BEST Beginning

Submitted by jamie on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 10:38

BTOP Team at Best ConferenceMuch of your lovely BTOP team (Crystal, Kieran, Nancy, and I) are in beautiful Breckenridge, CO today. In just an hour, the BEST (Broadband, E-rate, Sustainability, and Technology) Conference will get started. We are very excited to see so many fabulous Colorado librarians over the next couple of days and to hear from great speakers. 

If you would like to catch all the action but you were not able to join us, you can follow us and many other conference participants on twitter with the conference hashtag: #best2011.

Spotlight: Mead Public Computer Center

Submitted by crystal on Tue, 08/23/2011 - 14:46

Location: Mead Town Hall
Computers: 2
Population: 3,405
Motto: A Little Town with a Big Future

The Mead Public Computer Center is a part of the High Plains Library District. The Town of Mead is situated just northeast of Longmont and features stunning views of Longs Peak. The town is also home to the United Church of Christ Congregational of Highlandlake, which you may not know by name but might recognize from Die Hard II.

The Mead Public Computer Center opened its doors on June 6th. Located in the Town Hall, the center’s two computers are open to the public whenever the Town Hall is, which is 47.5 hours a week of access!

Carbon Valley Regional Library, a branch of the High Plains Library District has hosted a book club with the Mead seniors for over 2 years now, with members reading and discussing nearly 30 books in that time. In addition to the book club and a rotating book deposit, they are now able to expand services to include high-speed internet access and personalized computer instruction.

To learn more about the High Plains Library District Public Computer Centers, read this recent blog post about the Keenesburg Public Computer Center.

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me." - William Shakespeare

Submitted by kieran on Mon, 08/22/2011 - 11:07

First thing, go to http://www.colorado.gov/BroadbandSWF/speedtest.htm and find out the speed of your broadband.

Ever wonder what that really means?
When Internet providers and techy folk talk about Internet connections they talk about speed, which is usually measured in megabits per second (Mbps).  When folks talk about data or files, they usually talk about megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). The difference is hard to see at first, but a bit and a byte are different, as a matter of fact there are 8 bits in 1 byte.  
I know, you are thinking, “bits, Bytes, gulps - this is giving me indigestion.”


How about if we picture data first, then we can imagine it going places.

 
If you put 100 typed characters on a piece of paper (Note to the math-inclined - it takes one byte to store one character.) Then you put 100 such pieces of paper into a file folder - so each folder has 100 pieces of paper in it.  Then you put the folder in a file cabinet.  The file cabinet holds 1000 files.   There are 100 file cabinets in a room.  That is 1 GB of data.  That amount of data is slightly less than the non-HD, 1 ½hour long, 1980 feature movie, Mad Max, that you downloaded last Friday.  

Hard to picture that many filing cabinets?

Infographics coming your way!

Submitted by jamie on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 13:30

Want an attractive and visual way to communicate the Public Computer Centers project with your community, stakeholder, or staff? Want to see state-wide progress in a snapshot?

Look no further than the Infographics page. This page of the site will be the new home of visual status updates for you to view online or download and print.

The first infographic we have created highlights some of the feedback from trainings and the status of the project from Janurary through June of 2011.

Head over to the Infographics page to get a better look and keep checking back as more files will appear regularly.

 

 

 

Even More Gadgets, Resources, and Tools... Oh My!

Submitted by jamie on Thu, 08/04/2011 - 09:43

I have been hearing about creative uses for your Public Computer Centers as I have been traveling around for launches and talking with some of you on the phone (if you haven’t heard from me yet, you will soon). I have also been hearing from many libraries that they have funds left over because they were able to get good deals on their purchases and others that are just now starting to plan their procurement.

Based on this, I thought it may be a good to share how some of the libraries are using their funds to provide additional resources to support training and public use in your Public Computer Centers (PCC).

Syndicate content