New Address

The address to this blog has changed from:

www.northernlights.wordpress.com

to

www.nlls.ab.ca/InformationOverload

Posts will no longer be appearing at this site. The new site does look a little different – and all the comments on previous posts, unfortunately, were lost in the migration – don’t let that discourage you from posting comments though – we shouldn’t be moving again.

Please visit the new site.

Thanks – James

Podcasting and Podcasts

You may be asking – “What the heck is a podcast?” In short, its an amateur audio recording that can be downloaded from the web and viewed on your Ipod, MP3 player, Computer or other digital device. Podcasting is easy to do – at least the technical part – and thus has become all the rage among teenagers, computer nerds, librarians and just about anyone with an Internet connection.

Just imagine…. You start a podcast on the politics of Guam which becomes all the rage in Yugoslavia. Before you know it you are doing speaking tours in Britain and autographing political scientist’s MP3 players. Before long you are featured on the Jay Leno show and your Hollywood career is launched. Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch. But you may develop a dedicated group of listeners if you have the knack and something interesting to say.

Take, for example, George Hageman’s Military History Podcast. Hageman is a teenager who records and distributes podcasts on military history. Thus far he has produced 73 casts on various aspects of military history. His casts are heard by people in 120 countries. Nearly 20,000 people subscribe to his podcast feed and his casts have been downloaded nearly 1 million times.

This blog entry will briefly describe the technical requirements for starting your own podcast. Besides an Internet connection and a computer you will need the following:

1. A microphone for your computer
2. A set of headphones
3. Sound recording software
4. Web space to host your podcast

The Microphone:
You do not need an expensive computer mic. Like anything the more money you spend the better mic you will likely buy; however, a simple inexpensive mic is all you need. I bought my microphone from Staples for about 30 dollars. Some laptops have a built in microphone so you may not need to buy anything.

The Headphones:
A half decent pair of headphones is recommended but not actually necessary. To keep your computer speakers from interfering with your mic they are a good idea. Also they help in the play back of your recording before you go to production. Again, I bought mine from Staples for about 15 dollars. Honestly, I am not paid by Staples. Although, maybe I ought to be…?

The Audio Software:
Finally, I mention the sound recording software. Again, if you want to you can spend a ton of money on audio mixing software. I am cheap, as my wife will testify, so I use the open source software (free) called Audacity from our friends at sourceforge.net. The program is not too difficult to learn but it will take some time to figure it out.

I recommend that when you finally produce your podcast – export your recording from Audacity – that you choose to make it a MP3 file. MP3 files are the industry standard and will play in nearly any digital audio device. Of course, you need to download a patch for Audacity to export MP3s – fear not though it really isn’t that hard.

I have posted a cheat sheet for downloading and installing Audacity on the Training Resources page.

Hosting your Podcast:
Unfortunately a regular old free blog site won’t allow you to distribute your podcasts without someplace to put them. Thankfully, each of our libraries have web space where you can put your podcasts using an ftp client like Core ftp. You can then link to those “hosted ” files from a blog or your libraries website.

You may notice above you in the navigation bar on this page is a tab now labeled Podcasts. My very first podcast can be downloaded there… or click here. If you have 8 minutes take a listen. Its called podcasting 101 and talks for a few minutes about creating your own podcast – then I share the fable of the Swan Maiden – my own rendition of course. You’ll notice some sound effects in my podcast during the story (birds) – read on to discover where I got them.

If you have a podcast that you’d like to share on this site as an example of what can be done – send it my way. I’ll see if I can put it up on the podcast page.

Adding Sound Effects and Music to Your Cast:
It may be very tempting to add the latest song from your favorite band to your podcast. Be careful. Don’t infringe on someone else’s copyright – or more importantly their rights to intellectual property. Get the permission of the artist(s) when in doubt.

There are many public domain sound recordings you can use and modify available on the web. One excellent user generated content site is called The Free Sound Project. You will only find sound effects here – not music. Join up and you can freely search for and download sound effects created by people like you. You may even get ambitious and create some of your own sound effects to upload to the free sound project.

If you want to find free music – that is if you don’t have a punk band in your garage to record – check out the Creative Commons website for sources of public domain music. Which reminds me – if you are a little nervous about infringing copyright or stealing someones intellectual property check out the Podcasting Legal Guide at Creative Commons.

A few ideas for Podcasts:
This could be an excellent way to involve teens in your community… You can feature their *library appropriate* podcasts on your website.

What would really be neat – get some of the old timers in your community to share their stories. Maybe how they homesteaded in these parts or their WWII stories etc. You don’t have to get them in front of a computer to do it. Get a digital recorder and visit them in the lodge. You can then upload their story from the recorder and edit it in Audacity. Be sure to get their permission before placing the story on your site. You may want to have them sign a release form.

Do you have an old audio tape with such a story that you would like to make digital. With the right tape player and Audacity you can do it. If there is enough demand I’ll create a cheat sheet on how to do it.

Any other ideas? I’m sure there are a hundred and one podcasting ideas out there – please leave a comment and share those ideas.

Creating Screen Captures

In this post I will discuss two ways you can capture images from your computer screen. First I discuss a very simple but limited method. The second method is also simple but much more powerful.

