 4:20:00 PM
“ugh, ubuntu linux. congratulations on your awesome trend following. ”
Congratulations on being a cynical and moronic curmudgeon!:-)
Chris mankey said, on 5/24/2007 4:32:00 PM
“Firefox was a dog and OpenOffice was unusable”
Did you get the reaction you were fishing for? Firefox is a dog? Only if you’re a moron!
oldvermonthome.info » The Good Life. said, on 5/24/2007 4:41:00 PM
[…] librarian.net do you ubuntu? […]
Eric Klemm said, on 5/25/2007 12:50:00 PM
This is outstanding! I installed Ubuntu in fall of 2006 on an old machine and then on two more in the spring of ‘07. I have been extremely impressed. The potential of this OS becoming the standard for libraries and schools is fantastic.
Patrick Hall said, on 5/28/2007 9:54:00 PM
This is a great video!
(Whence didst thou hooketh up yon Cajun soundtrack?)
Matt Austin said, on 6/1/2007 6:48:00 AM
Re: preventing “sudo” commands…
Maybe you could enable automatic login, and then you would not have to provide a username / password to people… and therefore they would not be able to run “sudo” commands which would harm the system?
You can enable automatic login by going to System -> Administration -> Login Window
Select the Security tab, and tick “Enable Timed Login”, and select a user.
I’m not an expert - so maybe someone else could confirm that this would be a good alternative to providing the username / password to people?
oldvermonthome.info » Supreme Court of Geor said, on 6/3/2007 10:43:00 AM
[…] We’ve started putting up useful or fun YouTube videos, one a day, to demonstrate the significant noninfringing use of the service. Also because we’re having fun. At first, I was putting them in News Picks, but this one is too great not to put right here. It’s a librarian in Vermont, USA, who installs Ubuntu on two rickety old donated computers in less than an hour and then shows Ubuntu off. The computers didn’t come with valid licenses to any operating system, so she tried Ubuntu. As you will see, she is impressed at all the applications that come with it, including OpenOffice, and she shows you how to save an OpenOffice document as Microsoft Word format. Here’s the Ogg version of her video. If you would like to do the same, and she does make it look fun, here are some instructions she posted afterwards, but as you will see in the video, Ubuntu does the ubuntuing without much input from you. You can even ask and they’ll send you a free CD in the mail of Ubuntu, Edubuntu, or Kubuntu, if you don’t want to burn your own. I use Kubuntu myself. Edubuntu is for schools. If you are a business, this page about applications tested to run on Ubuntu and where support is available will interest you. But Ubuntu, as they say, is and always be free of charge: Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing. We issue a new desktop and server release every six months. That means you’ll always have the the latest and greatest applications that the open source world has to offer. […]
Darius Australia said, on 6/9/2007 9:13:00 PM
This is a very creative video! I think I will install Ubuntu on my computer now :-)
bambit said, on 6/11/2007 2:08:00 AM
Hello Jessamyn! Fantastic video there, will be linking it on my blog in a few minutes. I’m camped out by my 3-year-old daughter’s pc installing Ubuntu, as she has no trouble finding her way around my laptop which is also on Ubuntu. Now if I can just convince my husband to switch to Ubuntu on his PC as well …
» Blog Archive » It’s easy to i said, on 6/11/2007 6:09:00 AM
[…] The usual suspects of course: Jessamyn West. Learn how to Pimp your Firefox. Watch a video on installing Ubuntu. Make friends with Wikipedia. […]
LITA Blog » Blog Archive » Meredith F said, on 6/15/2007 8:51:00 AM
[…] But it’s clear to me that many people still think open source is something for serious techies, given the awe-struck media frenzy that followed Jessamyn West’s video showing her installing Ubuntu on some computers in a rural library. Many of these operating systems are getting easier to install and hardware manufacturers are getting much more cooperative in designing hardware that will work with many open source operating systems. But even if you’re not installing Ubuntu or Mandriva, there are many free or open source applications that have the same functionality as the desktop applications your library paid a small fortune to license. I use PDF Creator instead of Adobe Acrobat. I use Audacity to record sound http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. I use GimpShop instead of PhotoShop (which is not nearly as fully-featured, but good for small jobs). I typed these trends in Open Office, and I find that, for the basic tasks most people do, it’s just as easy to use as the Microsoft Office tools. In some cases, open source applications are far better than the commercial ones. Especially for cash-strapped libraries, it’s crazy to keep spending money on expensive licenses for commercial desktop software without at least considering the open source alternatives. None of these take a “techie” to install or learn how to use. […]
argh said, on 6/18/2007 3:18:00 AM
CAn you get that Ubuntu version to work of the CD. as in live-CD?
Don Ray said, on 6/19/2007 9:09:00 AM
Did you use software on Linux to produce the video?
jessamyn said, on 6/19/2007 12:30:00 PM
Did you use software on Linux to produce the video?
@argh: yes
@ Don Ray: nope, baby steps here.
Brouehaha » Blog Archive » Ubuntu@Lib said, on 6/29/2007 7:45:00 AM
[…] Jessamyn est une bibliothécaire qui vient de recevoir en don, 3 ordinateurs mais ceux-ci sont sans système d’exploitation. Elle a donc installé Ubuntu, un système d’exploitation libre de droit et gratuit afin de faire fonctionner son matériel. De plus, elle a concocté un beau petit vidéo pour illustrer le tout. C’est en anglais. […]
I just got done giving a Tiny Tech Talk about good tech tools for small and rural libraries at the Massachusetts Library Association conference. In a country where “small” is often defined as libraries with 50,000 people or fewer, there is a real need for services that work for really tiny libraries serving populations of a few thousand or less. This talk is a variant of my Tech Tips talks but with a lot of the actual words being about specific things that work where there isn’t much access or tech know-how, much less cash. It went well. I enjoy library conferences.
I maybe gushed a bit about you on my own blog, but I wanted to reiterate that I am going to channel you when explaining a technology to someone - giving all the pertinent deets, using relavent analogies, without overwhelming or sounding condescending. WoOt.
Ms Shubhangi Vedak said, on 5/11/2007 10:49:00 PM
Let me introduce myself, i am the librarian in an academic College. Reading through your experience, i am keen on knowing your full talk and tech tips. I will be thankful if you could share this with me. Thank you.
Two neat things. Library of Congress has a blog. Librarian.net blog is on its (currently two items long) blogroll. Woo, we love LoC! Now please consider replacing the subject heading Hermphroditism with Intersexuality. Thanks.
When I went to the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Washington, there was a newsletter called the Sojourner. I was the editor my first year. It was a print newsletter. Now the newsletter is online and they interviewed me talking about how the library school (now the iSchool) has changed, what I’ve been up to and what needs fixing in libraries nowadays.
I have proposed two presentations for the SXSW conference in Austin Texas next March. There is a complicated series of steps to determining which of the proposals will actually get picked. Part of this determination (30%) is a very basic voting thing where you can thumbs-up or thumbs-down a particular presentation. Voting is now open. We are encouraged to use our powers of persuasion to get you to vote for our ideas. I would like you to vote for my ideas. Here is a link to all of the proposals. There are over 2000 of them and 300 or so will get chosen. 
Awesome “kick in the pants” type talk. Apols no video…
Did everyone know that the Library Bill of Rights turned 75 last week?? No, you don’t – because you didn’t attend this whiz-bang lecture… #internetfamous #youmissedit #rootbeerfloats
thx boss!
James
(from Friends of Somerville Public Library
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfTheSomervillePublicLibrary)