 I'm Sam, and welcome to this edition of Sam's Tech Talk. And in case you guys hadn't noticed, I'm doing something a little bit different today. You know how I usually mention to everybody at the end of my episodes, where you can go for help if you need help with computers? Today, I'm going to be introducing a good friend of mine, because I've been working with her for a number of years now. Her name is Kelly Rodey. And she is with the Meade Public Library. And she's the person that you contact if you need private tutoring help and that kind of stuff. And today, I'm going to be talking with her about some of the things that you can do here at the library. Hi, Kelly, and welcome. Hi, thank you. Can you tell us a little bit about what you do at the library? Well, I don't just read, of course not. Books are a big part of us. We're sitting in front of some. But we also have so much more that we do here at the library. One of our main things is help people learn different ways. And everyone learns in different ways. So we have different ways that people can learn. We have books. We have computers. And talking with other people will help people learn as well. Sure, sure. How did you and I get involved with each other at the library? We work on computer basic classes together, which we have where the public can come in and drop in and talk with us about computer issues they are having and how to use a computer and how to use programs and things like that. OK, and how has that changed since we first started doing it? What have you seen that's different now than what it used to be when we first started? Well, when we first started, it was all computers. And now it's people have tablets and phones. And that's what they need help using instead of more desktop computers that were traditional. Sure, sure. And a person, really, if they have a special device, they really need to bring it with them, correct? Yes. Yeah, because we don't always have access to one here at the library. And there are so many different tablets and devices out there now that we don't know every single one. But usually, by looking at them, seeing in front of them, we can work through and figure out how it works. And when do we have those sessions? We have them on Thursday afternoons here at the library in the loft on the third floor. They're on the second and third Thursdays of the month between 1 and 2 o'clock. Our next one is in a couple weeks, but we'll be getting again in the new year. Yeah, OK. So we only have one during the month of November this year. And then we'll start again, usually about February, maybe? We'll be doing it in January. Starting again in January. And again, those are on the second and third Thursdays of every month there from 1 to 2 o'clock. And those are in the libraries loft up on the third floor. Now, can you tell us about some of the other things that people can do with computers here at the library? So we have a bunch of internet stations or computer stations that people can use their library card to sign on. And it's free to get a library card. Just come on to any of the desks here at the library. You can get a library card. You need to show a photo ID. And it's free. And once you have that, you can log on to our computers. We have programs, so you can type up resumes. We have where you can go on the internet and do whatever you would like to do on the internet. But it's all free. You have four hours a day to use on the computers. And I did notice that they're starting to do something a little bit different than having just a traditional library card for getting on the computers here. They're going to be changing that, correct? Correct. Now you can just have internet-only cards where if you don't have all the identification, you need to get a full library card. You can get a card so you can just go on the internet. OK, so you can use the computers here at the library to use those for internet access. Correct. Just with that internet access card without having a full-fledged library card to check out. That is right. OK. Another thing that we've noticed here, because I've been around for a long time cleaning, I clean all these computers here that everybody uses. So I try to keep you guys healthy during the cold and flu seasons and trying to make it where everybody's working with that there. So if you have a computer and it smells nice and clean or it looks nice and clean, you can thank me for that, because I've been doing that for a number of years now. And we've changed how those are a little bit. Everything's out in the open more now than it used to be. But I've noticed too that we have started seeing some other things that are available at the library, like some specialized little things that they do. Like, people don't realize a lot of times that you can check out electronic books from the library. With your library card, you can add a program here. And you can read digital books on your tablets and those kind of things. And Kelly, can you tell us a little bit more about that program? Yes. We have several different programs that you can get on the computer with your library card. We have something called Overdrive, which you can download ebooks and audiobooks. And it's free, and you get them for a certain amount of time. You can automatically get returned, which is great. You don't have to worry about, oh, can't get to the library and return that. You don't have to worry about that. You can do this from your own home. It's great. We also have something called Hoopla, which has audiobooks and ebooks, comic books, movies, and television shows. It's also great. And we have something called Freegal, which you can download music or stream music. So kind of like Pandora, but it's for you to get five hours a day of streaming music. And every week, you get three songs you can download that's yours to keep forever. Oh, OK. Yeah. So you can stream music as well as getting three songs a week. A week. A week. Three songs to keep every week that you don't have to pay anything for. And I know that with most of them, you're going to pay at least $1, sometimes $3 for each individual song. So that's a pretty good feature for the library giving that to you there. With Overdrive, now, you say that these books will automatically return