Solar-Powered eBook Readers

Heard of the Kindle or Nook? If you are a gadget fan, but want something a little more “green” then check out the eBook Readers below!

• The “Snippy”
• LG’s Solar-Powered eBook Reader

CADL has over 1,800 eBooks available for free, in addition to over 4,000 downloadable audiobooks. See our page on eMedia downloads for a list of eBook Readers that are compatible with our eBook collection, and you can find a list of compatible mp3 players for our audiobooks on that page as well.

Fun for the day!

Have you ever wondered how information over the Internet gets from place to place? How about traveling over the oceans? Well, take a look at this “history” of a bit of information as it travels. http://www.wired.com/magazine/ff_internetplaces/

January and February Computer Classes

The new computer class schedule for the Downtown library branch is on the website. Please go to our website at www.cadl.org and click on the Events Calendar link on the left-side menu. Under the catagory “Event Type,” click on Tech Corner. You will see a list of all the computer classes offered by the Capital Area District Library. You can use the filter selections on the left-side menu to limit your search.

How to Find Jobs Using the Michigan Talent Bank Website | CADLtech Videos

The Michigan Talent Bank is a free resource, available 24 hours a day online, which is valuable for both employers and job seekers. Employers can use the Michigan Talent Bank to connect with and attract employees, and job seekers can use it to search for jobs, post resumes, and create an account to manage applications.

Suggested Search Terms (mentioned in video above)

 

sales
medical
full time
part time
management

Other Jobs Sources:

CADL Job Seekers page (www.cadl.org/news/jobseekers)

• A portal developed by the Capital Area District Library to connect patrons with other jobs and career resources.

Michigan Jobs & Career Portal (www.michigan.gov/careers)

• The Michigan Jobs & Career Portal helps you access job listings, educational resources, support services, and so much more.

Michigan Helping Hand website (www.michigan.gov/helpinghand)

• Another site developed by the state of Michigan to connect Michiganders in need with a variety of resources. Everything from job listings to information regarding how to weatherize your home can be found at the Helping Hand site.

Keep Michigan Working website (www.michigan.gov/jobs)

• Information regarding jobs, job training, personal finance, networking, and Michigan Careers in Transition (MCIT).

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)

• A free social networking site designed specifically for online career networking. This is a great way to make your resume accessible to a wide variety of people.

No Worker Left Behind (www.michigan.gov/nwlb)

• Created by Gov. Granholm, NWLB is designed to help those transitioning to new careers. It is designed to help Michiganders find education and training to gain the skills needed for new careers.

Michigan Works (www.michiganworks.org)

• Michigan Works was created in the 1980s to encourage the development of high-quality training programs in the state of Michigan. Today, many turn to Michigan Works for assistance in finding employment as well as job training.

Resume-help.org (www.resume-help.org)

• Resume-help.org offers its visitors example resumes, resume writing services, and resume writing tips, as well as information on writing cover letters and finding a job.

The Michigan eLibrary’s Jobs & Careers page (www.tinyurl.com/meljobs)

• The MeL.org Jobs & Careers page aggregates several sources of information regarding unemployment, internships, education, and finding jobs. There is also information regarding cover letter and resume writing.

CADL Job Hunting Guide (www.cadl.org/answers/research-tools/cadl-job-hunting-guide)

• The Capital Area District Library’s Job Hunting Guide offers resources on job hunting, resumes, interviewing and more.

Other CADL Videos (www.youtube.com/cadlvideos)

Michigan.gov Jobs and Career Portal Site Guide | CADLtech Videos

Using the Michigan.gov Helping Hand Website | CADLtech Videos

Turning the Pages Online

You’ll need a flash player to view these, but if you’ve ever needed an excuse to download the plugin, here it is. According to the Turning the Pages Online website:

Using touchscreen technology and animation software, the digitized images of rare and beautiful historic books in the biomedical sciences are offered at kiosks at the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Visitors may ‘touch and turn’ these pages in a highly realistic way. They can zoom in on the pages for more detail, read or listen to explanations of the text, and (in some cases) access additional information on the books in the form of curators’ notes.

Now we offer Turning The Pages for the enjoyment of home users with an Internet connection. This Web version has been created via Macromedia Flash MX.

