Tag: Public Service Announcement

Library Love

Posted June 29, 2010 by Holly in Discussions | 14 Comments

I’ve never understood why, but education is one of the first places that budgets get cut. Likewise, I’ve never understood why teachers don’t make more money. Nothing is more important than the education of our children. Maybe it sounds trite, but they really are our future. Do we want poorly education children to become poorly educated adults? Especially when it falls to those poorly educated adults to make the important decisions about our world? Of course not. But no one seems to recognize that.

Our school district – along with most others in California and across the country – is facing major budget cuts. Our already overcrowded classrooms are being pushed to the limits. Teachers are being given pink-slips, sport programs are being cut, and the art programs are pretty much being eliminated.

As if that isn’t enough, our public libraries are taking major hits, too. My local library doesn’t have the best selection of novels for either myself (the romance section is pretty sad) or my teenage daughter (and the YA section is even worse), but they do have some amazing programs for both kids and adults. They also have some great ebook and audiobook lending options, which make their lack of print selection more bearable.

It depresses me that many of our nation’s libraries may be closing. I know Wendy and Mollie are both facing major budget cuts in their libraries.

But not all hope is lost. There are things you can do to help keep your library open. Carol Fitzgerald recently wrote a wonderful article for the Huffington Post detailing some things you can do to support your local library and hopefully keep it open.The best quote from that article, as pointed out to me by Mollie?

Someone told me that when economic times are tough there are two places you do not close — libraries and parks. People need to nurture their minds and their bodies.

I couldn’t agree with that more. I think we often take our libraries for granted. Now is the time to step up and show some Library Love!

Tell us, how is the library important to you?

Many thanks to Authors on the Web for the link!

Image credit CCPL

14 Comments

Tagged: Help a Library Out, Holly Says, Libraries, Public Service Announcement, Reviews, Save the Library, Stupid People Piss Me Off

OT: A Friendly Public Service Announcement

Posted May 21, 2008 by Holly in Discussions | 6 Comments

Recently Wendy, our local Super Librarian, had her email account hacked. From there it got worse and expanded to some of her other accounts. Because we hear of this happening all too often, this is a friend public service reminder. I work in a field where I deal with very sensitive information and here are a few tips I’ve learned, not to mention some plain common sense things you can do to help protect yourselves.

1. Change your passwords often. Every 90 days is recommended, but at least twice a year would be better than nothing.
2. Do not use the same password for every account. I know it’s a pain to remember 15 different passwords, but remember, if one account is hacked, he then has your email address and password. Now think about all the accounts you have that use your email address and that same password. Scary the damage that can be done, no?
3. Use a random mix of numbers, upper and lower case letters for your passwords. Also, be as obscure as possible.

That should suffice for now. Although I highly recommend having a firewall in place. It’s just too easy for anyone with a computer to get your information nowadays.

I know it’s inconvenient, but think how much more your life will suck if you have to cancel all your credit cards, freeze all your bank accounts, etc, etc. The inconvenience now is worth it, no?