Why do you want to capture images from your computer screen?

Some of you may be wondering how I created the images used in my cheat sheets. Perhaps you would like to create some of your own cheat sheets or customize the ones I’ve created?

Screen capture can also be very useful for:

• presentations
• brochures
• Point of use guides
• flyers
• etc

Method 1:
A simple but rather cumbersome way of doing this is by simply pressing the Print Screen or PrtScn button on your keyboard and then pasting the captured image into a word document. Lost? Try these step by step instructions:

1) locate the Print Screen button on your keyboard
2) Make sure the image you want to capture is visible on your computer monitor
3)Press the Print Screen button (PrtScn)
4) Open the application you want to edit the image in – like Word or Photoshop
5) Paste in your new image by pressing Ctrl+V or using the Edit and Paste function in your application.

Like so:

Once you paste your document into an application like Word you can crop it, write on it and otherwise manipulate the image using that applications drawing tools.

Method 2:

The second and more powerful way of capturing and manipulating images from your computer screen is to use the software titled Snagit. There are likely other products out there but I have found this one to be both intuitive, cheap and extremely powerful.

You can download a free 30 day trial of Snagit from the TecSmith website. If you want to buy the product when you are done trying it out its relatively cheap at about 40$.

Benefits of using Snagit:

• Easily capture scrolling pages
• capture menus
• capture selected areas of the screen
• directly send your captured and doctored image to Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Save your captures as Gif files for quick loading times
• Capture images of webpages complete with functioning links
• and on and on..

I won’t go into details on how to use Snagit – I found the program really intuitive. However, if you would like some in depth training with Snagit for you or your staff give me a call and we can discuss possibilities.

Happy Screen Capturing

Training in Genealogical Research

I have heard from several of you that training in genealogy resources would be much appreciated. This is very possible. I would be happy to come to your libraries and offer workshops on specific resources or even a “getting started with your family history” session and follow up sessions to that. Don’t hesitate to call or write

In the mean time I thought I would point out a few other resources for personal self-directed study. Anyone doing Family History soon learns that the prime resource in this area is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often called Mormons. As a product of their religious beliefs they house the largest repository of genealogical information on the planet. They also work diligently to empower people with the ability to do their own family history. They offer several online – free – independent study courses in this area.

One such course is titled Religion 261 and is offered through Brigham Young University’s website. (remember it is free).

They also provide a host of other in depth free online courses!

In an instruction course I took in library school one of my colleagues, Dai Newman, offered a presentation on genealogy sources available from the church. With his permission, I include his slightly modified cheat sheet to those sources here and on the training page of the NLLS website.

The Mormon church also provides “Family History Centers” in many of their church buildings. These facilities are staffed by knowledgeable volunteers who are willing to help with your family history. The facilities often include computers, microfilm readers, and other necessary resources for researching your family history. Again this resource is provided free of charge. I am told that Mormon volunteers at these facilities are instructed by their leaders to refrain from proselytizing. So you need not fear that you’ll be bombarded by missionaries if you choose to take advantage of these great resources.

You’ll have to call the center to confirm their hours of operation.

There are Family History Centers throughout Alberta. You can view a list of these centers here. There are two in Edmonton but it looks like the only one in the NLLS district is in lucky St. Paul.

A Side Note:
You may be scratching your head… Why is this obscure church so interested in genealogy. I’ll let the church answer that question? You can read all about it on their website, Mormon.org

I am sure there are other sources out there. This is your opportunity to add to this post by posting comments – questions. Be brave

What is an Online Database Anyway?

I think it fitting to begin this first entry with a blurb on NLLS’ online databases. You may be scratching your head at that term or yawning. Nonetheless, it is obvious to me that these valuable resources are simply not being used by our member libraries as much as they ought to be.

What are they already!

Well, simply put – they are large repositories or gateways to journal, magazine and newspaper articles, images, maps, videos, the works.

Wait a minute – that sounds just like what the Internet is – Can’t I get all this information through Google?

The difference is that these “databases” store and direct you to copyrighted materials which are very unlikely to be available free on the web – the old adage rings true here, “you get what you pay for.” The web is free – hence the quality of information you often find – databases are expensive. But don’t worry NLLS and TAL pay for them for you.

Unlike the web the information in our databases has gone through the typical publication process and in the case of many academic journals that process can be rigorous. The info on the web does not have to meet those standards.

Did you know that through our online databases every library has access to the full-text of:

• National Geographic Magazine
• The Edmonton Journal
• The Calgary Herald
• Time Magazine
• Chilton auto repair manuals
• And literally thousands of other popular and academic publications

Unfortunately, we hide all this great information under the term “databases” and then we give those databases obscure names like “MasterFile” and “Electric Library.”

You can access these databases by clicking on the “databases” link at our website.

Once you log in with your library barcode and pin number you’ll have access to our entire list of databases.

I have put together some cheat sheets or reference guides for these databases. You’ll find them on the Training Resources page of NLLS’s website. I hope to add more as time goes on. Feel free to print the PDFs or customize the word document and then print them.

Feel free to use this blog as a place of discussion. Ask questions – leave comments. We’ll see if anyone uses this page….