Tagging the Library Catalog

tag

Our latest public catalog has some new features that we are excited to see patrons using. One of these features allows patrons to “tag” items in our catalog. The purpose of adding a tag would be to make an item easier to find. For example, if I ran a book club at the library, I might want to add the tag “EG Book Club” to every title we discuss. That way, any patron searching the catalog for “EG Book Club” would find all of those books grouped together in the results.

The Issue

Recently, we have discovered that there may be some confusion about the nature of tags in our catalog. Given some of the community tags we’ve seen, it appears that patrons believe them to be private. Consider the following example:
Tag example 1. If they get it in large print or the e-book version

Clearly, this is a patron’s note to self and not meant for public consumption. Unfortunately, there is no way we can let the patron who added it know that a more effective way to accomplish this privately would be to use the My List feature of the catalog, which we will outline in a moment.

Other patrons may think tagging an item is a way to communicate with library staff:

Tag example 2. Renew e-book

I assure you that no staff member will see this unless they find it by accident.  If you have created your own tags assuming they were private, please help us clean up the catalog and protect your privacy by deleting them.

My List

If you would like to make personal notes to yourself on items in the catalog, there is a more elegant way to do this. It involves an additional click or two, but there are many more options available to you when you use this method. For example, when you add items to a list, you can request them all at once or one at a time. You can also create multiple lists and organize them as you wish.

You can use “My Lists” to save lists of items that you wish to revisit for later use. The content in these lists is stored until you remove it. In “My Lists”, you can create folders to group your stored titles in ways that help you to organize your content. Titles stored in “My Lists” can be viewed and retrieved by logging into your My Account and using the “My Lists” link.  Login to My Account and the search for an item you wish to add to your list.  Click on the icon to “Add to cart.”

Add to cart icon

When you have gathered all of the items for your list in the cart, click on “My Cart” next to your name in the upper right of the screen.

My Cart link screenshot

Click “save to list” and either create a new list or save to a list already created and confirm.  To see your lists, return to your account details by clicking on your name when logged into the catalog. Select the “My Lists” link to view the lists created.  Click on a list name export it or request/delete items on the list.

My Lists link

How would you use the tagging feature in our catalog? Let us know in the comments.

Tech Tricks to Improve Your Technological Experience

checkthisout

There is a wealth of information available on the internet. Luckily, there are lots of neat technological tips and tricks that can help with how you use technology and its components.

Vine is an app people use to post very short (eight seconds or less) video clips that will automatically replay once the clip has finished. The clips are referred to as Vines. GCF LearnFree has posted a neat list of Vines that can help with some common tech-related problems such as how to organize and label various wires, how to protect power cords, and how to clean a keyboard with a sticky note.

If you are a Chrome user and have been frustrated with the slowness of your browser, makeuseof has written an article that has some suggestions on how you can improve the speed of your Chrome browsing experience.

If you are a user of Creative Commons (content that is free to legally use and share), makeuseof has put together a helpful post that gives tips on how to find Creative Commons content.

Have you ever accidentally installed bundled software without meaning to? When installing free software, often times there will be a message box that appears before the installation asking if you want to install another program, reset your browser homepage, or change your search settings. Luckily, there is a program called Unchecky. This application searches for commonly bundled unwanted applications and removes them. It also prevents unwanted applications from being installed in the future by automatically unchecking the unwanted offers box when a user is installing a new application, as well as warning the user if they try to accept a potentially unwanted offer.

These are just a few of the many neat tricks to help you improve how you use technology and its components. Do you have any neat tricks you’ve discovered? Share them in the comments.

Have You Been Pwned? Find Out with This Tool

pwned

Data breaches and internet security are a big concern for many individuals, and with good reason. Large companies that have had their users’ information (such as email addresses, passwords and password hints) compromised include Adobe and Snapchat.

Luckily, there is a website, Have I Been Pwned?, which searches across various domains and known breaches to see if a particular email address or username has been compromised.  The site’s name comes from the gaming term “Pwned”, which is a twist on the word “owned” (defeated).  The exact origin of this term is disputed.

The website also can inform you if your information has been “pasted,” which the site describes as:

A “paste” is information that has been “pasted” to a publicly facing website designed to share content such as Pastebin. These services are favored by hackers due to the ease of anonymously sharing information and they’re frequently the first place a breach appears.

This website is a valuable tool to find out if your personal information has been compromised.  Check out this post for suggestions on strengthening the security of your accounts.

OverDrive Clears Up Dual Bookshelf Confusion

There has been a change in terminology in the user account section of the Upper Hudson Library System’s Digital Collection. What was formerly called Bookshelf has been changed to Checkouts. This is the section of your account where you can view all of the digital items you have currently checked out.

checkouts

If you are accessing your downloaded materials through the Overdrive app, they will be listed under the Bookshelf heading. Please note that books downloaded for use on a Kindle or in the Kindle app will not be listed on the Overdrive Bookshelf.

overdrive

Windows 10 (Part 2)

windows-10-logo

Windows 10 was released to the general public on July 29, 2015. Since then, various issues and concerns have popped up among its users. One big concern is the telemetry (remote data collection) that is built into Windows 10. Windows IT Pro has written an article on how to turn off telemetry not only in Windows 10, but also in Windows 7 and Windows 8. Makeuseof has also written a number of articles regarding privacy concerns in Windows 10 and has links to various tools to help users change their privacy and telemetry settings. Relating to the privacy issues, KrebsonSecurity has addressed the concern that a default setting in Windows shares your WiFi connection with contacts you have in Outlook, Skype, or Facebook and offers suggestions on how to turn this feature off and make your WiFi network more secure.

If you are finding learning the ins and outs of Windows 10 a bit daunting, TechSoup has written a blog post that has information on the basics of Windows 10 and its features.

Throughout the course of several updates, Windows Update, the program that keeps the Windows operating system up-to-date, may have downloaded the Windows 10 installation files without the knowledge of the computer user. If you have noticed that your computer and/or internet connection has been slower, this may be the cause. Luckily, makeuseof has written an article that addresses what to do if the Windows 10 installation files have been downloaded to your computer. Sophos has also written a blog post related to removing unwanted Windows 10 installation files.

Have you downloaded Windows 10 yet? Tell us about it in the comments.