Twitter and the Little Blue Bird

Have You Seen These?
 

The little blue bird is everywhere. Perhaps you’ve seen it popping up on a friend’s Facebook newsfeed, or maybe at the end of a television advertisement, on promotional flyers for your favourite stores and restaurants, it is even popping up on some of your favourite athlete’s uniforms and gear. What is this little blue bird? It seems like its taking over the world.

It is.

The little blue bird that you are being bombarded with is the international symbol for Twitter. What is Twitter?

 

In order to understand how to use Twitter, you need to learn the lingo so lets begin with a series of definitions:

“Tweet”: A Tweet is a 140-character post. Tweeting is the fuel for Twitter. Tweet about what you are doing, where you are, shout out to your favourite restaurants or stores, provide links to websites, interesting articles, cool pictures, videos, quotes, the possibilities are endless!

“Follow”: When you sign into Twitter you are faced with a newsfeed, similar to what you are used to seeing with other social networking websites such as Facebook. You can see the posts from your other friends. In Twitter, you can see the Tweets of the people that you “follow”.  To choose a follower, type in the name of the person or organization that you wish to “follow” in the search field. Once their name pops up click the “Follow” button beside their name.

“Followers”: Followers are the Twitter users that follow you on Twitter.

“Username”: Your username is your unique Twitter ID. It allows other users to “Follow”, “Tag”, “Reply” and “Retweet”/”RT”  to you.

“@”/”Tag”: The “@” character is used to “tag” another Twitter user in your tweet. To use this feature, key in the “@” symbol immediately followed by the username of the person that you wish to tag with no spaces (i.e. @username01). Next you write out the rest of your tweet as usual. Once you finish, click on the “Tweet” button your friend will receive a notification saying they have been tagged and providing them with a link to your tweet.

“Reply”: The “Reply” feature allows you to respond to another person’s tweet by tweeting and tagging them in your response. Underneath of the tweet that you wish to respond to, click on the reply button.

A second window will appear where you can respond. This window will automatically have the username of the person that you wish to respond to with the “@” symbol. Once you finish typing in your message, click “Tweet”.

Once you have clicked “Tweet”, the user that you are replying to will receive a notification letting them know that you have replied to their tweet.

“Retweet”: If a user that you “follow” has tweeted something really interesting and you would like to share it with your “followers”, you have the option to “Retweet”, by clicking the “Retweet” button below the interesting Tweet.

This again will bring up a box, this time, with a confirmation of the message, showing you how it will appear on your Twitter page. Click “Retweet”. The original poster will be notified that you have “Retweeted” their tweet.

“Trending Topics”: A trending topic is a word or phrase (“hash tagged” or not) that has the twitterverse abuzz. The trending topics change on a regular basis and differ in various geographic locations. A trending topic can be a name, a word, a question, a funny one-liner etc.

“#”/“Hash Tags”: A hash tag is used to define the topic or theme of your tweet. By including a hash tag, you and your followers are given the option of clicking on the tag to see what other users have posted about the same topic or theme.

Note: Hash tags have no spaces. If you have input a hash tag correctly it will appear as a different coloured link.

Once it has been posted, the text will look like this:

Its for Businesses Too!

Twitter is not just for individuals, it can work great as a marketing tool for small businesses and charitable organizations as well! (See post “Small Businesses & Social Media: To Tweet or Not to Tweet?”).

For more information on how Twitter works and what you can use it for, check out this video posted on Twitter’s YouTube page.

If you would like more instruction on how to use Twitter, give us a call at the Picton Branch Computerlab and our staff would be more than happy to show you how everything works!

#HappyTweeting!

Google Chrome - Your Browsing Companion

Google Chrome is the newest internet browser to become available for free. Although it does not come installed on any computer, you can easily download the browser by visiting http://www.google.com/chrome. For detailed instructions on how to download and install Chrome please see the previous blog post Internet Browsers... What’s the diff?

Once Chrome has been downloaded and installed, to start up Chrome you can simply double-click the shortcut  for Google Chrome or go into your Start Menu and click Google Chrome.

