literacy connections "hot spots"

Literacy Connections is the new group/committee that has formed in Rowan County.  The primary purpose of this committee is to develop “Hot Spots” – free Wi-Fi locations run by volunteers where school kids can go to work on homework.  The goal of the school system is to have 100 hot spots set up throughout the county.  Jennifer, Jane, and Melissa are on this committee.

Please periodically visit www.rowanhotspot.com .  Although no “hot spots” are listed to date, there are at least 34 in development.  This is the website you would refer parents & students to when they ask about where the hot spots are.  The website itself is in development as are many of the procedures and policies about setting up a hot spot.

If a student has trouble logging into their school account, they will need to contact their school media coordinator or teacher.  “PowerSchool #” is the unique number assigned to each student that they use to log in to their school account and school library.  There might be some confusion among students as some of the documentation says they can login to “the library” – not making the distinction between the school system libraries and the public library.

We do not have any way to assist students who have forgotten their PowerSchool # or password as this is run through the school system.

resource of the week: data resources

Check out the following FREE resources to help you make the most of available data on a budget:

CTCC - http://ow.ly/xmHCT
FactFinder.gov - http://ow.ly/xpzzW
Melissa Data Lookups - http://ow.ly/xpxoY
Website-Watcher - http://aignes.com

As featured in "More Data for your Dollar" in the June 15, 2014 edition of Library Journal.

resource of the week: NC211.org

Help when you need it most!  Dial 2-1-1 or visit NC211.org to connect with a network of over 18,000 resources in North Carolina including:

- Food Pantries
- Smoking/Tobacco Cessation Resources
- Holiday Assistance

The first step in finding help is knowing who to call. 9-1-1 is for emergencies, 4-1-1 is for directory assistance and 2-1-1 is for finding community health and human service resources.  Thanks so much to Pam Bloom for sharing this excellent resource!

new overdrive app

OverDrive is pleased to announce a new app for Android, iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod touch), and Windows 8 is here!

This update features the long-awaited elimination of the Adobe Authorization step from the app installation process—one of your most frequently requested enhancements! We expect this change will significantly reduce library support questions and provide excellent benefits to users like syncing reading progress across multiple devices and saving libraries and common searches.

First-time users will now be prompted to create an OverDrive account. There is no change for existing users who already have an Adobe ID or OverDrive account associated with their OverDrive app, even after they update to the newest version.

Users under the age of 13 can anonymously authorize the OverDrive app without creating an OverDrive account.

OverDrive v3.2 also includes the following updates:

*The app name has been shortened from "OverDrive Media Console" to "OverDrive." To support the new name, the app website has moved to http://app.overdrive.com.

*Users will be able to return Open EPUB titles before the end of their lending period. All formats that the app supports can now be returned before expiration.

OverDrive Help articles and videos have been updated to reflect the updates in OverDrive v3.2.

We hope you enjoy the new experience.

resource of the week: North Carolina Literary Map

Want to learn more about the lives and creative work of authors to real (and imaginary) geographic locations?  Look no further than the North Carolina Literary Map, a searchable and browseable data-driven online map where users are able to access a database, learning tools, and cultural resources to deepen their understanding of specific authors as well as the cultural space that shaped these literary works.  (Thanks to Gretchen for suggesting sharing this on the blog!)

free webinars from ProQuest

ProQuest has updated their calendar of scheduled webinars, available here: http://prq.st/1tNUtOo  

These webinars are aimed at all library staff and are intended to help library staff become familiar with these new resources, which will become available from NCLive in the new year.

Can't make it to a live webinar?  You can watch webinar recordings, available at the bottom of this page: http://prq.st/1tNUtOo. Scroll down below all of the live events to the "Event Recordings" section. 

