Texas Technology - Fall 2008 - (Page 27) Improving Accessibility The Houston Public Library’s central branch will soon deploy a “brailler” that costs $3,705. Braillers scan book and article pages and print them in Braille for the visually impaired. The library also offers a PC with software called JAWS ($895) that reads the text on Web sites aloud. The PC also features ZoomText ($416), software that lets people with mild visual impairments zoom in on text using the scroll bar. “The teen area was basically the size of a living room on the fourth floor where they didn’t have their own dedicated computers. They didn’t have their own private space. It was not really conducive to teens coming and hanging out,” Fernandez said. Half of the fourth floor now serves teens and offers them their own desktops and wireless laptops for doing homework. The area also provides quiet study rooms. Van Campen said a video game’s ability to attract kids who were previously unreachable gives the library an inroad to introduce reading and other activities to them. “It’s also things like Scrabble, chess or Monopoly,” Kadir. “They pass around different book series. They have these whole networks of friendships with kids from all over town that they would never have if they hadn’t walked in our doors and said, ‘Oh my gosh. They have games. Oh, I found heaven.’” Some adults want a piece of that heaven. “We’ve been hearing from adults who are saying, ‘Where are our Wiis?’” Van Campen said. Kadir is considering a “businessperson’s lunch hour” for adults to use the teens’ video games during school hours. She’s waiting until school starts to see how low traffic is in the room during that time. Van Campen anticipates Wii Sports games to be especially popular among elderly patrons. “My grandparents who live in Ohio played Wii at their local library and then went out and bought one. My grandfather who can’t go out on the golf course anymore spends hours on his Wii at home, thanks to his local library,” Van Campen said. A Shift in Focus Van Campen said many libraries are shifting their focus from content consumption to content creation in order to stay relevant. The HPL now offers numerous classes in technologies for patrons who want to create wikis, blogs, podcasts and Web pages using social-networking software, like Facebook. “It becomes a family thing where Saturday morning families come in and we’re teaching classes on how to upload images from a digital camera and share them online in Facebook,” Kadir said. “We teach photo editing using Google Picasa and some other free Web 2.0 tools.” The Gadget Petting Zoo features several devices for creating content, such as Flip video recorders and digital cameras. “The Flip video recorders are very cool because they are not that expensive, and you make a video and you upload it directly. You can e-mail it, post it on YouTube and share that video on social networking Web sites,” Kadir explained, adding that the Gadget Petting Zoo becomes an environment where kids can teach their parents. “Kids know a lot of these tools, but then you have the parents, and when they’re together, they have a sharing experience. They learn from each other, and parents don’t feel like they don’t know what the kids are doing,” Kadir said. Beyond the Building The HPL plans to stay relevant by expanding its community presence beyond its traditional brick-and-mortar branches. Librarians recently unveiled the HPL’s Computer Lab on Wheels — a bus installed with 13 desktops, nine laptops and LCD screens for training on the inside and outside. A satellite mounted on top provides broadband.“We had it at the Houston annual Fourth of July celebration this year. It’s a good tool for letting people see the library is different,” said Ron Stauss, assistant director of IT for the HPL. The mobile computer lab targets lowincome areas, especially those without nearby library branches. “If you’re in a community center, an after-school program or a YMCA, getting Library Unveils Tutorials The Houston Public Library (HPL) deployed flat-screen monitors throughout its central branch showing PowerPoint slides announcing library activities. Some of the monitors play tutorials on how to operate whatever equipment is near each monitor. The library fed the PowerPoint presentation into screen capture video software called Camtasia Studio to produce presentations. “A license for Camtasia Studio is available for $250 to government agencies,” said Saima Kadir, coordinator of emerging technologies for the HPL. “That’s dirt cheap for what you can do with it. It’s very, very simple to operate. I produced a short video on how to use the catalog. It isn’t complicated.” www.govtech.com/tt _27 http://www.govtech.com/tt
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