themselves. Yes. OK. Now, I have one pet peeve that I have with that, because I'm an avid audiobook listener. I listen to books all the time. And you can put those on hold, and you're waiting for them and everything. And you're the next person on the line, and you've been waiting for that book forever. And you know that person didn't take a full two weeks to read it. If you're gotten a book that it's been on the waiting list for a really long time, you can return it as soon as you're finished with it. You don't have to wait. Because if you're on a big waiting list for a book, sometimes it's a good courtesy to just pass that one on to the next person. Because you know how excited you were to get that book. So maybe pass it on as soon as you're finished, so that way it can get on to the next person. Because that's been always one of my pet peeves. I'm waiting for a book, and I know that when I got it, I listened to it in like three days. But I could have kept it for 11 more days. So I always encourage people, if you get one and it's on a waiting list, return it as soon as you can. Be courteous to the next person who's going to get it. So that's one of the great things there. But the good thing about the 14-day checkout with those is if you forget, it automatically returns itself. And you don't have to worry about getting the fines and everything with that. How many books are available through the electronic program? There's over 20,000, maybe even 40,000 books altogether that invests e-books. And then there's probably another 10 or 20,000 audiobooks that are available through Overdrive. Okay, and it's something that a lot of people don't understand about that. It's aren't there with some books, aren't there multiple digital copies available when you guys first get them? Yes. And then as the book gets older, your number of copies diminishes? Yes. Every publisher has a different way that we can buy books from them. And some of them we only get to, after 26 people use the book, we have to buy another copy of it. So it all depends on the publisher and the book. But we often buy for especially those popular authors, we buy multiple copies of those books so that people don't have to wait as long. Oh, sir, sir, that's one good thing there. Okay, now you talked about things like Overdrive and Hoopla and what was the new one you were saying? Friegel. Friegel, okay. Now, do you have special programs out there where you bring people in and train them just to use those? Yes, and we'll be having several of them in January. After the holidays, a lot of people get tablets and new devices for it. So we like to do programs. So we'll have a program on each of our e-content providers. That's what we call things like Overdrive. We'll have a class. You can check our website, meadpl.org, and we have a calendar there. So you can look on the calendar and find out when those days are. And you can come in and bring in your device and I'll be there and I'll kind of walk you through what the step is and then we'll do it hands-on right there. So you all have the experience of how it works. Okay, okay. All right, now, when it comes to doing all of these different things at the library, say someone can't come in at the time when you're having these open sections. How else would they be able to make arrangements to learn how to do these things? They can call us here at the library and we can set up one-on-one tutoring. And sometimes it'll be some, like, Kamani will be helping. I do it, yeah, I do it, yeah. But we have several other volunteers or myself or some of the other staff members who will help on one-on-one basis. They just call and give us a little bit of time so we can work out getting in the other person to come in and talk. But yeah, call the library and we can set up an appointment, a one-on-one appointment if you can't make it at those computer basic classes or any of those other classes that we have. Okay, and when we say a one-on-one appointment, one thing we wanna let you know is that you're not out in the open at the library. We do take you into a private area, into a private room. So, you know, we're covering what you want to learn about. So you don't have to worry about being out with everybody, you know, so you have to worry about keeping quiet. You don't have to worry about being embarrassed if you don't think your skill level is where it needs to be. We're here to help. We wanna make it good and enjoyable for you. So we do take you into private areas for that. Now, Kelly, another thing. I noticed that we've got a new area on the second floor for people to enjoy. Can you tell us what that's being called? And what are all the things that people can come and enjoy doing there? I'm very excited. We have a new space. It's called the Imaginarium. And that is a maker space. That is a spot where the public can come in and be creative, use their imagination, use the equipment that we have out there. And we have a ton of really great equipment out there. We have these great iMac computers that have all this great technology for photo editing, sound editing, video editing. We have tons of great software on there. We have a 3D printer, which I think is great fun. And this is free, remember? And so you can make 3D images. It melts plastic and you can make an image come to life. It's quite extraordinary. We have a VHS converter. So if you have your old VHS tapes and you want it to be on a CD or a DVD, yep. Thank you, a DVD or even digital, we have the equipment here that you can now take your old wedding video or and put that on a DVD to keep or store it electronically so you have a get to keep as well. Okay, so like it was in the day that when you and I were growing up, the VHS cameras were the big thing. If you had one of those, your family put everything on that. So if your family has a bunch of those VHS things there, you can convert them now, as Kelly said. You can put them on DVD or you can make a computer file that can be sent to you. So you can just put it on a jump drive or whatever and you can have it out there to share it with your family. Now you said the 3D printer. Someone wants to print something on that 3D printer. Say something about maybe this big. How long does that take? That would probably take about six hours. It is slow. It goes