Questions?  Please don't hesitate to contact the NC LIVE Help Desk.

free computer basics class for spanish speakers

Sharing a cool announcement in today’s blog post from DigitalLearn.org, a PLA initiative -

Our first Spanish class is now officially up on our site. “Primeros Pasos En El Equipo” is a computer basics class that teaches the learner how to use a ratón (mouse) and the teclado (keyboard).  Great for Spanish-speaking English Language Learners who have never used a computer before and need an explanation on the different parts of the computer. 

To view the class, click here.

Here’s the full blog post with information about upcoming webinars and shared resources for teaching and learning digital literacy skills: http://eepurl.com/0PyaH

improvements to Overdrive

Here are the highlights of some updates to Overdrive (used to access NCDigital Library):

Suspend a Hold
This feature will allow users to temporarily suspend a hold in the waiting list. The user’s position will continue to advance in the queue while their hold is suspended, but the hold will not be filled. After the suspension ends, the title will continue to advance until the hold becomes available. If a user advances to the first position in the waiting list while the hold is suspended, the system will skip ahead to fill the next available hold.

Hold Auto-Checkout
At the time a user places a hold, the option to ‘auto-checkout’ the title when it becomes available can be set. Users who elect this option will receive a notification when their title is available confirming that it has been checked out and can be found on their account bookshelf. Users who do not select this option will follow the current hold notification process.

Users who select this option but are unable to borrow the title at the time it becomes available (because they have already reached their maximum checkout limit, for example) will be sent the current hold notification email and will have the full hold pickup period to make their checkout.

Maturity Settings
Two options will be added to the Account Settings page that will allow users to customize their browsing and discovery experience based on content maturity level:

1.  The ability to exclude certain content based on the maturity level (Juvenile, YA, General, Adult). This will allow adult users to exclude titles for younger readers and young readers to exclude adult-only titles from their experience.

More information how to use this setting is available in this Help article: http://help.overdrive.com/customer/portal/articles/1492447.

2.  The option to “mask” all adult cover images with a basic cover image. This option will be set to “No” by default. Libraries who would like to mask adult cover images for all users by default can request to do so.

Example of basic cover:

“Recommended for you” collection
After a user signs in, a collection of recommended titles will appear on the homepage. Recommended titles will be available for checkout and suggested based on titles the user currently has checked out or on hold. If a user does not have any checkouts or holds, this collection will not appear.

“And” Boolean Searching
Based on partner feedback to improve search results, default search behavior will change from “OR” to “AND.” Following this change, the number of results returned for a search will likely be lower than with the current behavior, but this change will meaningfully improve the relevancy of the results. 

big changes from NCLIVE

Every three years, NC LIVE begins the process of reviewing and selecting the digital content that will make up the consortium's content offerings for its upcoming three-year period. The current three-year cycle will end on December 31, 2014, with new agreements in place beginning Jan. 1, 2015-Dec. 31, 2017.

New resources will be implemented no later than January 1, 2015. In many cases, vendors will make their content available to libraries earlier, in order to allow library staff time to prepare for the upcoming changes. 

2015-17 Resource Selection Information
To help libraries prepare for changes to their offerings, NC LIVE staff have compiled the following information. This page will be updated frequently as agreements are signed and as we receive new information from vendors.

To learn more about these changes, check out the current list of titles for 2015.

resource of the week: rccc's sbc

The Small Business Center at RCCC offers courses and seminars that are free and open to the public.  Topics include anything from the basics of starting your own business to creating your image and branding.  Seminars are offered at RCCC's North Campus (Salisbury), the Gateway Building (Salisbury), RCCC @ NC Research Campus (Kannapolis), and Cabarrus Business & Technology Center (Concord).  For more information about upcoming offerings, visit www.rccc.edu/sbc.  This is an EXCELLENT resource to share with patrons who are interested in starting a small business, or wanting to improve an existing one.

resource of the week: free Microsoft ebooks

Eric Ligman of Microsoft shares access to free Microsoft step-by-steps, resource guides and ebooks (almost 300 total) on his blog.  Ebooks are available in PDF, ePUB, and MOBI formats.