Brad Czerniak's Blog
STRANDED
I stared at my toes wiggling in the sand, feeling the wind tug at my loosely braided blond hair when I felt it. I felt a poke in my back. I turned around, having some ridiculous hope that it was a crewmember from the cruise ship. But why would it be? That cruise ship left me stranded here on Gale Island a week ago, taking my parents and everyone else with it. Sadly, it also took my twin brother Adam, too. Adam was the only person that could understand me, and I was the only person that could understand him. Of course, we both had good friends, but we were best friends because we were so much alike. He loved adventures as much as I did, and we always snuck off to get into trouble. I really wished he was there. But, of course no person was there. It was a bottle. It must have fallen from the sand dunes, I thought. I picked up the bottle and gave it a once over. I took a double take. There was a piece of paper coiled up inside!
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Library ROI Calculator
On our Donate page you can calculate the approximate value you've received from CPL in the last year. This calculator is similar to those used at other libraries, with a few important differences.
Calculating Books and DVDs
Most library use calculators have you put in the number of books (or DVDs) that you checked out in some period of time. The value per book tends to range from $15 to over $25. That cost reflects the average cost of buying a book, not the average value of checking out a book.
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Hosting a Digitized Newspaper Collection
At CPL we host the full run of Canton Observer newspapers. You can browse the issues by date or search the full text.
In the past we hosted a few recent years as files, but the current incarnation of the collection is a lot more data — over 3800 issues totaling almost 180 gigabytes. Nearly every aspect of this project was a learning experience, so for other people looking to host tons of big files, here are some useful tips and tricks.
Digitizing
Thanks to our Friends, we were able to secure funding to get our paper and microfilm archive scanned to pdf with Optical character recognition, making each issue's text searchable.
Chrome Theme
Install CPL's Chrome theme for an stylish, unobtrusive way to show your support for CPL.
The Project
Like the Firefox Persona, the Chrome theme design centered on being unobtrusive and using the space effectively.
The Chrome theme guide explains the huge number of ways you can customize your theme. This gives a lot more flexibility compared to a Firefox persona, but also makes creating a theme somewhat more difficult and time-consuming.
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Firefox Persona
Dress up your Firefox with Canton Public Library! Personas are "easy-to-install, easy-to-use themes that change the look of your Firefox web browser."
The Project
Get the project files — for Paint.NETCreating a firefox persona is pretty straightforward:
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Scheduled Downtime
The CPL catalog, databases, patron records, program calendar, and some other services will be unavailable on Tuesday, September 25th, from 8:30 AM to Noon while we upgrade our library software.CPL will remain open and you will be able to check out books, use the computers, and otherwise enjoy the library. Please note:
- You will need to have your CPL card with you in order to check out anything
- If you return a book during that time, it'll be checked in after Noon
- We rely on our Catalog for a lot, so there may be lines and delays while it's down
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Connect Your Summer Feedback
Canton Public Library’s mission is Connecting Your Community. This year Connect Your Summer returned its focus to the library, endeavoring to bring the community together online and in person, emphasizing the library as an increasingly important community resource.
Because Connect Your Summer is the mainstay of our summer library programming, we are asking you to help us learn and improve by sharing feedback about your Connect Your Summer experience. The survey will take about five minutes to complete:
- If you participated in Connect Your Summer, Take the Participant Survey
- If you did not participate, Share your feedback
The surveys will remain available until September 7, so tell your friends! Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts with us.
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Scheduled Downtime
The CPL catalog, databases, program calendar, and some other services will be unavailable on Tuesday, August 21st, starting at 11:00 AM. At that time and for up to 24 hours afterward, we will be upgrading the catalog server, requiring downtime.The library will remain open and you will be able to check out books, use the computers, and otherwise enjoy the library. Please note:
- You will need to have your CPL card with you in order to check out anything
- If you return a book on Tuesday, it won't be checked in until Wednesday. This won't cause fines, though
- We rely on our Catalog for a lot, so there may be lines and delays while it's down
- Your online Patron Record will also be unavailable during the outage
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Speak in Public
It's often said that people fear public speaking more than death. While that's not exactly true, talking is front of people is a major fear — one you can conquer!
Places to Speak
- Canton Communicators Toastmasters club — Toastmasters is a great way to hone your speaking
- Speech classes at Wayne County Community College
- Spotlight Players — acting at the Village Theater
Books on Speaking
Speaking your way to success by Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts
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Build a Time Machine
Time machines provide a fun learning experience, a unique business opportunity, and a contrived way to manipulate your plot arc. Watch out, though — depending on the make and model you choose for your temporal vehicle, they can often be expensive to build and difficult to maintain. See below for several types of time machine, along with assembly instructions when available.
Hot Tub
The mechanism for how a hot tub can become a time machine isn't well-explained. However, if you acquire a hot tub and the chronological mechanism never works, at least you have a hot tub, right? For further instructions view:
New Badges for 2012
Connect Your Summer is back and better than ever, and with it are 12 new badges. Click on the badges below to see the reading, program, and activity recommendations from our staff experts for how to earn each badge. Once you've completed an experience, claim the badge online for a chance at some great prizes:
Connect Your Summer Teaser
Leo Papa, head of Information Technology, tells us about what we can expect from this year's engaging summer program at CPL.
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Chrome Extension 2.0
If you're like 10% of CPL website visitors, you came here in Google Chrome. Chrome is a fast, secure, easy-to-use web browser — and the improved CPL extension is just one more reason to use it.
Books at CPL
As you browse the web, the extension finds books mentioned on each site. For instance, if you're shopping for a book on Amazon, a subtle notification will appear with a direct link to the book in our catalog. This feature stays out of your way (it disappears automatically after 15 seconds) and respects your privacy.Search Quickly
When you want to search the CPL Catalog, just type "cpl" into the omnibox. This temporarily switches the search engine to the Catalog, and provides title suggestions as you type. If one of the suggestions is the book you want, just arrow down to it and press Enter or click on the result.Get the Extension
If you'd like to know when the books you find are available at your library, and if you'd like an easier way to search our Catalog, you caninstall the free extension at Chrome Web Store
[web developers: cpl-chrome-ext is available on GitHub]
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