layer by layer. So the smaller things, something about an inch tall will take about an hour to make. So it is time consuming, but it's a neat process to watch. Yeah, it's a neat thing to see those things kind of come to life. I've seen where they did one that looked like a little vase, but it was about, oh, about six inches tall. I think you guys had said that it would take eight hours to make that. And it's one of those things where, yes, it takes time and the more solid the image is, the better it's gonna look. Now I've seen a couple of things that we had. We'd had lots of little edges. And if it didn't quite do that the way it could, those edges were prone to breaking. That kind of things. The more intricate, kind of lacy type designs can be a little bit delicate for those kinds of things. Now you talked about having all of those things over there. Are those available all the time to everybody? Whenever we're open in the library, the space is open. You come sign in at the desk on the second floor for it. And as long as we're open, we do have some classes in there. So when we have the classes, then you can't use that space but you can always check our website for when those classes are going on. Or even come, we have a bunch of drop-in sessions that go on that you can kind of just see all the equipment. Because I do want to mention, yes, we do have a lot of technology out there, but we also have fun arts and crafts things in there as well. We have a sewing machine in there. So people can't, you know, my mom has a sewing machine and she has used it once. You know, so it's kind of expensive thing to buy to use only once. Well, you can come here to the library and use our sewing machine instead. We have art supplies, colored pencils. So we have more than just technology in there as well. It's a creative space for all different types of use. Sure, sure. You mentioned too another time. Like say a person needs to come in and do research on their families like genealogies. Do you guys help with that? Yes, we have several, we call them databases. They are research places where you can find more information. And here at the library, we have one great one that you have to use in the library but we have access to ancestry, which can be quite expensive to use that on your own. But we have access here in the library. You can come in and use our computers and find out some of your great family history, old, old direct, we have old, telephone records, census reports and things like that. So we have a lot of great information on there. We also have some other great databases. We have consumer reports that you can, so you can go on our computer and on our website. We have, there's a little research link and you'll see in there, consumer reports. So if you don't want to buy the magazine, you can come and look on there and type up what you're looking for. You're looking for a new fridge. You can look on there and find out what kind of ratings, what's a good one to buy. And we also have something called, I'm very excited about, is linda.com. And that has a bunch of training videos so that you can learn how to use iMac computers, the different technology on there. You can learn how to use a sewing machine. They have videos that you can watch. It kind of teaches you all different types of things. It's a great resource to check out just for self-learning. Well guys, it's getting close to my time to wrap up with Kelly here. And I'd really like to thank her for joining me. She and I've been working together for a number of years now. And how I'm always mentioning that you can come to the library for help and those kinds of things. I'd like to thank Kelly and the Meade Public Library for letting us come in here and do this today. And I hope that all of you might well at least come and check out the library to see what they have to offer here. So I'm gonna be wrapping up with Kelly here. And when I come back with you guys in just a couple of minutes, I'll be joining you from the Senior Activity Center to show you what's available there. When I lost my sight, the only thing I had was reading. Whatever your needs are, 99.9% of them can be met by the NLS program. You can choose from large print or browser or audio. It's a free service. It's amazing how much you can get. For information about the Braille and Talking Book program by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Library of Congress, visit loc.gov slash that all may read. Is a four-year college too expensive? Try starting out at a community college. Most four-year schools require that you take certain basic courses in the first two years anyway. So take those courses at an approved community college. Once you get those out of the way, you can transfer to a four-year university. Save smart, study smart. 25 tips to afford college. Funding provided by the Selective Service System, www.sss.gov. Today, more than ever before, women are on the front lines of America's defense. These brave women struggle and sacrifice to help keep our country secure. They deserve to be recognized for their service as guardians of freedom. Please support the American Legion's efforts to serve the growing number of women veterans. Go to legion.org slash honor veterans to find out how you can help. Television is a powerful and influential medium that allows different groups the opportunity to produce programming that directly affects their own communities. Public educational and government access channels ensure that all people regardless of race, age, gender, disability, religion, or economic status have access to local government information and the use of a public communication forum. Make sure everyone has a voice. Support your local tech channels. Hi everybody, and welcome back. This time, I'm coming to you from the Sheboygan Senior Activities Center. And I wanted to give you guys a little bit of an idea of another place you can go for help with computers. This place here is our wonderful computer room we have here that was donated with funds from different places. Like the Kiwanis Club gave part of the money and the Ruth Barron's family donated money for us to make this room what we have here. I am the computer tutor here at the Senior Center. I'm here two days a week. I'm here on Tuesday afternoons