Now that Chrome has been launched, you can begin browsing the internet however you would like.  The first function that you need to know is how to enter the address of a website you would like to visit.

Entering an Address
1) Click on the Chrome address bar which will highlight the current address
2) Type the address of the website that you wish to visit (eg. www.google.ca) and press Enter

This will then take you to the website you wish to view.  If you do not end up on the website you were trying to access, please make sure that you have spelled everything correctly and that all parts of the website address are included (i.e. www.google.ca, not just google)

Bookmarking Websites
Once you’ve located a website that you visit often, you can add the site to your Bookmarks so that you only need to click a link to retrieve it, as opposed to typing in the website address every time.  

To add a website to Bookmarks (or Favorites):
1) Navigate to the website that you wish to Bookmark by entering the address into the address bar and pressing Enter.
2) Once on the correct website, click the blank star located in the right-hand corner of your address bar
3) After clicking the star, it will become a solid yellow colour and verify that your bookmark has been added - it will also ask you to input a Name for the website and to verify what folder you would like the bookmark stored in.  If you do not have a preference, you can leave the information Chrome already inputs into those fields.

4) Once satisfied with your information, press Done.

Adding and Deleting Toolbars
A Toolbar is a strip of icons that are located underneath or above the address bar in your web browser that, when clicked, allow you to access different functions or commands. In Chrome you have one toolbar option - Bookmarks Bar.

Bookmarks Bar: This is the toolbar that shows you what websites have been bookmarked, and allow you to access those websites without having to enter in the web address. The toolbar will appear underneath your address bar, and will provide you with the name of your bookmark as well as an icon. To add this toolbar, click the small Tools icon located next to your address bar . Scroll down to Bookmarks, and then click Show Bookmarks Bar (CTRL + SHIFT +B).
Toolbars that are created by websites or programs can also be added to your web browser (e.g. AVG Anti-virus Software Toolbar, Google Toolbar, Yahoo! Toolbar, Ask.com Toolbar etc).  Always read the information when downloading a program or software, because often a toolbar is included in that download.  This toolbar will be installed in your web browser unless you specifically un-click that option.

Setting Your Homepage
The first web page that your internet browser brings up when  you start it is called your Homepage

Setting your homepage is easy!
1) Click Tools .
2) Scroll down to and click Options - this will open another tab within your Chrome window.
3) Enter the address of the website you wish to set as your homepage next to homepage where it says Open This Page (eg. http://peclibary.org).
4) Exit out of the tab - your settings changes have automatically been saved!

Clearing Your History

Another important function you should know about your web browser is how to clear your information from it.   When browsing web sites, your computer automatically saves information about each visit.  It is important to know how to clear this information so that anyone who uses your computer, lawfully or otherwise (i.e. friends, family or hackers), cannot access your important information.  

To delete your browsing history:

1) Click Tools
2) Scroll down to and click Options - this will open another tab within your Chrome window.
3) Click Under The Hood - located in the left-hand panel.
4) Click Clear Browsing Data - this will bring up another small window and ask you to Obliterate the Following Items From: - click the drop down menu and select The Beginning of Time.
5) Click Clear Browsing Data

Becoming Firefox Friendly

Mozilla Firefox was one of the first freeware web browser alternatives to Internet Explorer, and is still a popular option today. Although no computer comes with Firefox pre-installed, it is easy to download and install on your own home computer.  To download Firefox, visit http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ and click Firefox Free Download, this should begin the installation of Firefox automatically, and the setup instructions are easy to follow and will walk you through the process.  

Once Firefox has been downloaded and installed, to start up Firefox you can simply double-click the shortcut  that has embedded itself onto you desktop, or go into your Start Menu and click Mozilla Firefox.

Now that Firefox has been launched, you can begin browsing the internet however you would like.  The first function that you need to know is how to enter the address of a website you would like to visit.

