eReader Comparison Chart Fall 2012

With the unveiling of Amazon's new line of Kindles, we've updated our eReader Comparison Chart. You can view it below or download the PDF from our website! Enjoy!

Download the PDF guide here

If you have any questions, you can always call us up, or attend one of our eReaders made Easy programs! The next one is Friday, October 12th, 2012 from 11am-12pm at the library!

Free iPad Apps for School

- Wunderlust

This is a highly-rated, free task manager app which will keep you organized
through task lists that you can share, add deadlines to, prioritize, and personalize.

- Dragon Dictation

Record your lecture notes with this free voice recognition
application powered by Dragon Naturally Speaking. You can
instantly see your text, and even dictate status messages
directly to Facebook and Twitter.

- Evernote

Take and organize all of your notes and sync them across all

of your computers and devices with Evernote.

Share notes with Facebook and Twitter friends.

- Dropbox

Store and share all your files in the cloud with the Dropbox iPad

app. Upload photos, docs, videos, and other file types for

convenient online access wherever you are.

Dropbox will sync your files with all your devices.

- Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

Search the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary through text or

voice search. This excellent app also includes an integrated thesaurus.

- Nightstand Central

Wake up on time for your classes with this free alarm clock app.

Also includes current weather info.

- Khan Academy

This amazing, free app offers over 3,200 educational videos on

nearly every topic. Subjects include K-12 math, science topics

such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and the humanities

with playlists on finance and history.

- Course Smart eTextbooks

Access and rent over 90% of all textbooks through

CourseSmart’s eTextbooks for iPad. Add notes to your books,

skim thumbnails or full pages, and scan for tables, graphs, and charts.

- InClass

This handy free app will help you keep track of all your

courses, tasks, and homework. Take video notes, audio

notes, photo notes.

Ways to Get Email Under Control

The average person gets more than one hundred emails per day. The bad news is it’s not getting better.

The number of emails you receive will continue to grow every year. So what, if anything, can you do to get a grip on this email avalanche? Start with these five tips.

1. Set a Time Limit

According to a recent McKinsey Global Institute report, people spent 28% of their time writing, reading, and answering email. Most of it is unproductive because email is reactive by nature. The inherent gamification of clearing your inbox provides a brief feeling of accomplishment. But unless you’re doing customer support, your job description probably doesn’t include “respond to every email.”

Answering email is just one part of work. That’s why you should determine how much time you want to spend in your inbox on a given day, and don’t exceed it. One suggestion is to dedicate 15-minute blocks every two hours to staying on top of email without letting it take over your day.

2. Know Your Etiquette

If you haven’t read the Email Charter, you are probably pissing off a lot of people. The average time it takes to respond to an email is greater than the time it took to create it. So every hour you spend writing emails is double for your recipients. The Email Charter lists ten specific tips everyone should follow to avoid this collective downward spiral. The core underlying principle of the Charter is “respect recipient’s time.”

3. Prioritize

Most email clients and web mail UI’s give each email the same amount of real estate on the screen. Flags, stars, and other prioritization signals help, but it’s hard for our brain to discriminate. This creates a tendency to give each email the same amount of attention upfront.

In reality, not all emails are created equal. Some need to be read and responded to right away. Others should be archived or deleted in bulk. Keep in mind that in a few years you’ll get even more email than you do now. Since there will still be only twenty four hours in a day, the bar for emails that deserve your full attention will need to be higher.

4. Don’t Signup for Junk

This is an easy one. When signing up for a new web service, opt out of “updates.” When given an option to get a real time, daily, or weekly summary of any kind, choose the least frequent option. Also, stop signing up for newsletters you’re never going to read.

However, be careful when unsubscribing or marking emails as spam. Unsubscribing is only as reliable as the sender’s integrity. You may also be exposing yourself as a real person to a spammer, who will sell your address to someone else. On the other hand, marking a legitimate email you subscribed to as spam is bad karma. It could impact the sender’s standing with email services.

5. Don’t Open Mail Twice

The key principle is to never open the same email twice. As you open each email, you give yourself only five options: delete/archive, delegate, respond (if you can do it in under two minutes), defer, or do. This process keeps you from wasting time by re-reading the same information.

Although many suggest that email should be reinvented, it’s not going to happen any time soon. According to Andrew McAffee, whatever solution replaces email would have to be not just better than email, but ten times better. He argues that people are typically so averse to change that they overvalue current solutions by three times and undervalue proposed substitutes by three times.

