3 Steps Forward: We Have a Phone Now...!!!

What a day, What a day! Well, two days actually...progress occurred in the area of communications here in our library. It seems a good way to delineate these major improvements would be to outline the three steps forward in improving our tech capabilities in the library:

Step 1: We have a phone now! Sometime last year, because of the construction going on beyond the white wall in the HS Room, the phone line was cut to the library. Because there is also no cell service in our part of the building, we have been without any phone to communicate with the staff here in-house or with the outside world. That meant being creative when needing to communicate: walking around to speak to people in person instead of calling their extensions, going to another room to make phone calls (usually the Teachers Room or Mr. Contes' office), leaving notes in mailboxes, relaying messages through others, or using IM on facebook since we could get internet on two of our computers. As of yesterday, our phone has been hooked up in the office and we can make and receive inside and outside calls! Our extension is on the intercom list, but in case you don't have one, try us at x.608.

Step 2: I can access the internet from my laptop in the library. While enjoying the new library office phone, I noticing that the phone jack in the office had a jack for ethernet. While attempting to plug my laptop's ethernet cord in, I found it didn't work. Bob Z.said that was a simple fix -- he needed to turn that on for us -- and he did that today.

Step 3: I can plug my laptop in at my desk! Time spent using a laptop at one' desk is limited by access to electrical power of some sort. Batteries are limited, and so I found that using my laptop at my desk was going to become a problem. Until about 4 pm today, I didn't have outlet access to plug the laptop in at my desk. The nearest outlet to my desk -- a power strip just on the other side of the door in the HS Room -- is not working for some reason, and the next nearest outlet was about 15 feet away just on the other side of the door. An extension cord across the floor would be a tripping hazard, so another solution was needed. Again, Bob Z. came through: he got a 25 ft. extension cord from Vinny in the Custodian's office and to minimize the eyesore that draping wires can create, neatly and discreetly hooked it up so that it would go up and over the door frame, behind the bookshelf next to my desk, and have the plug coming up just in front of my desk. Now there is electrical outlet access from the Library Office desk, and no one has to step on any wires.

What's next? We look forward to seeing the set up of our new library computers. We will fill you in as that step unfolds.