Entering an Address
1) Click on the Firefox address bar which will highlight the current address
2) Type the address of the website that you wish to visit (eg. www.google.ca) and press Enter
This will then take you to the website you wish to view.  If you do not end up on the website you were trying to access, please make sure that you have spelled everything correctly and that all parts of the website address are included (i.e. www.google.ca, not just google)

Once you’ve located a website that you visit often, you can add the site to your Bookmarks so that you only need to click a link to retrieve it, as opposed to typing in the website address every time.  

To add a website to Bookmarks (or Favorites):
1) Navigate to the website that you wish to Bookmark by entering the address into the address bar and pressing Enter.
2) Once on the correct website, click Bookmarks in the top left-hand corner of the web browser, and then scroll down to Bookmark This Page.
3) Click Bookmark This Page (CTRL + D). This will bookmark the page, and allow you to enter information about that page (i.e. Name and the folder you wish to store the bookmark in).
4) Once you have entered the information, click Done. Ta-da! The website has now been added to your Bookmarks, and can be accessed simply by clicking Bookmarks and scrolling down to the correct page.

Adding and Deleting Toolbars
A Toolbar is a strip of icons that are located underneath or above the address bar in your web browser that, when clicked, allow you to access different functions or commands. In Firefox, you have 3 toolbar options - Menu Bar, Navigation Toolbar, and Bookmarks Toolbar.

Menu Bar:  This brings your File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks, Tools, and Help options into a tool bar above your address bar for easier access.  Normally, this toolbar is already showing.  If not, to add this toolbar simply click View, then scroll down to Toolbars, and then over to Menu Bar and click it.  To remove it, follow the same process and un-check Menu Bar.
Navigation Toolbar: This is the bar that allows you to enter in web addresses to navigate from website to website.  Normally, this toolbar is already showing. If not, to add this toolbar simply click View, then scroll down to Toolbars, and then over to Navigation Toolbar and click it. To remove it, follow the same process and un-check Navigation Toolbar.

Bookmarks Toolbar: This is the toolbar that shows you what websites have been bookmarked, and allow you to access those websites without having to enter in the web address. The toolbar will appear underneath your address bar, and will provide you with the name of your bookmark as well as an icon.

In this image you can see Fantastic Fiction is bookmarked underneath the navigation toolbar with not only the name of the website but its icon  as well.

Toolbars that are created by websites or programs can also be added to your web browser (e.g. AVG Anti-virus Software Toolbar, Google Toolbar, Yahoo! Toolbar, Ask.com Toolbar etc).  Always read the information when downloading a program or software, because often a toolbar is included in that download.  This toolbar will be installed in your web browser unless you specifically un-click that option.

Setting Your Homepage

The first page that your internet browser brings up when you start it is called your Homepage .  Usually you want your homepage to be the website that you visit most, that way you don’t have to waste time navigating to it.

Setting your homepage is easy!  
1) Click Tools in you menu toolbar.
2) Scroll down and click Options.  This will open up a smaller window.
3) In the smaller window click the General tab.  Enter the address of the website you wish to set as your homepage next to homepage.
4) Click OK.

Clearing Your History

Another important function you should know about your web browser is how to clear your information from it.   When browsing web sites, your computer automatically saves information about each visit.  It is important to know how to clear this information so that anyone who uses your computer, lawfully or otherwise (i.e. friends, family or hackers), cannot access your important information.  To delete your browsing history:

1) Click Tools in your menu toolbar.

2) Scroll down to and click Clear Recent History.

3) Make sure that it will clear Everything and click Clear Now.

I've Got My E-reader... Now What?

So you purchased yourself an e-reader? Congrats!  You’re now connected to the big, wide world of electronic books, magazines, newspapers, and comics.  How do you go about getting those lovely e-books on to your e-reader? Well that’s a different story.  

Although each e-reader that is available on the market these days has a slightly different method of purchasing and borrowing books, there are some commonalities between most of them.  To begin with, each e-reader that you will purchase will come connected to a Book Store that allows you to purchase e-books to put on your e-reader and your home computer.  The latest models will allow you to do this wirelessly right from your e-reader.  Reading the user guide that accompanies your e-reader is the best way to get instructions on how to purchase books from the store.

