7 Big Myths About Libraries

Americans value their libraries, but there are still misconceptions about libraries that exist among folks who maybe haven't visited a library in a while... or haven't visited one ever! Since we at the Library as Incubator Project work hard to highlight the many ways that libraries and artists can support each other, we thought we'd turn some of these misconceptions on their head by looking at them through an artsy lens. 

#1: Libraries are quiet spaces--all the time, everywhere

While there are many libraries that offer quiet areas for their patrons to study, read, and contemplate, the era of strict shushing by librarians is pretty much over. The atmosphere is changing as libraries incorporate more hands-on programs, performances, and lively workshops into their program offerings. Consider the concert series sponsored by Get it Loud in Libraries from the UK, or the lively Literacy Smackdown, a robot vs. monster battle facilitated by educator Dr. Matt Finch in Australia. These programs turn the image of the "quiet library" on its head and embrace a creative vision of the role of the public library--as a space to experience new music, not just in recorded formats but live as well, and as a place to tell stories through role play.

#2: Book clubs are snooze-fests 

Think book clubs are only for stuffy literary types? Think again. Book clubs are finding new life by targeting their audiences. Now there are book clubs geared toward 20- & 30-somethings, like the alt+library Book Club from the Sacramento Public Library, or Let's Talk About Texts at the Middleton Public Library in Middleton, Wisconsin. Lots of libraries, like the D.C. Public Library, are pairing literature and libations by hosting book clubs in local bars. With the Book to Art Club in Madison, Wisconsin, and elsewhere around the country, readers make creative responses as a way of investigating the characters, themes, and stories of their book club titles.

#3: Library craft activities are old-fashioned, boring, or for kids only

Crafts? Old-fashioned and boring? Not so! Libraries are all about making things these days, and the hands-on stuff isn't just for kids. The alt+library in Sacramento holds a Bad Art Night where adults are encouraged to make art - no rules and no talent needed.Handmade Crafternoons at the New York Public Library is a series of workshops in which participants make projects inspired by the library's collections. The emerging trend of makerspaces in libraries provides opportunity for learning and creating in new ways for all audiences, and The Bubbler at Madison Public Library offers a programming model for making in the library that engages an entire community. 

#4: Libraries are about books--and that's it 

Hate to read? Libraries offer so much more than books. Even apart from snagging the most recent DVD release of Game of Thrones, most libraries these days offer really awesome classes. For free. Take a contemporary dance class at Flushing Library in Queens, or attend a jazz concert at Hartford Public Library, or get your geek on at Cincinnati Library's own freaking Comic-Con. And that's not counting all of the amazing maker programs libraries offer now, from Basics of Beekeeping to Learn to Solder. Libraries are all about connecting people with information, even when that information lies in the expertise of an artist/maker/craftsperson rather than a book.

#5 Libraries are boring

Behind many of these other misconceptions, there lurks a single, pervasive complaint: "Libraries are just so... boring." On this, we couldn't disagree more! Libraries are subversive; we champion banned books and challenging ideas. Libraries are vibrant; we bring members of the community together. Above all, libraries are a gateway to information, where YOU can connect to YOUR interests. Are you interested in gaming, board games or movies, or music? Libraries not only have all of this available for checkout, we increasingly have the resources to help you create your own multimedia. Libraries are boring? Only if you expect to be bored.

#6 Libraries are for nerds

An extension of number 5, this misconception assumes that if libraries are boring, the only people who actually enjoy them must be nerds. Which means this misconception is not so much about libraries as it is about people. We're happy to report that libraries are indeed for nerds and that everyone-- everyone-- is a nerd about something, which means that libraries are perfectly placed in the center of their communities, where every person-- young and old, rich and poor, mathlete and punk rocker-- can get to them. No matter who you are, libraries are a gateway to what makes you nerdy, and can put you in contact with information and media you might not be able to access elsewhere. Libraries collect new records from their local music scenes, teach people how to code, how to DJ, how to take better pictures or make their own movies, and so much more. 

