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Sunday, June 24, 2007

Getting Help on Microsoft Productivity Software

The other day I was bogged down with Microsoft Word. You mean, you too you are having difficulties in getting the best out of MsWord? I was trying to do Mail-merge. That feature that allows you to mass-mail personalized letters to contacts. I got round it. Not only that, I also learnt how to better search for tutorials.

Let me show ou quickly what I did?
  1. I discovered that Universities in developed countries especially U.S. routinely post tutorials on software on their websites which include MsWord.
  2. I also recognized that with Google, you could limit your search to university websites only by simply adding site:edu to the keywords
  3. More importantly, Google also allow for search for synonyms of words. The one that was of value to me then was tutorials. So, in order to capture other web sites with keywords like HELP, TIPS, TRICKS, GUIDE ... I simply used the searched for synonyms of TUTORIALS by adding this ~ with the keyword i.e. ~tutorials
  4. I decided to to focus on MsWord 2003. I typed in the full name and the edition together as a phrase i.e. "Microsoft word 2003". In most search Engines you must use "..." in order to search for the exact phrase.
  5. Finally, I also needed to specify Mail Merge because that was the area of interest.
  6. The final search terms used in Google looked more like this
    "Microsoft Word 2003" ~tutorials site:edu "Mail merge"
  7. I got what I wanted.
  8. Try searching for tutorials on MsPowerPoint
You may click here for a comprehensive search on Google tutorials

Thursday, May 31, 2007

10 Ways to Simplify your life

I read this wonderful clips from http:/www.ririanproject.com/. I was fascinated by the simplicity of the list or what is refered to as commandments. Please read and learn from it.
clipped from ririanproject.com
I. You shall find work that is fun.
II. You shall laugh on a daily basis.
III. You shall sell the box sitting in your living room.
IV. You shall break your addiction to the news and go on a “news fast.”
V. You shall get in the habit of taking daily “silence breaks.”
VI. You shall clean up your act.
VII. You shall turn off your technology.
VIII. You shall be spontaneous.
IX. You shall set a bedtime and stick to it.
X. You shall learn what is “enough.”

Monday, May 21, 2007

How to Handle Your Confussion About ICT in the Libraries

As a Trainer, I have seen many LIPs so confused about ICT as regards their work. The answer is not far-fetched. Please read this article titled: Advice to a slightly less experienced geek librarian @ http://onebiglibrary.net/story/advice-to-a-slightly-less-experienced-geek-librarian. A number of points are listed for you there. Please try it and let us hear from you.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Could Librarians in Developing Countries Go on Strike?

Yes! we can go on strike if colectively decided to do so for best of all reasons. But, will there be any impact in the society?

This thought came to mind when I began to see the Academics, Oil workers and Medical practitioners in Nigeria calling their members to proceed on an indefinte strike to press home their demands.

The government in most cases have negotiated with many of these professionals in the past. In some cases, their needs were met and in other cases they suffered great loss.

The concern here is: Are Library and Information Professionals so valued to the point that if they should proceed on any strike, will there be any nogitiation with the authorities? If not, why?

Let me here from you ...

Monday, February 5, 2007

Will Librarians and Libraries Still Be Important?

I invite you to please take your time to read this write-up titled: 33 Reasons Why Libraries and Librarians are Still Extremely Important by Will Sherman @ http://www.degreetutor.com/library/adult-continued-education/librarians-needed

Friday, October 13, 2006

Cooperative Publishing in Developing Countries: Nigerian Librarians Join The Trail

Publishing is the bed-rock of library services. Without it, Library and Information Professionals (LIPs) would be jobless. Publishing as we know it is not limited to books, but include all other media. But the beauty of publishing is when the final product is accessible to the target audience. Authors of such great works have either done it alone or cooperated with others. This is a common practice in developed countries and some developing countries particularly in librarianship. Nigerian LIPs recently have joined the trail in cooperative publishing. On the NLA ONLINE FORUM, we read about two of such viz Management of Cybercafé and Current Issues on ICT. We await the products of these noble ventures.
 
Recently, I came across this collaborative or cooperative publishing and I was inspired by what I saw and read. The title is  SPECIAL LIBRARIES MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK: THE BASICS @ http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/class/clis724/SpecialLibrariesHandbook/INDEX.htm  "The 'chapters' were written by students in CLIS 724 (Special Libraries and Information Centers) at the University of South Carolina College of Library and Information Science over the period 1999-2004." Students? Why can't the LIPs venture to do this online as well over a period. I have looked through the contents and I think we have a lot to learn from the Handbook. What do you think?

Thursday, October 5, 2006

GOOGLE NEWSLETTER FOR LIBRARIANS

For those who are still in the dark as to how to make the best use of Google in their daily jobs, Google has put out this Newsletter to do just that. Since its inception, I have benefitted from this Newsletter. I invite you to visit this page and sign-up for the Newsletter immediately @ http://www.google.com/librariancenter/index.html You would very glad you did.