1. Yesterday, I taught my first computer class for the general public. It was quite the experience. The class was Basics I -- this includes things like the parts of a computer, how to use a mouse, and how move windows around on the screen. It truly is amazing what people do not know. I have to teach Basics II tomorrow. Basics II is comprised of saving, printing, finding programs in the Start menu, and properly shutting down the computer. Next weeks is the Email class, in which I will lead the class in signing up from a Gmail account and using the basic functions within it.
I will report back once I have been doing this a little longer.
2. I just had to shush some people again. They were really nice about it, though. I'm such a sissy when it comes to confronting people, though. I need to grow some librarian balls.
3. I got to go visit my EC library friends this morning! It was very good to see them all, and it's cool getting to talk to them more as colleagues. Definitely worth getting up earlier than usual for. :-)
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Those darn Brazilian FBI agents.
Even though it was not my shift at the reference desk, I was out at the desk talking to my boss about a couple of things. I don't remember anymore -- possibly my impending computer classes... or something to do with them.
An older man walks up and asks us if we can help him get CDs onto his iPod. Seems a normal enough question, I suppose, except for one key point. The CDs he had in his hand were ones he had borrowed from the library.
***Okay, here's my full disclosure: I personally would probably borrow a CD from the library and copy it onto my computer for listening. No, I wouldn't do that with hundreds of songs, but possibly a few.
However, as a librarian, a steward of copyright law and all that good stuff, I can't very well be ripping songs for people from library property. I explained this to the man, and he surprisingly was not upset. I say "surprisingly," because it seems like every time you tell someone they can't do something, they just get pissed about it with no regard for rules, laws, or general courtesy.
Anyway, even though he understood the reasoning behind it, the man proceeded to start talking about how no one actually monitored those sort of rules so it didn't matter if he copied anything anyway. As he put it, "those guys are probably sitting in a room in Brazil somewhere." I informed him that a friend of mine got a letter from the FBI once for pirating TV episodes. The gentleman seemed truly shocked, but not quite deterred.
Well, I still felt like I should offer the guy some help, so I decided to show him how to put CDs onto iTunes and his iPod for future non-library stealing use. He had brought his own laptop... which did not have iTunes loaded onto it, though he swore to me over and over that he put songs onto his iPod from the computer he had with him. I told him that we really need iTunes on the computer and I then downloaded it for him. But then he didn't know his Apple ID (of course), so I couldn't really help him further. Normally, I would be slightly dumbfounded and annoyed by this, but I was relieved on this occasion for getting out of showing the man how to illegally use iTunes.
As an addition to this story: While we were waiting for iTunes to download, the man asked me how it was that the library could help people put books onto e-readers, but not songs onto iPods. I explained to him that the library pays for a license to share the books with the public, and that the books do not stay on the e-readers forever. Fortunately, he understood what I was saying (because, you know, plenty of patrons look at me like I'm speaking Greek when I explain things like that), and he seemed genuinely surprised by what I told him. Apparently people think the library just has tons of free stuff that we are hoarding from the outside world... I don't know.
Oh, he also proceeded to show me several albums of pictures (stored on his computer) from Italy. Personally, I was proud of this 80-something year-old guy using his computer so efficiently.
An older man walks up and asks us if we can help him get CDs onto his iPod. Seems a normal enough question, I suppose, except for one key point. The CDs he had in his hand were ones he had borrowed from the library.
***Okay, here's my full disclosure: I personally would probably borrow a CD from the library and copy it onto my computer for listening. No, I wouldn't do that with hundreds of songs, but possibly a few.
However, as a librarian, a steward of copyright law and all that good stuff, I can't very well be ripping songs for people from library property. I explained this to the man, and he surprisingly was not upset. I say "surprisingly," because it seems like every time you tell someone they can't do something, they just get pissed about it with no regard for rules, laws, or general courtesy.
Anyway, even though he understood the reasoning behind it, the man proceeded to start talking about how no one actually monitored those sort of rules so it didn't matter if he copied anything anyway. As he put it, "those guys are probably sitting in a room in Brazil somewhere." I informed him that a friend of mine got a letter from the FBI once for pirating TV episodes. The gentleman seemed truly shocked, but not quite deterred.
Well, I still felt like I should offer the guy some help, so I decided to show him how to put CDs onto iTunes and his iPod for future non-library stealing use. He had brought his own laptop... which did not have iTunes loaded onto it, though he swore to me over and over that he put songs onto his iPod from the computer he had with him. I told him that we really need iTunes on the computer and I then downloaded it for him. But then he didn't know his Apple ID (of course), so I couldn't really help him further. Normally, I would be slightly dumbfounded and annoyed by this, but I was relieved on this occasion for getting out of showing the man how to illegally use iTunes.
As an addition to this story: While we were waiting for iTunes to download, the man asked me how it was that the library could help people put books onto e-readers, but not songs onto iPods. I explained to him that the library pays for a license to share the books with the public, and that the books do not stay on the e-readers forever. Fortunately, he understood what I was saying (because, you know, plenty of patrons look at me like I'm speaking Greek when I explain things like that), and he seemed genuinely surprised by what I told him. Apparently people think the library just has tons of free stuff that we are hoarding from the outside world... I don't know.
Oh, he also proceeded to show me several albums of pictures (stored on his computer) from Italy. Personally, I was proud of this 80-something year-old guy using his computer so efficiently.
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