Initially only available in kiosks located in the National Library of Medicine’s Visitors Center and the History of Medicine Division, the Turing The Pages (TTP) technology is now available online. TTP Online is only available, however, for six titles so far. The project has been in development since 2001.

If you’ve only got a few seconds, it’s worth your time to turn the pages on Robert Hooke’s Micrographia. You can do more than turn from page 1 to 2 with this title. You’re able to fold out the oversize pages for a full view. Awesome.

Additional Reading:

• http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp.php
• see body hyperlinks for other sites of interest

Snow Leopards and the Lucky # 7

As you may have heard, both Microsoft and Apple released new versions of their operating systems this Fall.  Apple let the cat out of the bag with Snow Leopard, an update to the ever popular Mac OS X system.  Several weeks later Microsoft released Windows 7 in the hopes of reversing their stream of bad publicity following the release of Windows Vista.  Like many of our patrons, you may be wondering what this all means to you.  If you are looking for a new computer or are thinking about upgrading your old operating system to one of these new systems, CADL may have some of the resources that you have been looking for. 

CADL already has the following Windows 7 books in our collection and has some more on order.  For Snow Leopard, we currently have the Mac OS X Snow Leopard bible . 

And if that’s not enough, be sure to check out these articles on cnet.com and pcmag.com.

Line Spacing in Word 2007

In a previous post, we outlined a method for achieving single line spacing in Word 2007, but here’s another method.

One of the changes made to Word in Microsoft Office 2007 was to the default line spacing (single-spacing, double-spacing, etc.). In simple terms, there is now automatically more space between lines and paragraphs in Word documents. In my experience at the CADL Computer Center, this isn’t what our patrons want to use. Many people I have worked with ask for assistance in changing the line and paragraph spacing to single spacing. You may begin by either following these steps before entering any text into your document, or you many highlight all of the text in your document (also known as “select all”) if you are formatting line spacing after writing your document.

• Select the “line spacing” icon in the “paragraphs” area of the Home tab in Word 2007.

 (a closeup of the line spacing icon)

• Left-click on the line spacing icon. Select “line spacing options” from the menu that appears.

• A new window appears on your screen. Click the downward-facing arrow under “Line Spacing:”.  Select “Single” from the options provided. Then, click the downward-facing arrow next to “After:” until the number in the box reads “0 pt.” In the image below, the “After:” box reads 10 pt, which is the Word 2007 default setting.

• Your window should look like this if you made the correct changes.

 

• Now your document is formatted with single line and paragraph spacing.

For further information on Word 2007 line spacing, see the Microsoft Support artice on this subject: “Default line spacing and default paragraph spacing in Word 2007 differ from the default spacing in earlier versions of Word“

Create your resume in Word, make it a PDF

These days, many job applications require that your resume and cover letter be emailed or uploaded in PDF format. PDF stands for Portable Document Format; this type of document is widely requested because it maintains its appearance both on-screen (of nearly any computer) and in print.
Software for creating PDFs can be pricey, filled with more functions than the average job applicant will ever need. An easier, cheaper alternative to buying PDF creating software is saving a Word 2007 document as a PDF. (If you want to know a little more about PDF creating software, you can read a previous post.)

Once you have checked your Word document for errors – making sure everything is spelled correctly, the formatting is the way you want it, all the contact numbers are correct – you can create the PDF. The steps are simple.

1. If you have not saved your document at all, you should first save it as a Word document, because Word documents are editable, while PDF documents generally are  not. (If you have saved your document, you can skip to step 2.) To save your document as a Word file, click on the Office 2007 button and hover your mouse over “Save As” in the drop-down menu that appears. Choose “Word Document” from the side menu by clicking on it. You will be asked to give your document a name. Do so, then click on “Save”.

Click on Office button and roll over Save As

2. Once you have saved your document as a Word file, you can save it as a PDF. Click on the Office 2007 button and hover your mouse over “Save As” in the drop-down menu that appears.

3. Choose “PDF or XPS” from the side menu.

4. Name your document as you normally would, then click “Publish”. 

That’s it! You now have a copy of your document in PDF format! It is ready to be sent as an email attachment or uploaded to an online application. Note that you cannot make changes to your PDF file, so if you want to make changes to your resume, you must do so in the Word format of your document, then repeat the steps for saving as a PDF.