The Library’s own Computer Helpers blog has something for those who would like to use YouTube videos in their PowerPoint presentations.

YouTube’s terms of use say that all videos must come directly from them, so it is against their rules to download videos and use or convert them for use.

Instead, you can link to them from inside PowerPoint, and as long as you have an Internet connection, you can play them in a window on your PowerPoint slide.

Click here for instructions.

The fall book sale at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith will be held from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Oct. 6-8.

The campus, including the Library, is always looking for ways to cut waste and recycling costs.  One new way is by installing Print Release Stations for campus printers.

At closing, the Library usually finds a number of pages that were printed by mistake, or without thinking, which are never even picked up.  All these pages cost money (especially for expensive printer toner!) and even when recycled, take up time and energy.  Toner (the biggest cost) is not recyclable once used.

Your new campus i.d. is loaded with $10 worth of printing-only credit at the start of each semester for which you are registered, and you can add more money for printing yourself by going online with a credit card, or using the new payment station in the Library, to add credit with cash or a credit card.  You can also add credit at the Cashier’s Office in the Campus Center.

Just slide your card’s magnetic strip through the slot at the Printer Release Station and select your print job.  Enter your password for it, and the small charge is automatically deducted and your job prints.

You can see how many pages will print for each job, and how much it will cost.  (The amount shown there on your card is your total in all your accounts on the card, not just your printer account.  For details, go online to check your accounts.)

If the number of pages is unexpectedly large, check with the Library staff.  It may be that the print job has a bug that will cause a misprint, so you may want to find a way to send it in order to avoid that.

At this time, printing on campus is priced lower than the Fort Smith Public Library and many other places.

Jobs not printed will be deleted automatically after 2 hours, or after the Library closes each day.

If you have any problems with printing, please talk to Library staff.

Anyone not registered can buy a generic card and put money on it for printing only at the payment station in the Library.

You asked for it, we’ve been working on it, and now it’s here starting Fall 2009!

Room 201 in the Boreham Library is now our brand new computer lab, with 12 additional computers.

The lab has its own printer so you can use the campus printing system there.

Log on!

[updated 2009.4.14]

So, you got an email with the article you requested from the Library’s ILL (InterLibrary Loan) department attached.

But when you try to open it, your browser refuses, or flips out, or whatever.  And you can’t see it.

Why?

Some libraries we borrow from will send articles directly to you, saved in a graphics format called .tif — which is good if you need to enlarge it.  However, that isn’t a format normally used by your web browser and it doesn’t know how to handle it.

Sorry about that, but sending directly to you means you get your request much faster.  Besides, there is a way to handle it.

What do I do with it?

With the email visible on your screen, try a right-click on the attachment listed to get the little menu of things to do with it, and then click on Open with.  If you can do this, you can select Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (if you have that) to open the file.   Another program that you can install that will open all sorts of graphics files is a freeware program called IrfanView, and once that is installed you could Open with Irfanview.

You might have to Save the file to your own computer first, such as on your desktop, and then try the right-click / Open with method on it there.

If you absolutely cannot get it to open, send it to libloan@uafortsmith.edu and tell us you’re having trouble.  We’ll reformat it in something you can open, or else print it out for you.

Sorry about the extra steps, but the idea is to get you faster service and have your request to you ASAP!

Additional tip from Joni Stine on navigation through the tif.  Those little blue arrows appear near the bottom of the screen, and one can easily navigate through the article this way.

(Why .tif format?  If it’s a picture or photo, the .tif format is better for enlarging than .jpg or .gif and doesn’t get pixelated (blocky looking) as quickly.)

Dr. Kathy Wright points out that the orientation videos on Blackboard/WebCT online learning are here.

Trying to attach something to your email but can’t see the “My Computer” icon, just an “X” instead?

The 3rd video covers it under “Orientation part three“.

Move the cursor up over the “X” along the edge until it changes from an arrow to a hand.  Then click.

There’s also a troubleshooting video for other problems.

