Nice People 13: Nice Save

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

Is that one of the things you learn at librarian school?

Sorry, didn't get a chance to answer this yesterday. I'm not a trained librarian, I'm a trained researcher. There's a lot of overlap, but I don't know about things like copyright in any detail, so have someone I can go to, a librarian won't have a more detailed idea on research methodology or analysis as it isn't really needed.

The assumption is that we spend our day talking about books, but it's much broader than that. You are expected by the public to know the author of pretty much every popular book ever written. We also need to answer some pretty obscure stuff. Yesterday for example I needed to find out about Equity the Actors Union, zebras, blue badge applications, how to switch a library computer to type in Cyrillic, where the nearest toilets are, language development of children through nursery rhymes, and accessing local newspapers from 50 years ago. That's a pretty typical day too.

We have subject area specialists that we can refer people to, and have pretty comprehensive training each month to make sure we are abreast of the changes in accessing digital data. This can be about job hunting, or the NHS, or the HMRC, or local services for example. A key role of all UK libraries is to help the government in its objective to serve people online as it is much cheaper.. often less than 1p per web visit as opposed to several pence by phone in a call centre or pounds face to face, so it's our job to help get those people who aren't online to understand the web and provide the tools to do it, but stopping short of filling in forms for people or helping them type.

It's quite a lofty aim when budgets are being cut, and library staff are notoriously poorly paid, but it's something that people enjoy and you get amazing highs from when you can make a positive difference in someone's life.

vivatifosi

michaels wrote: »

Do any NP know about compact cameras? Need a better camera for our holiday, I know DSLR is 'the way to go' especially when it comes to showing off at kids school plays but I reckon on holiday a compact is just so much more practical.

I have an Olympus Tough as I'm notorious at dropping cameras. It's great.

Your local library, even the little one round the corner, should have a Which subscription. You should be able to see the copies of the magazine as well as sitting with a member if staff and looking at the website.

vivatifosi

On the subject of library enquiries, forgot to mention that we are taught to unlock queries. So for example, if someone asks fir a book on China, are they talking about the place or the crockery. We've all slipped up on this. I had someone who came in wanting a book on Lenin so, in order direct them to the right part of the Dewey sequence I asked if they wanted to know about Russian politics or history. Looking very confused she replied "what are you goin on about, I want a book about John Lenin".

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

Wide Awake Club.

I think you woke me up, but I did get back to sleep again fortunately. It's amazing how sound travels at that time of night on the internet.

Wheezy_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

All that confusing tech stuff... confuses me. LCD, LED, HD, TFT..... ABC and XYZ. Who knows what I'd want, what's right.

It used to be that you bought a telly, based on screen size, what it looked like, how much it cost. Easy.... not now!

LCD or LED, it's just a different technology....LCD is liquid crystals, LED is light emitting diodes. I wouldn't ponder too much about which one to choose, there's good and bad in both
You definitely want HD (720p) because more and more HD channels coming on freeview now. If you watch blu-ray or other high definition sources you will want full HD (1080p)

ivyleaf

vivatifosi wrote: »

Now £205 for double. 34% off. Nearly all claimed. JL better?

Thank for the tip-off re the mattress, viva. I managed to bag one for DS. I'd just bought him a mattress topper, but he really did need a new mattress.

It's a better quality one than he's currently using, and was cheaper

Wheezy_2

michaels wrote: »

Do any NP know about compact cameras? Need a better camera for our holiday, I know DSLR is 'the way to go' especially when it comes to showing off at kids school plays but I reckon on holiday a compact is just so much more practical.

We bought one recently, this one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-PowerShot-S120-Camera-12-1MP-black/dp/B00EPFEATS/
Really happy with it, only negative is poor battery life. It's just a step down from a DSLR, you can use it as a 'point and shoot' camera, but still plenty of manual settings if you want to play with shutter speeds, apertures, etc..

It all depends what you want from it.
For us, the biggest frustration with our previous camera was poor performance in low light. We like to visit churches, museums, basilicas, castles, temples....and such, and it's always the same story, don't use flash inside in low light and it's blurry, use flash and it only lights the foreground...
So now I wanted something good in low light. However, you need to sacrifice in the zoom performance then. You can't have both good low light performance and super zoom in a compact.
Also, don't be dazzled by megapixel count. A good sensor is as important or even more important than having gazillions of megapixels.
If you need long zoom, make sure it's true optical zoom and not some artificial digital zoom which will be useless anyway.
I don't think you can go wrong with a decent brand like Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Panasonic Lumix or Fuji...

Doozergirl

The dishwasher AND the tumble dryer have packed up :mad:

Wheezy_2

Ouch ouch...fc and thumb, I got a bit queasy reading that.

Hope it heals quickly

Generali

Doozergirl wrote: »

The dishwasher AND the tumble drier have packed up :mad:

Gutted. Terrible timing.