Changing The Fonts and Background, Ordering Computer Books

Changing Fonts And Background

I changed the fonts and background color to make my sidebar more visible. Someone recently complained about the way my blog looked. It was not readable enough. I hope this looks much better. The links were hard to see.

Ordering Computer Books

I spent more time ordering computer books today. I spoke with the person in charge of the Cybercorner where people can sign up to use the computers for free. She told me that she thought that the Complete Idiots Guides and The For Dummies series of books were about the right speed for our library. She also mentioned that we needed a lot of very basic books on computers: email, PCs, internet, computer repair, routers, ebay, windows vista, and digital photography. There were not a whole lot of books on routers. I always try and get input from other staff members when I am doing ordering lists.

I also spent a bit of time going through the current computer books to see if there were any publishers imprints I had missed. There was a series called The Absolute Beginners Guides which covered basic issues with computing. As part of looking, I discarded a few of the computer guides.

We cannot discard a lot of the older books because of the problem of legacy computing. What happens is that some businesses keep their old software for many years and do not upgrade it. The stores stop selling the older books about computers, but the businesses still maintain the older systems. We get questions about Windows 95, SAP, Wordstar, DBase IV, and similar systems which can no longer be purchased in the bookstores. The library becomes the de facto repository for books on legacy programs.

I took a few minutes to look at PC Magazine and Computers In Libraries. Computers In libraries had two interesting books listed, The Accidental Webmaster by Julie Stills, and Social Software In Libraries by Meredith Farkas. There were a few gadgets that I had forgotten to consider in PC Magazine, the Smart Phone, Blackberry, and Palm devices.

While I was looking at Amazon and plugging in various categories, I also came across another interesting book, The Future of the Internet And How To Stop It by Jonathan Ziffrain. It is a fascinating title, but I don't think we are going to stop the internet any time soon.