by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
The Litchfield Library now has two new laptops and a
wireless printer for public use. This
mobile technology will offer our customers more flexibility in their computer
use.
The laptops are for use in the library only. You won’t be able to take them home with
you. But you will be able to sit
anywhere in the library you want: in a comfortable chair, at a table or desk
all by yourself, or in a study room. You
won’t have to sit right next to someone else.
And if you need to talk on the phone while using a computer, a laptop in
a study room is a great solution.
To check out a laptop, you will need a Pioneerland library
card, or another Minnesota library system’s card set up to use in Pioneerland. The card can have no more than $5 in fines,
and you must have the card with you. Make
sure to bring the laptop back up to the desk for us to check in when you’re
done.
If you don’t have your library card with you or it’s blocked
by fines, you will need to use one of our desktop computers. Luckily we have plenty of those and you’ll
have no difficulty getting a turn. You
don’t need a library card or ID to use those computers; you just write your
first name down at the front desk to sign in.
We’ve had many requests for a way to print from phones and
laptops, now that so many people bring in their own mobile devices to use our
Wi-Fi. We now have an e-printer in our
copy room. It doesn’t work like a wireless
printer that shows up as a printer choice on your phone when you’re
nearby. You will need to email your
document to the printer.
Talk to our staff or read the instructions on the printer if
you want to print from your mobile device in our library. It’s easy, but you will need to access your
email to make it work. The same printing
charges apply as on our large printer/copier: ten cents for a black and white
print and fifty cents for color.
Our desktop computers have gotten some updates lately, so
you may notice that things look a bit different when you go into Word or
Publisher. We now have Microsoft Office
2010.
You may not be aware that we have a scanner available for
public use. This is very handy when you
need to get a paper document to someone by email. There is no charge to use the scanner, so you
can save money over faxing if you have an email account you can sign into
anywhere and an email address to send it to.
We do not send faxes at the library anymore.
All of the Pioneerland libraries are getting laptops for
in-library use and wireless printers. If
you visit the Grove City and Dassel libraries now, you will find one laptop
available for checkout in each location, plus an e-printer that works like
Litchfield’s.
The world is moving more and more to mobile computing. We hope these new choices at the library will
give you the flexibility to accomplish the things you want to do.
