You are specially invited to the Digital Literacy Training organized by the Information Technology Section of the Nigerian Library Association. It will take place at Anambra State Library Board, Awka from 21st to 23rd March, 2016 (See Flyer above and contact the numbers on it if you need the Invitation Letter).
Note that the cost has been subsidized to N15,000 to enable everyone to attend even without institutional sponsorship. We are passionate about ensuring that every Nigerian Librarian is skillful in the area of technology adoption in library services. It is going to be purely practicals (Hands-on).
Please, avail yourselves this beautiful opportunity of learning so much at a very low financial cost.
We are expecting you at Awka!
Thank you.
Ngozi B. Ukachi, Ph.D Chairperson, Information Technology Section, Nigerian Library Association. E-mail: ukachingozi2001@gmail.com and ukachingozi2001@yahoo.com.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT CARDINTexting at the table when someone is talking to you should be a no-no.
Really? It’s that important? We all love our smartphones, but using them in the company of others, particularly at mealtime, is just plain rude. (It’s also gross. See item #3.)
What about the phone-in-the-lap trick? Not kosher. Even Emily Post says so. And that goes for any kind of social situation, whether it’s school, work, or a simple conversation with someone else.
Fix: If you must deal with another conversation, voice- or text-based, take it to another room or outside. And be sure to make the “no phones at the table” rule apply to everyone in your household, including yourself
18. Using your phone or tablet without a case
How will it end? Eventually your phone or tablet will die. The battery may explode. The CPU may melt down. Cosmic rays may fry the RAM. But realistically, you will probably just drop it.
No matter how sure-handed you are, and no matter how carefully you treat your devices, one day they are going to slip out of a pocket, or simply fall to the ground when someone’s elbow bumps against you.
Fix: The only solution is to enshroud your gadgets in cases—thick, sturdy ones. The flippy Smart Cover for your iPad is useless when a preteen fumbles it to the tile. Go for a thick rubber or silicone case that covers every corner of the device, such as the Otterbox Defender. A thinner, plastic case may do the job, but replace it when it becomes damaged.
19. Failing to pick up the phone
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT CARDINA blanket policy of ignoring your incoming calls may not make sense.
The phone rings. You look at the number and don’t recognize it. You let it go to voicemail, and that little red light blinks all day until you finally get around to playing the message.
Technology has given us a half-dozen ways to communicate with one another—virtually all at the expense of the fastest and most expedient, the telephone. It’s easy to understand why we don’t answer the phone anymore: We likely don’t want to talk to a solicitor, a pitchman, or a robotic telemarketer.
Fix: We’re not talking about breaking the rule against texting at the table (item #17), but a blanket policy against answering the phone may not make sense. Consider how much faster it would be to answer a simple question via voice than to read and respond to a long email message. Imagine that your $500-an-hour attorney is the one who is calling. Do you really want to force him to spend 10 minutes writing an email to you when he could have told you something on the phone in 30 seconds?
20. Failing to silence your phone
These days, just about every public performance begins with an entreaty to the audience to mute or turn off their cell phones. Thirty minutes later, the unmistakable jingle “Marimba” makes its presence, and its clueless owner, known.
Cell phones that erupt at the most inappropriate times are a cultural epidemic, and ironically it’s likely because we have heard so many commands to shut our phones off that we simply don’t hear them at all anymore.
Fix: While you likely can’t fix the behavior of the person sitting next to you, at least you can ensure you aren’t part of the problem. Simply make your default setting “ringer off.” Turn the ringer on only when you know you’re going to need to hear it ring—that is, any time it’s not in a pocket and out of arm’s reach.
21. Never rebooting
For all their advances in reliability, our gadgets remain incredibly susceptible to minor bugs of all kinds. Memory leaks are still rampant in Windows applications, flooding your RAM to make it unusable. Numerous applications still require reboots after they’re installed or updated, and the app will be stuck in limbo until that reboot occurs.
