Date: July 3
Time: 2-5pm
Hours: 3
Total Hours: 97
Today, I staffed the reference desk and tried to resolve an issue with the public computers.
Perry currently receives eRate-priced Internet. Under CIPPA, institutions receiving these discounted prices must internet access. Currently, this filter is blocking access to images.google.com. This, of course, limits patrons’ access to images and shows the ineffectiveness of filtering software. Staff are able to deactivate the filter as needed, but were unable to figure out a way to stop this site from being blocked. We also discovered that one of the public computers didn’t even have the filtering software installed on it!
eRate reduces the cost of providing internet access by libraries and schools. Libraries with limited budgets, like Perry, are most likely to benefit from this program. These libraries are unlikely to have dedicated IT staff. This makes filtering, disabling the filter, and unblocking specific websites the responsibility of public service staff, who have varying technical backgrounds. Next year, this will no longer be a concern for Perry. The eRate savings is not significant enough to continue, which removes the filtering requirement.
Perry is also moving to a new version of the Evanced event web application. Staff will receive training on this new software on Thursday. I am unable to attend (or conduct) this training, but I began using my experience in technology training to explore the site and create handouts.