#7 Libraries are for little kids 

It's true that many libraries-- public libraries in particular-- put a lot of time and resources into children's programming to make sure that young children have a strong foundation in literacy skills before they even get to school. What you might not know is that literacy doesn't end once you learn to read-- there are many kinds of literacy (digital literacy among them) that are essential for success in the 21st century. You gain literacies throughout your life, and play is an important way to acquire skills, whether you're 3 or 63. Library programs that explore media, making, and literature bring all of these literacies together in one place and allow patrons of all ages to continue learning and gaining skills throughout their lives.

Link for the Article | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erinn-batykefer/library-myths_b_5234414.html

Websites to help kids in summer

HOLIDAY HOMEWORK We look at five sites that can help your children learn, build and create things

FROM BUILDING A DOG COLLAR OUT OF PARACORD TO A HOME CLOUD SERVER, THE NET CAN BE A TRAINING TOOL FOR MANY THINGS

It’s that time of the year when most of us would be planning our summer breaks. However, if you are among the unfortunate few who cannot take a break from work, and are worrying about how to keep your children occupied when schools are shut, the Web can be the answer to your prayers. Be it building a dog collar out of paracord, or a home cloud server for all those digital goodies you have lying around, the Internet can be a training tool for many things. Here are few projects: let the kids (or the kid in you) explore a wonderland..

1 HOW STUFF WORKS (http://www.howstuffworks.com/) 

There was a time when the public library was the one-stop destination for all our queries. Today the Net has rendered it obsolete. Hit the browser and find the answer. How Stuff Works is a great place to start with. It answers questions on almost everything from adventure to tech through videos and quizzes. If curiosity is your Achilles’ heel, and you want to find out how a vacuum cleaner sucks up all the dust, this is the place to go. A step-by-step slide will show you what’s inside a typical vacuum cleaner and explain the utility of each component in detail. It will also give you a few tips on how to service it. 

2 INSTRUCTABLES (http://www.instructables.com/) 

Now you know how things work. But now you want to get them done. Whether it is making a piece of jewellery, or building a tree house, or even making a ‘perfect’ mint chocolate milk shake, Instructables gives stepby-step instructions for nearly everything. Explore technology, workshop, living, food, outdoor building projects and then create them. While some projects will require you to buy stuff from the website, in most cases old, discarded stuff from the storeroom will suffice. Instructables is also available as an App for iOS, Windows 8 and Android, and offers a subscription at $39.99 ( ` 2,400) for two years or $1.95 for one month. The subscription will let you access ebooks, down-

load PDFs and a lot of extras. 

3 MAKE [http://www.makezine.com/] 

This Website offers projects in art, home, science, craft and electronics among others. It rates projects with difficulty levels and gives you instruction videos. You can also shop for kits that you can build around, though these kits will need to be shipped from their US warehouse and will require you to pay customs import duty over and above the US dollar price. So, if you have been looking to build yourself a 3D printer or a an electronics project, Make’s site will tell you how to, and where to get the stuff from. 

4eHOW (http://www.ehow.com/) 

Did you know that the best way to pack is to roll garments together? Not all of us are interested in complex projects. Some of us just want to excel in everyday things like packing the suitcase or growing one’s own herbs for the kitchen. e-How shows you how to do these things, useful and creative at the same time, in both text and video formats. So, if you want to learn how to waterproof your blue suede shoes or to make yourself a pumpkin-based peel for your skin, eHow holds your answers. 

5 DIY (http://www.diynetwork.com/) 

From tips on home improvement that let you to fix electrical problems (do remember to wear rubber gloves and footwear) or leaking pipes to ideas for throwing a bachelor party or making new cocktails, the DIY Network has a huge video library of things to do. Its ‘entertaining made remade’ blog also lets you recreate things from what’s around you. 

So, if you have time on your hands, put your hands (and mind) to use. Who knows, you may end up with an invention of your own? 