Windows 8 has improved reboot times (and reboot frequency), but every operating system—whether desktop or mobile—benefits from an occasional reboot. Think of it as a good night’s sleep for a device: A reboot lets it start fresh, free of digital baggage. A reboot may improve your device’s battery life.
Fix: Build rebooting into the natural downtime of your day, typically when you go to bed. Reboot your device to give it a refresh. Better yet, turn it off completely and save energy.
Bonus: Fix these bad email habits
Keeping a full inbox (clean it out!)
ILLUSTRATION BY ANDERS WENNGREN
Treat your inbox like your desk, with only essentials you need at that moment. As for everything else, file it, delete it, or transfer it to the calendar. Some task management approaches favor “inbox zero” (making your inbox totally empty), but the “no-scroll” goal (all inbox contents on a single screen) is more reachable for many.
Responding to spam (don’t!)
ILLUSTRATION BY ANDERS WENNGREN
There’s a difference between a mailing list or a promotional newsletter you signed up for and spam. The first you can unsubscribe from—and you should, liberally—the second you cannot. Use unsubscribe links for the former and invest in a spam filter for the latter. If spam becomes such a problem that you can’t manage it, consider the nuclear option: changing your email address.
Answering instantly (think first!)
ILLUSTRATION BY ANDERS WENNGREN
It’s tempting to write back to an email as quickly as possible so you can get it off your plate (and out of your inbox), but doing that can create its own problems. Consider setting your email client to delay its send/receive operation by 10 or 15 minutes. This gives you the chance to edit a message, add something to it (so that there is no second message, thereby keeping down the overall number of messages that you’re sending), and avoid the “I accidentally hit the Send button” goof-up. More critically, a delay lets the recipient know you took time to put together a thoughtful reply.
Replying to all (stop!)
ILLUSTRATION BY ANDERS WENNGREN
One reason our inboxes are so full: We send so much email. Bob sends an email to a dozen people because he doesn’t know who can help him solve a problem—and those dozen people then reply to everyone. Use ‘Reply to All’ sparingly, and be certain every recipient on an email thread needs to read your response.
Seek out FAQ section. If a company has a comprehensive FAQ section, by all means read it. Regrettably, a vast majority of companies do not have a FAQ section, or the FAQ section is a pathetic joke. Compounding the problem of bad/poor documentation is that so many companies do not create a printable User's Manual in PDF format. On-line "help" files, whether pathetic or not, are no substitute for printable documentation. Companies, take notice!
Many companies don't have any policy documents for the emplyees. One huge retailer has file cabinets full of procedures but employees don't get to see them. Units used by multiple users are the most corrupt. Each user figures that if he goes to a porn site and the unit gets a virus, it's not their problem. Lost equipment/tools is really not a question if the service person has to buy their own tools. Monitoring equipment that must be left onsite should be secured when not in use and locked down if left in the open.
@christophernull, so printing anything is a bad habit, really? I'm sorry but there are some things I need a real tangible copy of. And unix/linux can get by for years without a reboot while still running flawless. Perhaps if you weren't as short sighted as the tech illiterate average consumer you'd know better that some of those items on your list are a joke.
Another reason not to use your laptop on your lap: It can block the fans on the bottom (if it has them) and cause your processor to overheat, especially if it's an older laptop.
Some great tips, but I strongly disagree with a couple of them.
19. Failing to pick up the phone. - Sorry, but it's not my responsibility to worry about other people's time. If a fancy lawyer is giving me a call, he/she can leave a message.
Bonus: cleaning out inbox. I'm sorry, but I fail to see the analogy between a physical desk and my email. I don't have a handy search feature for my physical desk. In my view, being able to search for email (something GMail and Outlook can do somewhat quickly), renders Inbox Zero largely irrelevant. Plus, I don't have a good grasp on what emails I'll need later. Why waste my time organizing/deleting emails when a search function can pretty much bring up any email I need?
Buying too much tech stuff trying to keep up with everyone else. Today I'm like a hoarder on steroids. Need a cable? You come to the right place. Need an older smaller hard drive? Right place again. Need some old memory that failed a PC? Right again. And so on.
