Blog Posts by Subject: Computers

If you missed the big news, The New York Public Library now offers free ebooks for your Kindle! To celebrate, I've put together a somewhat exhaustive list of science fiction ebook titles to make it easy to browse them at a glance.

Click to go directly to any author: Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, China Miéville, Kim 

Wikipedia! The Musical! design created by Lauren Lampasone

On October 22, “Wikipedia! The Musical!” was staged at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Despite its whimsical name, it was not really a musical but an editathon — a chance to edit Wikipedia with a group of people in an inspiring location. Though its focus was improving articles on musical theater, anyone interested in the performing arts was welcome.

For me, 

Does the word homework make you cringe in your seat?

Well, you can find complete, trustworthy information a lot faster using the Library's databases.

Here’s how to access NYPL’s databases:

  Go to www.nypl.org   Go to "Research"   Click on "Articles and Databases" (databases are listed in alphabetical order)

If you are not accessing the database on site at the Library, simply enter the number on the back of your library 

Summer Reading is not just for aliens, kids, or cyborgs anymore! Here at Mid-Manhattan Library, we are gearing up for a universe of different events for older teens and adults this summer.

NEW! You can also log all of your summer books, movies, music, and even video games by creating an account at www.summerreading.org.

NEW! Follow us on Tumblr for free sci-fi downloads throughout June, July, & August. Take 

The other day, I had a John Denver song stuck in my head, and I kept singing this one line over and over. My 6-year-old son remarked, "Oh, THAT'S not annoying!" Ah, the sarcastic little punk apple doesn't fall far from the tree: a good thing to keep in mind as we parents want to make sure we inspire our kids to develop good learning habits. So when my son asked me if I could print out a page like his teacher had in school, one with a box for drawing at the top and some writing lines underneath, of course I wanted to oblige. I surfed around the web and found a few things 

Howard Ashman's disks at the Library of CongressThe Performing Arts Library has an amazing collection of manuscript and typewritten drafts from some of the greatest writers and musicians in the world.  The processes that led to groundbreaking experimental music compositions like John Cage's Music of Changes or Imaginary Landscape No. 1 are documented in the artist's papers. The Fred Ebb collection allows a researcher to peer into the creative process that led to lyrics like "Life is a Cabaret" and 

For 100 years, The New York Public Library's landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street and its world-renowned collections have inspired people everywhere to find their futures. In honor of the Centennial Celebration, pioneering game designer Jane McGonigal helped the Library kick off its Weekend Festival with Find 

Toby Daniels. Photo: CrowdcentricToby Daniels is a proud, self-proclaimed enabler.

The founder of Social Media Week (which is happening in nine cities, with an opening reception at NYPL, its global event partner) has worked tirelessly for years to bring social media tools into the hands of individuals, businesses, and non profits.

“These tools are essentially available for free,” he said of social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, and so on. “The tools and technology are not a boundary to entry. 

Since the 1890s libraries around the U.S. have encouraged readers to join summer reading programs.  The programs eventually developed similar practices where libraries distributed paper book logs to readers, to track their summer reading.  Readers would often receive small toys, stickers, school supplies, book bags or other small items as incentives for participating. 

SOMETHING NEW IN SUMMER READING 2010 At the end of summer 2009 NYPL set out to find ways that our online summer reading presence could give a bigger boost to our summer reading program. We conducted focus groups to see how we could capture the public’s interest online.  Our users were clear about what they wanted. They wanted gaming and social networking elements.  Logging-and-reviewing books was not enough.  They wanted fun! We needed a major redesign of summerreading.org to make the fun happen.  Brooklyn Public and Queens Library, our partners in the project, 

"Balancing the demands of consumers, regulators, policymakers, and stakeholders is a daunting task… even under the best of circumstances. Add to this the ever increasing complexity of contemporary … issues and simply keeping up with the changing landscape can become a full time job." Sound familiar from the current debates between Facebook and users, or Google and users, or YouTube and users?

Counter to potential expectations, the previous quote did not come from any social media dispute, but from the 

For Internet searching, roughly 65% of computer users turn to Google. To see the popularity of Google, one has to look no further than ‘Google’ being 'declared' a verb by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. How is that for official proof that Google is big in the search world and winning prominence?

In its path to verbification, 

“With the emerging digital economy becoming a major driving force of our nation's economic well-being, we must ensure that all Americans have the information tools and skills that are critical to their participation. Access to such tools is an important step to ensure that our economy grows strongly and that in the future no one is left behind.”

— from Falling Through the Net, a letter from William M. Daley, U.S. Secretary of Commerce 1997-2000

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This 

The day has come, and the sound of cash register bells still ring in your ears. Or, the bells would ring if the cashier's computer had sound effects. But it doesn't matter, for you are riding the surging thrill of attaining the hailed product of the latest media bliss.

You have bought the computer all the tech blogs and computer gurus are talking about. After shelling out a minimum of $499 dollars, US, you open the box, and there it lays in pristine shiny plastic with a black emblem - your new 

Many of us, use google for everything. We look up addresses, movie times, weather, admit it you know you have typed in your name too. In any case, google has become a search strategy, but many of us do not use all of the incredible features it has to offer.

How to do a basic google search?

-Always put your search terms in "quotation marks". This will allow google to search the words as a phrase.

-When specifying your search use "+" to include another topic in your search OR use "-" to exclude a topic from your search.

-You can also specify what 

Now we all have heard horrific stories about sexual predators preying on our kids online. Facts like this make it scary for parents and teachers to feel comfortable with social networking sites. It's extremely important and our responsibility as adults to provide safety measures to kids when using the internet.

Ask questions (find out what the kids are doing online and confirm if they are telling the truth) View their profile page (make sure personal information or provocative pictures are not posted on the child's webpage) Inform them that not 

The three laptops are operational and available for public use. Myself and Judy, along with computer pages Sarah and Kristen have been shown how they work.

We will loan out two at a time and keep the third one as a back-up to have as the batteries in the other two run down.

One of the most important things to know is that the laptops are not hooked up to the printer, so no printing can be done from the laptop.  Work can be saved to a flash drive which can be purchased at the circulation desk for $10.