Source | Hindustan Times | 29 April 2014

Top Five Free Web Based Drawing Tools

BANGALORE: Nowadays creating a unique and noticeable diagrams, be it technical document or project plan, is not at all a tough task, thanks to all the free web-based drawing tools. Even IT firms can make use of these tools to create diagrams such as UI layouts, flowcharts, and use cases in any browser. All these drawing tools are highly recommended, as they can create images with speed of light. Check out top five web based free drawing tools as listed by Articpost. 

Gliffy: This online drawing tool is based on HTML 5 and it helps to create UML Diagrams, flowcharts, UI form components, ER diagrams, and more. Using Gmail account, you can sign up with Gliffy in order to save your drawings. In the free plan only 5 diagrams can be created and can utilize maximum of 2MB storage space. Gliffy Library contains some good sets of shapes that are well categorized. Using this categories, users can even develop a floor plan for their home or office. Gliffy’s chart feature will make use of your Google Spreadsheet to create charts and you can place the created charts into your diagram. There are Revision History for each diagram you generate. In case you need the previous version of your diagram, with the help of Revision History you can revert to the previous version. Using the Collaborate option which is located under the Share Menu, you can forward your diagram to the team mates. Your diagram will be in private mode by default, change this to public mode and share the link via Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. So anyone can view your diagram without having to register with Gliffy. Images can be exported to Gliffy, SVG, JPG or PNG format.

 

Draw.io: This is an online diagram drawing tool that can create diagrams using any browser. Draw.io is an mxGraph JavaScript Library based tool that is widely used by the top companies throughout the world. This tool provides 18 categories of shapes for creating your diagrams. Only 9 default categories are displayed in this tool, if you need to load all of them just click on More Shapes options that is located under File Menu. Using this tool, you can create UML Diagrams, Lean Mapping based diagrams, Entity Relation Diagrams, and more. In this tool three categories are allotted to BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation), using these users can mold their business process. It also contains categories such as Mockup Forms, Mockup Buttons, and Mockup Navigation to develop Mockup screens or UI for the software or application that you create. There are other 6 Clipart categories available which can be used for various functions, users can also take an image from Google and place it in their diagram which can be saved in different file format such as JPG, GIF, PNG, PDF, SVG or XML.

 

Creately: In order to sign up with Creately, you can make use of your Google, Twitter, or Facebook accounts. The free plan enables to create only 1 Project, 5 diagrams and includes maximum of 3 collaborators. Features such as User Management, Visio Import, SVG Export, and Multiple Admins are only available in personal and Team Paid plans. Using this tool, you can create wide range of images like Site Maps, Family Trees, Story Boards, UI Mockups, Network Diagrams, Infographics, and Value Stream Mapping, and so on. Based on your choice for drawing the diagram, this online drawing tool offers templates that can be used as a base to develop your diagram. You can import images that are in the format of GIF, JPEG, SVG, PNG, VSX, VDX, VTX and CMDL. You can also save your created diagrams in the form of CMDL, XML, PDF, SVG, JPEG or PNG.

Lucid Chart: The tool can provide all its features only for 14 days and after that you will have to move back to the free account which misses some of the previously used technicalities. As Lucid Chart is based on HTML5, it can work well with any of the browsers. The Lucid Master Page concept is really notable. After creating a page, add the contents in header and footer of the page that you need to reuse throughout the pages. Then use the Convert to Master option from the Page menu to change your page as a Master page. The Hotspots feature in Lucid Chart helps for creating actions that make the image interactive in demo mode. The Library of Lucid Chart is loaded with some good objects, which can be used to create exemplary diagrams. Group Chat feature of this tool enables to converse seamlessly with their team mates. The diagrams can be downloaded in the form of PNG, PDF, and JPEG 

ASCII Flow: If you are searching for an easy method to create some diagrams, then ASCII Flow is best choice. This tool is based on GWT (Google Web Template) and it operates on Google App Engine and is very simple and easy to use. Draw the boxes and arrows wherever you need them, and insert the text using the type tool. After completing the insertion, just press the enter key in order to save the text. Once you are done, you can export in the form of text or HTML. Even if this tool is not much influential like the rest of the above, you can use this while you send diagrams in plain HTML.

Source | http://www.siliconindia.com