Services - Tech Tips

Two Useful Features to Get More from Your Library Account

The Upper Hudson Library System has two features to help make using the library easier. These features help you track your reading history and receive timely text alerts when an item you have requested is ready for pick up.

Saving Your Reading History

If you have ever wanted to look back at previous books or items you have borrowed, there is an option to save your checkout history within your Upper Hudson Library System library account. Saving your reading history can to be turned on by logging into your library account on a computer or your device’s web browser. You cannot turn on your reading history from the UHLS app.

Go to the Upper Hudson Library System Catalog from either a desktop or mobile browser. Click on login in the top right hand corner of the screen. On a mobile browser, login is under the More heading.

To login to your account enter your library card barcode number and PIN. By default, your PIN is the last four digits of your phone number.

Screenshot showing the location of My Account on the desktop version of the UHLS catalog website.

After logging in, click on “My Account.” Clicking on “My Account” will take you to the “Edit account” page. From there, click on “Reading History” on the left sidebar menu.

Screenshot of the Reading History tab of the account page of the UHLS catalog.

Next, click on the “Save Reading History” button.

Viewing and Editing Your History

To access your checkout history, click on “Reading History.” You will be able to see the title, author, and the date the item was checked out. You can sort items in alphabetical order by clicking on either the title or author headings.

Note: You will only see items you have checked out from this point forward. You cannot view items checked out before you turned on save reading history. If you would like to remove an item from your reading history, click the check box in the mark field, and then click the delete marked button. If you wish to clear your entire reading history, click on delete all.

You can always choose to turn your reading history off by clicking on “Opt Out.” Before you opt out you will need to delete your history.

Receiving Text Alerts from UHLS

You can receive text alerts from UHLS when you have an item available for pickup at the library. Like saving your reading history, opting in to receive text alerts from UHLS needs to be turned on by logging into your library account on either a computer or your device’s web browser.

Opting In

To add this service, login to your library account on the UHLS website. Next, click on “My Account,” then click on the “Edit account” button.

Screenshot of the Edit account button on the account page in the UHLS catalog.

When you click on “Edit account” a new window will open. Under “Mobile Settings” there is a space to type your phone number and a box to click on to opt in to receive text messages from UHLS.

Screenshot of the Mobile Settings option in the account of the UHLS catalog.

UHLS will send text alerts when your requested items are ready for pickup. Although UHLS does not charge for this service, message and data rates may apply.

To opt out from the UHLS Alerts, send a text message with one of the words: STOP, STOP ALL, END, QUIT, CANCEL or UNSUBSCRIBE to 82453 or 35143 from your mobile phone and you will no longer receive any text messages from UHLS via your mobile phone.

Supported Carriers

The phone carriers that support this program are listed below:

All West Wireless
Alltel
AT&T
Bluegrass
Boost
Cambridge Telecom
Cellcom
Cellular One
Cellular South
Centennial
Cincinatti Bell
Cricket
EKN – Appalachian Wireless
FMTC – Farmer’s Mutual Telephone Company
GCI – General Communications, Inc
Illinois Valley Cellular
Immix
Inland Cellular
Nex-Tech Wireless
Nextel Communications
NNTC – Nucla-Naturita Telephone Company
nTelos
Revol
Silver Star PCS
Snake River PCS
South Central Utah
Sprint
Syringa
T-Mobile
UBET Wireless/STRATA
United Wireless
US Cellular
Verizon Wireless
Virgin
West Central Wireless

We hope that these two features help improve your library experience. Need help with these features? Contact the library or leave a comment.

A New Way to Print from Any Device with Princh

Starting March 11, the library will offer a new service called Princh for wireless printing. In the past, we had used a service called PrinterOn.

Princh is accessible on any device including your computer, smartphone, or tablet.

Selecting an Item to Print

To begin, visit our printing portal.

Click/tap “click here to select and upload a file” to choose the item you are printing. Accepted file types include Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc), Apple’s iWork (Pages, Numbers, etc), images/screenshots and more. Check out the full list of accepted file types here.

After selecting the item you are printing, there are more options.

Screenshot showing the file name of what is being printed. The settings button is next to the file name.

Changing Print Settings

To change the displayed language, tap English in the top right corner for over 10 language options. If you would like to change the number of copies, the color settings, the paper size, or more print settings, click/tap on the blue and white gear icon next to the file name of what you are printing.

Screenshot showing the settings screen, allowing settings such as black and white or color, number of copies, page range and duplex options to be changed.

There are a variety of options available to change including paper size, color or black white white, page range and more. You can also preview the document or remove it if you change your mind about printing it. Also displayed is the total number of pages and cost of the print job. After you have made your changes, click/tap on the green accept button.

Next, click/tap on Accept Terms and Conditions check box and click/tap on the continue button.

Enter your email address to continue. You will get a conformation email once the job has been processed. Use the same email address at the print release station at the library to pay for and release your print job.

After the job has been processed successfully, a status of ready is displayed in the print queue next to the file name.

Screenshot showing item has successfully submitted to be printed.

Once you’ve received the ready conformation, head on over to the print release station at the library, located next to the Reference Desk.

