Without a Net: Librarians Bridging the Digital Divide

Jessamyn West

ABC-CLIO, Apr 30, 2011 - Computers - 258 pages

Teaching novice computer users, including seniors and individuals with disabilities such as low vision or motor skills, how to do what they want and need to do online is a formidable challenge for library staff. Part inspirational, part practical Without a/the Net: Librarians Bridging the Digital Divide is a summary of techniques, approaches, and skills that will help librarians meet this challenge.||Jessamyn C. West's experience as a librarian is deeply immersed in technology culture, yet living in rural America makes her uniquely qualified to write this book. Taking a big-picture approach to the subject, she demystifies and simplifies tech training for the busy librarian, providing an easy-to-use handbook full of techniques that can be used with all of a library's many populations. As an added bonus, she also examines the players in the library technology arena to offer firsthand reports on what works, what doesn't, and what's next.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - librarianbryan - LibraryThing

This book is full of great practical advise for teaching and troubleshooting “technology” [read: computer and internet] to library patrons. West gives good pointers on how to approach people with no ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - JeremyPreacher - LibraryThing

Man, it's been years since I did any sort of technical support, and reading a clear, accessible, well-written guide to helping technical newbies get going was a blast from the past, except my past ...

Contents

• 1 People in the Library: 1
• 2 The Bigger PictureWho Makes the Tools We Use: 19
• 3 PlanningStrategies Techniques and Tools: 51
• 4 Planning for Pedagogy: 69
• 5 Basic Instruction and Explanations: 97
• 6 What Is the Internet?: 135
• 7 Email Is Everything: 163
• 8 Office Software Databases and Social Software: 183
• 9 When Things Go Wrong or Right: 201
• 10 Things That WorkExamples from the Field: 217
• 11 Why This Matters and What to Do: 227
• Appendix and Bibliography: 231
• Notes: 247
• Index: 251

About the author

Jessamyn C. West teaches technology classes in rural Vermont, helps run MetaFilter.com, and is the editor of librarian.net. She coedited Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Without a Net: Librarians Bridging the Digital Divide
• Author: Jessamyn West
• Publisher: ABC-CLIO, 2011
• ISBN: 1598844539, 9781598844535
• Length: 258 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Internet / General; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Reference; Language Arts & Disciplines / Library & Information Science / General