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Web Worker Daily has posted a helpful guide to 10 steps you can take to Be Your Own Tech Support. These are all very good tips. And I’ll add a couple of quick ones to the list which deal with problems that I am often emailed about by my students:
If you’re on the Web and are having trouble with a Web site, or a Web form, try switching browsers before determining that it’s “broken”…some sites just work better with Firefox vs. IE, etc. Also, make sure you have the latest version of your browsers installed.
If you’re in your library and can’t view a website or video, the link may not be broken but may be blocked by your systems office…try it again when you get home.
And I can’t agree more with Meryl’s sixth suggestion which is “Search the web for a solution” – I have found nearly all my troubleshooting answers this way. There is a wealth of information posted in forums, message boards, and help sites and I’ve found more often than not that I’m not the first person experiencing the problem. If you can’t find the answer this way, I’d also suggest finding an appropriate forum and posing a question. I’ve received tons of advice, code snippets, and resolutions from helpful people who have responded to my queries.
Got a troubleshooting tip to add? Please share it in the comments!
Kevin Muldoon from Blog Themes Club has created a mega-list of 101 Great Blogs You Should Be Subscribing To for BloggingTips. If you’re always on the lookout for new quality blogs to subscribe to, as am I, you’ll want to check out this giant list. The list is organized into the following categories:
On October 2nd, Educause will offer a free live Web seminar Emerging Technologies in Higher Education: Big School Solutions to Small School Problems. Presenter John O’Keefe, Director of Academic Technologies and Network Services at Lafayette College will discuss “major developments over the past five years (from Shibboleth to Internet2 to MPLS to iTunes U) that can help smaller schools both address and transform their technology needs.”
This new video about the changing media landscape was developed for the Media Convergence Forum in partnership with The Economist and provides some interesting statistics including:
The average American teen sends 2,272 texts per month.
“Libraries are attempting to face a future in which almost every fixed point has disappeared. Users are changing; content is changing; research is taking new forms. Indeed the very need for libraries is being questioned in some quarters. This paper explores the nature of the changes and challenges facing higher education libraries and suggests key areas of strength and core activities which should be exploited to secure their future.”
Steven Bell at ACRLog posts A Dozen Newspaper Survival Tips For Academic Librarians. This useful guide includes 12 recommendations of ways academic libraries can evolve and thrive in the Internet Age. Here are his top five:
Educause has published a quick guide to 7 things you should know about Federated Identity Management. This helpful guide provides info about enterprise identity management systems which enable users to sign into multiple resources, ie. email, learning management systems, library databases, etc. with a single digital identity. The brief answers the following questions:
Josh Catone at Mashable lists the Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. Libraries and other organizations who are interested in improving their blogs will want to check out this helpful post. Here are his 5 pitfalls to avoid:
Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics has created this excellent video presenting loads of statistics and information about the Social Media Revolution.
If you’re considering creating a social media policy for your company or organization, you’ll want to check out the Online Database of Social Media Policies. This excellent resource was created by Chris Boudreaux, author of the upcoming book Social Media Governance. And Pete Cashmore from Mashable rounds up several articles on how to write your own policy.
Kelly D. Allen writes about How Your Library May Not Be Using Twitter But Should. This useful post discusses several tweet styles to provide libraries with inspiration for making the most of their Twitter efforts.
Tweet Style 1, or “The Average Library Tweet”
Tweet Style 1b, or “Uhm, Ya Know You Can Be a Little Creative Though, Right?”
Tweet Style 2, or “Promote Some Materials”
Tweet Style 3, or “Promote Things As They Happen”
Tweet Style 4, or “It Doesn’t Have to Require a Library Visit”
Samuel Eyitayo at LIPs Common Concerns blog has compiled a list of 10 FREE Google’s Custom Search Engines for Librarians. Each of these niche search engines look interesting and many relevant to the LIS field. Here are his top five:
Webdesigner Depot has published a mega-guide to making the most of the WordPress blogging platform. Whether you’re just starting out or a regular user you won’t want to miss this huge list of 300+ Resources to Help You Become a WordPress Expert in the following categories:
Theme Roundups, Theme Templates, and Theme Frameworks
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