But even if email is replaced by another communication protocol that replacement will continue to be ruled by the same principle of scarcity of time. That’s why overcoming the bad behaviors that are created by email overload are key.

Ten Tips for Job Seekers in the Digital Age

1. Research, Research, Research

A likely first question any interviewer will ask is, “what does our company do?”
This seems like an obvious one, but you’d be surprised at the number of
people that have no clue. If you’re not prepared to discuss the company,
they probably don’t want you.

Take the time to know the company inside and out. Research what they
do, follow their social-media pages, and understand the industry and
the competitors. Basically, have the company’s elevator pitch down
pat. To be safe, practice it on a friend.

2. Connect Before the Interview

As you’re researching the company on their social media pages make
sure to like some of their posts, leave a comment or two, and re-tweet
what you find interesting. The reality is that you never know who might
be watching. Many recruiters prefer finding talent via Facebook and
LinkedIn rather than through a job site like Monster.

Does the company sponsor or organize any events? If so, show up
at some of them and meet the representatives from the company.
They can serve as a good “in” to the people who are hiring.
|If possible, connect with this person on LinkedIn afterwards.

3. Build Your Social Presence

Are you popular in the social sphere? Do you blog, Yelp,
and have a ton of friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter?
If so, great. You want to continue to build your social presence.
If you haven’t flexed your social muscles yet, then you better get going!
This is a critical way that recruiters assess how passionate you are about digital.

4. Be Prepared

Find out how the interview will be structured and plan accordingly.
Determine who your interviewers will be, find out as much about
them as possible, and then impress them with your knowledge.

Also, make sure you ask questions. Questions that haven’t been
thought through very well leave a bad impression. Write questions
down ahead of time and be precise, but don’t overdo it.

Another big item is the company’s dress code. Check out their Facebook
page, look for photos in the news. People want to see how you assimilate
into a culture. That said, always dress one step up from the code.

5. Arrive Early

Arrive at least fifteen minutes ahead of the scheduled start time. The
interviewers are scheduling their days around you so be ready to go.
If you are going to be late, it better be for an excellent reason.
Call and let the person who is waiting for you know.

6. Be Flexible

Don’t bring up money in the first interview. It positions you poorly.
Acknowledge that you appreciate being trained and will be a strong
asset in the future. Remember that it’s not about what you get paid
the first day. It’s what you end up getting paid the first year.

That being said, if the company really likes you then money might
come up so be prepared with a realistic number. There are some
good sites that offer salary estimates. Feel free to take those into
consideration, but not as the final word.

7. Don’t Pigeonhole Yourself

Companies want people with diverse interests. If you like to work in
different areas, let that be known and don’t pigeonhole yourself into
one department. Also, don’t feel shy about sharing your hobbies and
interests. Varying interests bring character and color to a company’s culture.

8. Think Career, Not a Job

Make it clear you’re interested in a career, and not just a job.
Ask what you can expect over the next ninety days, and communicate
what exactly you’ll be bringing to the table. But don’t communicate that
in blanket statements like, “I’m good at sales” or “I like to take initiative.”

Instead, if you’re good at sales say, “In one year I closed five new
accounts and grew three existing ones, resulting in $300,000 in new
business.” Or, if you’re a go-getter, describe a problem you helped solve
and the result. Show your real impact and potential by talking about
accomplishments in your career.

9. Keep the Details in Mind

Keep these small, but important, details in mind when interviewing:
Shut your phone off, don’t chew gum, sit up straight, don’t say
“yeah” or “like” or “you know,” don’t talk over the interviewer, maintain
eye contact, and don’t tell the interviewer about where else you’re interviewing.

At the end always go for the close and ask about next steps.

10. Follow Up and Maintain Contact

After the interview, make sure to get everyone’s business card and
send a thank-you email that day. Then check in every now and then
with your main contact to see how the process is moving along.

If you don’t get the position, that’s OK, too. Learn from the experience,
improve your talking points, and keep up positive communication with the
company. Maybe they found someone with more experience, but that
doesn’t mean another position won’t open up in a few months that you’re
perfect for, and because you remained in contact, they might call you
up for that job instead.

