CJRLC Technology Group

Minutes: January 13, 2009

1. Open Meeting

2. Next Meeting will be March 10

·        Virtual Communication Skills will be our topic

·        Location – TBA

3. Technology Roundtable

·        Discussion of Blu-Ray and PlayStation 3 players, including starting circulating Blu-Ray collections.  Mercer County is debating a pilot program for Blu-Ray – Ocean County Library for one is already circulating them-most of the discs are out and have 3-40 holds on each title. Blu-Ray discs are more durable than regular DVDs; just don’t use DVD cleaners in your Blu-Ray machine.

·        MP3 wireless FM transmitters for your car – find a fuzzy FM station – one that does not have a broadcast on it – tune your car radio to that station (87.9 works well in West Jersey) and play your MP3 player wirelessly.

·        ClingSheets – dry-erase, reusable and clings to most surfaces with static.  Not readily available yet.

·        Does anybody circulate games? East Brunswick Library circs games and West Long Branch Public Library under Dave Lisa’s direction had a circulating game collection.  The challenges were primarily predicting in which platform to buy the different games and length of time to circulate as most games can’t be completed in 1 or 2 weeks.  The benefits are reaching young males and getting them into the library.

·        Bookfinder.com allows users search by author/titles the site helps by searching for prices of books and especially when searching for rare titles. 

·        Slideshare.net allows you to share powerpoint presentations, backup your presentations and even run your presentation from the site.  You can also search for topics and view other presentations online.  There is a widget available to add to blogs. The Jerseyclicks presentation is now available on http://jerseyclicks.blogspot.com/

4. WebEx Training

·        See handouts – available on our blog

·        Everyone introduces themselves.

·        Multiple ways to join in a meeting – email, phone, voip or online

·        Costs vary on number of seats – ie. 30 seats was approx. $2000/year.

·        No discounts were available when Amy looked into WebEx, and the salesman can be VERY high pressure.

·        Other similar programs: GoToMeetings and NetMeetings.  WebEx was the only one that allowed VOIP and phone calling.

·        Host can share their desktop, a presentation or an application.

·        If you share an application the attendees do not see the host’s desktop.

·        They can train you on or show things that are on the host computer even if the attendees do not have that application installed.

·        Can send messages privately or to the group as a whole.

·        Options for polling, raising your hand, a coffee cup that means be right back and quick yes/no replies.

·        Whiteboard space allows all to make notations at the same time in their assigned color (assigned to you upon login).   You can use the arrow/pointer to claim your space so others don’t type over top of you.

·        Can use eraser in the whiteboard space to erase everyone’s notes.

·        Dial in to a conference call to login remotely and hear and speak during the training.

·        Break-out rooms are available for smaller meetings or group assignments.

·        Can hand over control to attendees to let them take over the mouse and keyboard.

·        Allows Amy to hold on-site trainings without leaving CJRLC, virtual programming.

·        Someone always must be in the role of the host, but it can be handed off to others once the program/training has begun.