Some great tips, but I strongly disagree with a couple of them. 19. Failing to pick up the phone. - Sorry, but it's not my responsibility to worry about other people's time. If a fancy lawyer is giving me a call, he/she can leave a message. Bonus: cleaning out inbox. I'm sorry, but I fail to see the analogy between a physical desk and my email. I don't have a handy search feature for my physical desk. In my view, being able to search for email (something GMail and Outlook can do somewhat quickly), renders Inbox Zero largely irrelevant. Plus, I don't have a good grasp on what emails I'll need later. Why waste my time organizing/deleting emails when a search function can pretty much bring up any email I need?
Just a suggestion. Create a few subfolders in you email setup and chuck them into the folders as they come in based on criteria you create. I find organizing my emails based on either where they come from or what subject matter they are in regards to makes it simpler to find them when needed later. The search function is okay, but when you start getting 300+ emails to search through you run the risk of false hits or no hits at all.
Some great tips, but I strongly disagree with a couple of them. 19. Failing to pick up the phone. - Sorry, but it's not my responsibility to worry about other people's time. If a fancy lawyer is giving me a call, he/she can leave a message. Bonus: cleaning out inbox. I'm sorry, but I fail to see the analogy between a physical desk and my email. I don't have a handy search feature for my physical desk. In my view, being able to search for email (something GMail and Outlook can do somewhat quickly), renders Inbox Zero largely irrelevant. Plus, I don't have a good grasp on what emails I'll need later. Why waste my time organizing/deleting emails when a search function can pretty much bring up any email I need?
Just a suggestion. Create a few subfolders in you email setup and chuck them into the folders as they come in based on criteria you create. I find organizing my emails based on either where they come from or what subject matter they are in regards to makes it simpler to find them when needed later. The search function is okay, but when you start getting 300+ emails to search through you run the risk of false hits or no hits at all.
Bingo. I have one folder per client. Those I don't filter, but all others are filtered by category or sender, etc. In Outlook Express, search is easy, but I don't have to do that, much. Due to the filters, email is already organized when it comes in; so only the client email is unstructured, so I can see it before moving it; for usually, client mail needs an immediate reply. I do that while watching TV.
7. Working with your laptop on your lap. Buy a laptop desk for about $15.00 on Amazon, much easier on the legs. Here's a good one: Lapgear 45014 Student Lapdesk Black $11.74
Why is the email inbox anybody's business? It's like telling how to arrange your sock drawer. Besides one large inbox can be sorted and filtered numerous ways at any time, there is no need to put emails in vestigial separate folders. But yes do archive and delete old emails to keep the database smaller, other than that it's a free world.
I take exception to the suggestion that we ditch our printers. If I am writing something important and or long, I need to print it in order to review and edit it. The printed page can be marked up, annotated with reminders, etc. And it can be passed to your "editor" (in my case, my wife) for review and comment. A serious message about, say, a financial transaction, requires thought and careful review. Others may be able to do this right on the screen. I cannot.
Why is the email inbox anybody's business? It's like telling how to arrange your sock drawer. Besides one large inbox can be sorted and filtered numerous ways at any time, there is no need to put emails in vestigial separate folders. But yes do archive and delete old emails to keep the database smaller, other than that it's a free world.
Seems like a bit of an over reaction to something somebody said. Some of us out here work in office environments or other business settings that result in getting 100 or more emails in a days time, and it usually does not take a break on weekends. Some are just information that requires no response, some require immediate response, and some you might respond when you have the free time to do so. I’ve got folders and sub-folders to deal with these criteria in addition to where from and others I feel necessary.
If you are just a home user with a small contact list then you can probably get by with your way of managing emails. You just need to realize people use their computing devices for whatever world they live in and there is any number of settings that can take place in.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT CARDIN
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT CARDIN
ILLUSTRATION BY ANDERS WENNGREN
ILLUSTRATION BY ANDERS WENNGREN
ILLUSTRATION BY ANDERS WENNGREN
ILLUSTRATION BY ANDERS WENNGREN
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