TechBits

Bye-bye Office clip art — hello fine print

Have you heard? Office.com Clip Art and image library is gone. You may still find clip art on your computer bundled with a legacy version of Microsoft Office, but photos now appear courtesy of Bing Image Search. Great? Hmmm...

The truth is, when you select Insert > Clip Art in Word or Power Point and search including Office.com content, the results match a Bing.com search for images that are "Free to share and use commercially." Many are from websites with blanket Creative Commons (CC) licenses, which (in practice) may include copyrighted images that are not covered by the CC license at all. Bing supplies the images based on the assumption that everyone on the Internet understands and complies with copyright law. (Ho, ho, ho! Let's all have a hearty laugh about that.)

Now, wipe away those tears. There are still plenty of ways to find clip art and photos (including Bing, if you like) if you do your due diligence. Look for a license and follow what it says (including attribution if required). When in doubt, make an educated judgment, request permission, or simply find a different image. Merry image searching to all, and to all a good night!

Browser-Based Audiobooks - Coming Soon!

First there was OverDrive READ - browser-based books and then streaming video in Wisconsin's Digital Library. Now, there's browser-based audiobooks!

What does that mean for you or your patrons? They no longer have to download the OverDrive app for audiobooks, they can listen instantly in their browser. Check out their blog post for a movie-like trailer about this coming feature. This is the first I've heard of this new feature so after I try it out, I'll let you know more.

And, here's a special treat for you. Jane Henze from DeForest Area Public Library sent me this fun, slightly dizzying, video of the New York Public Library sorting center as filmed by Nate Bolt with a Drone. Thanks Jane!

 

Enjoy and have a great holiday season!

 

My cat knows the shortcut

Smart kitty!

My cat sat on my keyboard the other day. That's not unusual. What was unusual was that she did it in such a way that she brought up all the Gmail shortcuts on-screen. Smart kitty!

Here's her secret (I had to look it up on Google in order to figure it out!):

Pressing ?  (shift + the key with the question mark) in the Google programs like Gmail, Calendar, and Drive will bring up all the keyboard shortcuts.

Chrome Doesn't Trust Your Website Anymore, How to Still Get to It

Recently, Google has released a new version of Chrome that no longer trusts certain secure websites in a move to encourage those sites to switch to a different, more secure, security system.  That's all well and good, except that about 80-85% of the World Wide Web still uses the old, but still good, system to secure people's connections to their websites.

When encountering these sites, you may now be presented with screens that look something like this:

Looks scary, right? However, receiving this message doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't trust the site. Also, it may not look obvious, but you can still reach the site you're trying to get to by clicking the "Advanced" link in the bottom-left, then clicking "Proceed to <website name>..."

I can't tell you which websites you can and can't trust. Every time you browse the internet there's a little bit of risk involved. Simply use your best judgement.

Remove Addresses from Office 365 Autocomplete

The purpose of this TechBit is to show how to remove a single contact from the Office 365 Autocomplete feature.  This procedure will become very useful when the SCLS-hosted Email Lists are retired and we switch over to a similar service provided by WiscNet.

1. Click New Mail.
2. Click in the To: field.
3. Begin typing the first few characters of the contact.  (This could be a person's email address, a person's name or a list email address.)
4. In the resulting list, use the Up and Down arrow keys to highlight the entry you'd like to remove.
5. Press the Delete key to remove the highlighted contact.

These instructions also appear on the Office 365 FAQ page.  The HWDSB (Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board) has a decent video that may help as well. Thanks to Kerri of SCLS for the TechBit topic idea.

Procrastination and Gmail

If you are like me, you may be procrastinating a bit on updating your email contacts following the switch to Office 365. Remember, we are retiring the @scls.lib.wi.us email in January and we need to notify our contacts of our new email.

I am a gmail user, so I thought I would share what I am doing to identify emails coming to my @scls.lib.wi.us email address. 

• I created a Label called “Old email”
• I then created a filter that will add the “Old email” label to any email that is sent directly to my old @scls.lib.wi.us email address.  (See directions below).
• The emails still go to my In box and are not archived right away. I was worried that if I archived them, I would miss important emails.

(The image above is from http://www.online-stopwatch.com/christmas/elf-race/)

Here is a screen shot of my “In box” this morning.

Here is what I do:

• Spam. Much of what is currently going to my old email are spam emails (Ringing In Ears, Leading Edge Alzheimer’s). I can just delete those.
• Vendors. There are emails from vendors (ProQuest, FireEye, Spiceworks). Do I want to stay on their list? I can’t decide yet, so I archive these.
• People. Most of the people I deal with on a regular basis are already using my new email address, but if someone isn’t, I reply directly and let them know of my new address.
• Misc. Others I am not sure about. I get the Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 email from way back in the old days when I used to update the LINKcat Best Sellers list. I don’t need this anymore, but do I want it? Is it worth re-subscribing? I can’t decide yet, so I archive it.
• Email lists.  The one thing this filter does not seem to catch is my subscriptions to email lists. I need to apply the Old email label to these and then I archive them so that I can follow up on them later. I have created a spreadsheet to track which ones I have updated.

Remember to Resolve The Archived Emails

Once you have archived your emails to fix, you can’t just forget about them! Here is a snapshot of my Old Emails folder.

 

I have some work to do. Hmmm. It looks like I have not updated my TechBits subscription. Uh oh.

Creating a Filter

• Go to Settings/Filters/Create a new filter
• On the first screen, put your old email address in the To box.

  

• Click <Create filter with this search>
• On the next screen, check the Apply label box and select your “Old email” filter.
• Click <Create filter>

 

 

More library tech blogs

A few years ago, I shared 6 Library Tech Blogs I Love. There are so many good ones, I'd like to share a few more blogs and sites I read regularly:

Wisconsin library system blogs

1. Library Sparks (Winnefox) - Where The Ides has a tech focus (and a recipe archive!), Library Sparks includes ideas from around the system & around the country, on programming, fundraising, grants, free stuff, and more.
2. NicBits (NFLS) - All sorts of information from NFLS ranging from programming, notes from library tech conference sessions, news around the system, and more (This recent session summary from ARSL2014 on "Tablet Slinging Librarians" got me thinkin'!)
3. Digital Lites (WVLS) - WVLS updates, news from libraries in our area, training opportunities, helpful tips and resources, national library news and more. (Check out their "New e-reader 'cheat sheet'!" post)
4. WPLC (WiLS) - all the news about the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium and Wisconsin's Digital Library (OverDrive)!

Other library tech blogs

1. David Lee King - social web, emerging trends, and libraries
2. Digital Shift (Library Journal and School Library Journal) - all sorts of info, but my favorite section is for Library Journal Technology articles 
3. LibraryTechTalk - A blog from librarians at Towson University which focuses on practical applications of technology in many different library areas and settings
4. Makerspaces + Libraries - a Scoop.it (remember my post about Scoop.it?) topic all about library makerspaces

And finally... 

The Division for Libraries and Technology has introduced the Wisconsin Libraries Blog to replace Channel Weekly for communicating news pertaining to Wisconsin's libraries. You can sign up for email updates, or follow it using your favorite RSS reader.

Who did I miss? What should I be reading? Do you have a recommendation for a good library tech site? Please share it in the comments!