Borrowing e-books is a whole other bag of tricks.  Your local library, such as the County of Prince Edward Public Library and Archives , will most likely work with an online lending program called Overdrive.  The program works exactly like your library, you can borrow e-books electronically for between 7-14 days, as well as audiobooks for 7 days.  

You do require a library card and a 4 digit pin that is assigned to you by the library.  
If you don’t know your pin, please feel free to contact the library at 613-476-5962

and any of the staff can assist you.

Dedicated E-readers
Borrowing E-books
For e-readers that do not have app capabilities (i.e. Kobo Touch, Sony Reader PRS-505 Barnes and Noble Nook etc), to borrow books through the Overdrive program you must first have a program called Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your desktop or laptop computer. ADE is free software provided by Adobe (available at http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/ ) that acts like a digital library on your computer’s desktop and keeps all of the downloaded books in one spot.  ADE allows you to manage your books once you have borrowed them, transfer them to your e-reader, and return your books if you finish them before the lending period has expired.  You will NOT be able to access your books on your e-reader without ADE.

This is what the Adobe Digital Editions download page looks like.
Please scroll down slightly on the Adobe web page to see the Launch button

ADE will walk you through step-by-step how to install the program

Now that you have downloaded ADE, the program will launch itself and ask you to complete the setup.  You must have an Adobe ID to authorize the product to your computer.  If you do not have an ID, click Get Adobe ID. This will open up a new window or tab in your web browser and take you to the Adobe website.  Underneath New to Adobe?, click Create An Adobe Account.  
Fill out the information in the required form, and submit.  This will create your Adobe ID that you can now use to finish authorizing Adobe Digital Editions - simply enter the email address that you registered to your Adobe ID, and the password that you used.

Once you have downloaded ADE and authorized it, proceed to the Overdrive website and click Login.

This is the home page for Overdrive

Enter County of Prince Edward Public Library in the Log-In form and then enter in your library card number and your pin.  This will bring you My Account.  
From this page you can then Quick Search for a specific book that you would like to download, or you may use the navigation tools on the left hand side to browse various genres of e-books and audio books.  When you have located an e-book that you wish to borrow, click Add to Cart.  If the book is not available, you can Place a Hold and you will be notified when the book is available for you to borrow.  By clicking Add to Cart you will be taken to My Cart where you will see the book that you are borrowing, your lending period (from 7-14 days; you can modify this option under My Account), what file type the e-book is (make sure the file type is compatible with your e-reader - compatibility lists can be found at http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/), and will give you the option to remove the book.  If you wish to borrow the book, click Proceed to Checkout. You will then be asked to Confirm Your Checkout, and then Download the file - you will need to Save the file to your computer.

When the file has been downloaded and saved to your computer one of two things will happen.  First, ADE might recognize that you have downloaded a book and automatically open and import the book into your ADE library. Secondly, you may have to do this manually. To do so, open ADE and and from the Library drop down menu in the top left-hand corner, select Add Item To Library (CTRL + O).  This will open a new window and ask you to locate the downloaded e-book file.  Once you’ve located the e-book file, double click on the file and this will import the e-book into ADE.  The e-book cover will now appear in your library in ADE.  You’re HALF WAY to getting your e-book onto your e-reader.

Now that your e-book is in ADE, plug your e-reader into your computer via the USB cable that comes with it.  Allow the computer a couple of minutes to recognize that you have connected your e-reader.  Once the computer has recognized your hardware, the name of the e-reader will show up in the left-hand panel in ADE, underneath Recently Read.

Notice that the KOBOeReader is now recognized in Adobe Digital Editions,
underneath Recently Read in the left-hand panel.

Once ADE has recognized your e-reader device, you are able to Drag and Drop the book that you have downloaded onto your e-reader.  All you need to do is left-click on the image of the book in your ADE library, hold the mouse button, and drag that image over onto the title of your e-reader in the left-hand panel.  When the green plus sign appears, you may release the left mouse button and your e-book will be transferred over to your e-reader. This may take a few seconds.