The Boreham Library offers ArkLink cards to faculty, students and staff, which give you library privileges (checking out materials) at many other libraries in the state, including the University in Fayetteville and ATU in Russellville.  Just ask at the Circulation Desk in the Library.

These cards are good for one semester, and come in especially handy for commuting students and faculty.  You can get a new one each semester you might need it, any time during the semester, but only from the campus where you are a registered student or employee.

Remember, also, that with a current semester sticker on your regular photo i.d. card, it can be used at the Fort Smith Public Library branches and Scott-Sebastian Regional Library branches.  The Registrar or the Library can put on a current semester sticker for you if you’re currently registered or employed.

Students using the free OpenOffice.org or OxygenOffice instead of Microsoft Office on their own computers should remember to save files in the Microsoft formats, not the default OpenDocument formats.

For example, instead of saving a report in the .odt format or a presentation in the .odp format:

change the Save as type: line to a Microsoft format such as .doc for reports and .ppt for PowerPoint:

This insures that your instructor can read the file and computers on campus can use it, and you can still work on it here or on OpenOffice.org or OxygenOffice on your own computer.

If you forget, however, the Boreham Library has a few staff computers with OpenOffice so staff can convert your files to Microsoft format for you, in a pinch.

To set OpenOffice.org or OxygenOffice to save in Microsoft formats automatically in the future, click here.

From time to time in Internet Explorer 7, you may see this warning pop up on a blue window when you click on a link:

[updated 2009.1.22]

WARNING: Be sure you have a CD and not a DVD disc.  Not all Library computers have drives that can write to a DVD, even though they can read it.  You may need to use a newer computer to burn to a DVD-RW or DVD-R disc.

• How to burn to a CD
• What if it won’t burn to my CD?
  

How to burn to a CD:

1.    Insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW into the drive

2.    Right-click the file you want to copy, and select Send To

3.    Select CD-RW Drive or CD-R Drive

4.    Open My Computer (if it’s not open from the step above)

5.    At the bottom of the screen, a message bubble “You have files waiting…” appears.

Click anywhere on the bubble…do not click on the x to close it.

6.    The “Files Ready to Be Written to CD” screen appears.

7.    Highlight the file(s) to copy.  Note:  If you want to keep the files already on the CD, you must

select them also by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on the files.

8.    Under CD Writing Tasks, click on “Write these files to CD”

9.    The CD Writing Wizard screen appears.     Click on Next.     Note: This may take a while.

10.    Click on Finish.     The CD ejects automatically.

If you want to check to see whether the files copied:

Close the CD tray

Close all windows

Click on My Computer

Click on the D: drive and open the file

[-- by Martha Coleman]

What if it won’t burn to my CD?

[by Dennis Van Arsdale]

Sometimes it works, and sometimes — not too often — it doesn’t.  Work, that is.

1. Check to be sure that you have a CD-RW disc (RW for ReWritable) and not a CD-R disc (R for Read only).  Once you finish a CD-R disc, that’s usually all you can put on it, even if it wasn’t full.  A CD-RW can have more added.
2. Be sure you have room on the CD-RW.  Check the amount of space left on the disc and then see if you’re trying to add file(s) which are too large.  You may need to delete something first to make room.
3. You cannot save to the same file name as one already on the disc.  You have to delete the old file on the disc before saving the new version.  (Yes, this is different than on the computer and on USB flash drives.  You cannot save “over” or “update” an old version on a CD.)
4. Sometimes even a Big Brand Name company can put out a lemon.  Maybe the disc itself is just defective.  If you bought several, try another one.  And another.  If you can use some of a pack, but not others, then the unusable ones are defective and you should mark them as defective so you don’t waste time on them again.
5. Wait — is that a CD or is it a DVD disc?  There are DVD-RW discs, but they may not work in many DVD drives which can write to a CD but not to a DVD.  Many older Library computers do not have DVD-writing drives, even though they can play DVDs.  (DVD writing drives were a later feature.)