Our printing prices remain the same:

Black & White, single-sided: 15¢ per page
Black & White, double-sided: 30¢ per sheet
Color, single-sided: 50¢ per page

Have you tried out Princh yet? Let us know in the comments.

Don’t Miss Out on an Easy Way to Support the Library

There’s a good chance you’ve done at least a little online shopping on Amazon.com. Amazon has started a program called Amazon Smile, which allows a percentage of each eligible purchase to be donated to the charity of your choice. More good news, you can support the East Greenbush Community Library with each eligible purchase!

Use this link to get directly to a landing page that selects the Friends of the East Greenbush Community Library as your charity. Or, you can follow the process below to learn more about selecting the library from the Amazon Smile home page.

To begin, go to smile.amazon.com and sign in with your regular Amazon account.

Next, you will be asked to choose a charity you’d like to support. If you would like to support the East Greenbush Library, you can type in East Greenbush Friends of the Library.

Next, click the select button next to the charity name.

Screenshot of search results showing Friends of the East Greenbush Community Library.

Once your charity of choice has been selected, you will see a confirmation message. After you make your first eligible purchase, you can see the total amount of how much has been donated to your selected charity through Amazon Smile.

If you would ever like to change your charity selection, from the Amazon Smile homepage, mouse over where it says Hello, (Your Name) and click on the Amazon Smile link.

Screenshot demonstrating how to change your selected charity by clicking on the Amazon Smile link in the account and lists menu.

Have you tried out Amazon Smile? Let us know in the comments!

Download Books to Your Kindle with the Libby App

If you have a Kindle and use the Libby app, you may have been wondering how to send e-books to your Kindle.

Libby is an app made by OverDrive that allows you to browse for and read and listen to e-books, digital audiobooks, and digital magazines. If you have a Kindle, you also have the option to checkout e-books and read them on your Kindle device.

To get started, open the Libby app on your phone or tablet, which is available on iOS (Apple) and Android devices. If you have a Kindle Fire or another device that does not support the Libby app, you can go to https://libbyapp.com/

Once the app is open, click on the shelf icon on the bottom of the screen.

Screenshot showing the shelf view of the Libby app with two e-books listed and the shelf icon highlighted.

Next, find the book you want to send to your Kindle and tap or click on Read With.

Screenshot of loan shelf with "read with" highlighted on the first e-book..

If this is your first time accessing the book after borrowing it and there is no “Read With” text and it only displays “Open in Libby,” that means that particular e-book is not available in Kindle format. If you have previously opened the book within the Libby app and would like to send it to your Kindle, tap on “Manage Loan” and then tap on “Read With.”

Next, tap on Kindle.

Close up screenshot of the "read with" screen with the Kindle option highlighted.

From here, a browser window will pop up prompting you to log in to Amazon if you aren’t already logged in. Once you are logged into Amazon, you’ll see a screen with more info about library loaning as well as a “Get Library Book” button.

If you have more than one Kindle or device with a Kindle app (for example if you have the Kindle app installed on your phone), you will have the option to choose where you’d like to deliver the book.
Above the Get Library Book button, the email address you use to log in to Amazon is displayed. If that is not the email address of the account you used to register your Kindle, click or tap sign out and log in with the correct account.
Also on this page, you will see when your loan period ends. After the loan expires, the title will automatically be returned.
Tap or click “Get Library Book” to send your e-book to your Kindle.

Screenshot of Amazon book checkout page showing the book cover, user email, destination indicator, and "get library book" button.

Once you have sent your e-book to your Kindle, you will get a confirmation screen that it was successful. The e-book will automatically be downloaded to your Kindle and it will be displayed in the Your Library section of your Kindle. If you are using a Kindle Fire, open up the Kindle app, which is called either Kindle or Books. If you don’t see the e-book on your Kindle, make sure that it is connected to WiFi.

Here is a step-by-step video showing the process when using the Libby app on an iPad:

Have you used the Libby app to send books to your Kindle? Let us know in the comments!

Have You Tried our Technology Help Site Yet?

One of the most common requests we get from patrons, aside from book recommendations, is for technology help. Gone are the days when you could avoid using computers, as technology has crept into every corner of our daily lives. Our librarians are very helpful, but it’s just not possible for them to stay updated on all things about all tech and still have time left over to do the rest of their jobs.

We have created services and acquired resources to get you the help you need, and we have a landing page where we have gathered them all. To get there without a direct link, go to https://eglibrary.org and use the menu to choose: what we offer>services>technology help.

At the top of the page, you will find links to our digital literacy classes. We have recently partnered with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County to provide our in-person classes. This area also contains information about our appointment-based individual help service – Book a Librarian. As you scroll down you will see online resources by subject. Click on the subject title to see the resources.

One service we offer, Tech-Talk, is actually several services in one. It is a collection of articles, short videos, and webinars about a wide variety of tech topics. We have featured them in several of our posts. They also offer a subscription newsletter that drops a tech tip in your inbox once a week. We’ve made a video to show you how to use Tech-Talk and embedded it here.

If you have used some of the resources on our technology help site, let us know what you think! Is there any subject or information you would like to see added? Let us know in the comments.