Media on Demand's New Website

Screenshot of new Website

  

If you haven't been to our eBook site lately, you'll be in for a surprise! The Media on Demand consortium has recently given the website a new look. With it's cool blues and shady greys, it's easy on the eyes. But that's not all - you'll notice the organization of the website is a little more clearer as well.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

The big change that everybody should note comes into how you log into Media on Demand. The previous method included choosing your library from a drop down menu, clicking a link to go to another site, and then logging in with your library card number and using your last name as your password. It has changed. The first change is that you do not have to click to go to a new site and log in. The second is that you log in with your SWAN Online Catalog pin number (instead of your last name).

If you have any problems logging in - please call us and we'll help you out!

What do you think about the new changes?

Richton Park Public Library District Introduces Travel 2.0

Have you ever needed a GPS unit when you were going on vacation or on a road
trip but didn't have one? Did you ever want to record your vacation or family
reunion but didn't have a digital camcorder?

The Richton Park Public Library District introduces Travel 2.0. GPS units, Flip
MinoHD camcorders, digital cameras, and LeapFrog LeapPad are now
available for checkout. Other items coming soon.

Important Information:

Must be a Richton Park Library Card Holder;

Must be 18 yrs. old or older;

First come, first serve---No reserves;

1 kit type per household;

$1.00 per day late fee if overdue;

1 week checkout for $5.00*

(Checkout time may be extend up to 3 weeks with additional charge.)

*No charge for the LeapFrog LeapPad.

Additional information available at the Circulation Desk

YouTube Becoming Increasingly Vital Platform for News

I was reading this article on Mashable and thought it was interesting enough to repost it on our blog.

by Lauren Indvik

For many, YouTube is a beloved repository for humorous content, how-tos and general entertainment. However, YouTube is increasingly becoming a platform for news.

For four months between January 2011 to March 2012, the most searched-for terms on YouTube were related to news events, according to a Pew Research Center report released Monday.

The most popular videos on the web’s third most-visited site concerned natural disasters or political upheaval since videos with “intense visuals” tend to perform best, says Pew. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami was the most popular news event on the video network: In the week following the disaster (March 11 to 18), the 20 most-viewed videos related to the tragedy were viewed more than 96 million times.

The elections in Russia and unrest in the Middle East were the second and third most popular news topics, respectively. If the focus on international events seems unusual, remember that 70% of YouTube’s traffic comes from outside the U.S.

The footage itself was mixed — 58% of those included in the survey were edited; the remaining 42% was raw footage. Unlike much of the rest of the YouTube, personalities did not play a large role in a video’s success; no one person was featured in more than 5% of the most popular videos in the “News & Politics” section of YouTube between January 2011 and March 2012. Length, too, varied. The median video length was 2 minutes and 1 second, far longer than the average segment on local TV news, which is 41 seconds, and shorter than the 2-minute-and-23-second average national network evening newscasts allocate to a single story.

Both citizens and professionals are playing a role in video creation and distribution. A little more than half (51%) came from news organizations — or, at least, bore the logos of news organizations. Thirty-nine percent of the most-viewed videos came from citizens. Five percent came from corporate and political groups, and the sources of the remaining five percent could not be identified.

In many cases, the videos and their distribution were collaborative. As Pew notes, “a complex, symbiotic relationship has developed between citizens and news organizations on YouTube, a relationship that comes close to the continuous journalistic ‘dialogue’ many observers predicted would become the new journalism online.” Citizens are creating and posting their own videos, and even responsible for uploading more than a third of the content from news organizations. News organizations, in turn, are including citizen-produced content in their own reporting. The interplay, Pew observes, is creating a new kind of television news.

The collaboration is promising, but issues still exist. Although YouTube has guidelines for content attribution, not everyone adheres to them, nor do they offer a solution for every scenario. News organizations sometimes post citizen-captured video without clear attribution; in turn, citizens are repurposing copyrighted material without permission. All too often, the source of a video cannot be identified altogether, creating opportunity for manufactured or even falsified information to spread.

What’s perhaps most interesting about news-watching on YouTube is the way it enables consumers to set their own “on-demand” news agenda. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami registered among the most-viewed news subjects for three consecutive weeks following the disaster, for example.

And what does that mean for news organizations? Lots of positives, says Pew. YouTube offers considerable opportunities to grow one’s audience, brand and ad revenue — a thing perhaps best exemplified by YouTube’s revenue-sharing scheme with the newswire Reuters. It’s also a rich source for raw video footage.

For a deeper dive into the findings, see Pew’s full report here.