And there you have it folks! You have successfully synced your e-book to your e-reader! You are now able to take your e-reader wherever you go, and can read your downloaded e-book until your lending period has expired.

Please note: ALWAYS remember to safely eject your e-reader before disconnecting from your computer.  To do this, click the Show Hidden Icons button , click the Safely Remove USB button (the icon with the green check mark) and then choose your e-reader device. This will safely disconnect your e-reader so that you do not lose any data.

Returning E-books
Once you have finished reading your e-book, you have two options.  You can either wait for the lending period to expire, and the book will automatically no longer be available to view on your e-reader - the book will still appear, but you won’t be able to access it - you can simply delete the item; OR you can return the book and delete it from ADE and your e-reader.

To return the book to Overdrive (this frees up 1 of the 5 books that you are allowed to borrow at a time), open ADE and move your mouse cursor over the book that you wish to return.  In the top left hand corner of the book title page you will see a sideways arrow appear (it resembles a play sign  but will turn into a downward facing arrow once clicked), click Return Borrowed Item (if the item has expired but you wish to get rid of the inaccessible item choose Delete Item). This will return the item to Overdrive, as well as delete the file from Adobe Digital Editions.
























Sony Reader Wifi (older models please refer to Dedicated E-Readers)
Borrowing E-books


Open the Public Library app and find County of Prince Edward Public Library. Click the provided link for the Ontario Library Services Download Centre and then click Log-In in the top right-hand corner.  Search for County of Prince Edward Public Library in the Log-In form, and then enter in your library card number and your pin.

This will bring you to My Account.  From this page you can then Quick Search for a specific book that you would like to download, or you may use the navigation tools on the left hand side to browse various genres of e-books and audio books.  When you have located an e-book that you wish to borrow, click Add to Cart.  If the book is not available, you can Place a Hold and you will be notified when the book is available for you to borrow.  By clicking Add to Cart you will be taken to My Cart where you will see the book that you are borrowing, your lending period (from 7-14 days; you can modify this option under My Account), what file type the e-book is (make sure the file type is compatible with your e-reader - compatibility lists can be found at http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/), and will give you the option to remove the book. If you wish to borrow the book, click Proceed to Checkout. You will then be asked to Confirm Your Checkout, and then Download the file.  The book will then appear in your books list on your e-reader!

NOTE: You CANNOT return books early with this model of the Sony Reader.


E-Readers with Overdrive Apps
Borrowing E-books

By choosing an e-reader that has Overdrive app capabilities (Kobo Vox, tablets - i.e. iPad, Android tablet, Asus Eee Pad), you have made your adventure for borrowing and returning e-books significantly easier!

Access the App Store on your e-reader, and search for Overdrive.  Locate the Overdrive app and download it to your e-reader. Open the Overdrive app and Login. Enter in County of Prince Edward Public Library in the Log-In form, and then enter in your library card number and your pin.  This will bring you My Account.  This will bring you My Account.  From this page you can then Quick Search for a specific book that you would like to download, or you may use the navigation tools on the left hand side to browse various genres of e-books and audio books.  When you have located an e-book that you wish to borrow, click Add to Cart.  If the book is not available, you can Place a Hold and you will be notified when the book is available for you to borrow.  By clicking Add to Cart you will be taken to My Cart where you will see the book that you are borrowing, your lending period (from 7-14 days; you can modify this option under My Account), what file type the e-book is (make sure the file type is compatible with your e-reader - compatibility lists can be found at http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/), and will give you the option to remove the book.  If you wish to borrow the book, click Proceed to Checkout. You will then be asked to Confirm Your Checkout, and then Download the file.  The book will then appear in your books list on your e-reader!

Returning E-books
To return your e-book on your Overdrive app,  you must select the book title that you wish to return.  Once the book has been selected, choose the Delete option, and then  choose Return and Delete.  Do not choose Delete Without Returning unless your book lending period has already expired.

For any questions that are not explained here, please feel free to leave a comment and one of our CAP Interns will be delighted to help you!