and I have sessions at one, two, and three. And then again on Wednesday mornings, I have sessions at nine, 10, and 11. And these sessions are private tutoring sessions. I cover whatever you wanna cover with whatever device that you have. And you do have to have an appointment for these sessions. And the number that you need to call to set up that appointment is 459-3290. Again, that number is 459-3290. And the person there at the desk can help you with that. If you're a member at the Senior Center, these private sessions are $3 each. If you're a guest, meaning you don't have a membership with the Senior Center, your sessions are $5 each. And they do ask that you pay for those when you make that appointment if you come into the desk to make that appointment. If not, you just pay when you come in. So we like to have that there. Wanted to show you guys that these computers that we have here around me are made available to you anytime you come into the Senior Center. So if there's no one sitting at this computer, you can sit down and use it for as long as you'd like to use it. And we also have some other ones that are just desktop models that are available if all of these other ones are being used. You just go to the receptionist up at the desk and she can get one out for you. And they can use that there. If you wanna come to the Senior Center and you need access to our Wi-Fi with your device, whether it's your smartphone, your tablet or whatever, we do have a Wi-Fi system here that's available for anybody who's in the Senior Center to use. If you need the password, you just go to the receptionist at the desk and she'll give it to you. You get it one time and then it's there for you every single time that you come in. Now, one thing to let you know when I do my tutoring sessions is I cover whatever you want to talk about. If you're having a problem with your email, bring your device in, I'll help you cover it with that. I've had people that hadn't even turned their device on yet. They needed help setting it up. So we set it up completely. Where you're sitting is at these two wonderful chairs right here. I sit beside you, you have your device in front of you and we go from there. Nothing you want to learn about is the wrong thing to learn about. Let me make that perfectly clear. Do you wanna know about it? I'm more than happy to teach you. There's no right thing to learn about, no wrong thing to learn about. It's your pace, whatever you wanna learn at. Some people come and see me for one or two sessions. I have some people that see me for several months to get the most out of their device. So, and my oldest student was in their nineties. So don't ever say that you're too old to learn this stuff because there's no way that you are. Now, there are a couple of other things that you can do here. We have it available if you're using the computer that is on the far left here with me right now. That is the only one that you can print from right now. We have a printer here in this room. You just make a small donation for your copies. Just cover the cost of the paper and that's there. Or you can bring in your own paper and print those things out there. The computers that we use here are most of them are Chromebooks. And that is the small computer that we showed you there. But we do actually have the devices hooked up to a larger monitor so people can see them better. So you got that there. And on my screen what I have here is the Senior Activity Center. So they do have a website. And that website is seniorcentercheboygan.com. So that's where you go to get to that. Gets all the information here. Now this room is available to you any time you come into the Senior Center if you need to use it. Or if you just need the wifi you can access that from any of the areas here that you come into. So what I wanted to first and foremost let you know is is that this is yours as a citizen of Cheboygan area. So you can come in here and use these at any point in time. If you need help when you're here, if I'm here I'm more than happy to help you out. If not there's usually someone around who can help you get going with what you need to do here. And another thing that we have in the room right now is that we do have a low vision reader. It's a magnifying system that is set up where if you have a book and you need it to be bigger on a screen we actually have the device here that you can use that for. So if you need help with seeing things there that is here in the room and it's available to anybody to come in and use. Certain times of the year I will also have just group classes that we have. I just finished a group of about six of them and I entitled the series Info Sessions. And we talked about the internet, we talked about email, we talked about Windows 10, smartphones, iPhones, Facebook. We did all of those kinds of things. If you are a senior and you'd like to see me cover another type of subject at some point in time let them know here. And if I get enough people that ask for it I'll be happy to put a class together. I tend to run those in groups where you have them in small groups of about five or six people at a time so you're not overwhelmed with information. And those sessions last about an hour. Usually when we do them they are free to members and they're a dollar for guests. So watch the Senior Center newsletter and they'll let you know about those things there. Now the big thing to remember is is that when you come to the Senior Center and you want my private tutoring sessions remember those do have to be set up on an appointment basis. And right now I'm scheduling out about two to three weeks in advance. Sometimes you're lucky and you'll get a canceled session where when you call in someone might have canceled and you can get in on those. But I wanted to just give you guys a little bit of an overview of what you can do here. Feel free to come in anytime you'd like. The Senior Center is here five days a week. Monday through Thursday they're here from 8.30 to four. And on Fridays they're here from 8.30 to two. So they'll take care of you there. So if you have any kind of things that you need help with please let us know. And again I'm Sam and I hope you've enjoyed this session of Sam's Tech Talk and I'll be joining you guys again real soon.