Citizenship Classes

Here are some options for customers looking for Citizenship classes.

Free Resources:

The Library has Citizenship study guides. Place them on hold or check the library at the following call numbers:
323.6
342.7308

Learning Express Library
*Note: Will need to login with Library card if viewing outside of the Library.
~ Has a Citizenship Test Practice: History & Civics Questions that consists of 100 civics, history, and government questions, all taken from the official naturalization test and geared toward helping you achieve your best possible score.

Testing and Education Reference Center
*Note: Will need to login with Library card if viewing outside of the Library.
Provides 3 online practice tests and the online book How to Become a U.S. Citizen, plus links and other resources.

Study Materials for the Naturalization (Citizenship) test
~ Customers can teach themselves. Everything on this page is printable at the library.

Adult Literacy League
345 W. Michigan Street, Suite 100
Orlando, FL 32806
407-422-1540
~ Offers FREE Citizenship classes on Tuesdays from 9-10AM

Places that offer classes in Osceola County:

One Stop INS Center
4640 W. Irlo Bronson Hwy
Kissimmee, FL 34746
321-274-9100
~ Offers 3 courses, 2 hours each class for $180. They have private sessions for $40

Accurate Signings
3501 W Vine Street
Suite No. 269
Kissimmee, FL 34741
PHONE: (407) 344-7704
EMAIL: accurate-signings@cfl.rr.com
~ It states on their website that information on the Citizenship classes is coming soon. The cost is not listed.

Places Out of County

Lake County Library System
Citizenship classes
~ All new learners must be enrolled in the Adult Literacy Program and meet minimum literacy requirements to be eligible to participate in the citizenship class and, as this is a Lake County Library System program, they do give priority to Lake County residents. For additional information about this program, call 352-253-6183 or email Erika Greene egreene@lakeline.lib.fl.us, Literacy Coordinator.

Orange County Library System
Each program is a 6-week series of classes. Each program participant attends class once a week for 6 weeks. Each class lasts for approximately 4 hours. The program is free for Orange County Library Cardholders. For non-cardholders living outside of the district, a temporary fee card can be purchased for $75 which can be used to register for classes at OCLS. Or you can get a reciprocal borrowing card if you show your Osceola Library Card and picture ID with current address. Then with the reciprocal card, you can sign up for the class, but you pay a $10 fee for each class. It would be $60 for the Citizenship course this way.

FLU Information

Homestead Exemption

Recently bought some property? Don't forget to file for Homestead Exemption. What is it?
A $25,000 homestead property tax exemption. It's protection for you to prevent the forced sale of a home to meet the demands of creditors, provides the surviving spouse with shelter, and it provides an exemption from property taxes which can be applied to a home.

Where to file:
Osceola County Property Appraisers
Orange County Property Appraisers

Guest Facilitator

Hello Osceola Library Staff!

The Osceola Library Book Club is looking for guest facilitators. This entails choosing a book, gathering discussion guides, and then discussing your book at the appointed time and branch.

If you are interested, please talk to your manager before volunteering.

If you would like more information, please contact Andi, Pammy or Heather.

Webinars

Would you like to continue your library education and meet your goals with your managers? An easy way to do this is to participate in or watch webinars. Webinars are meetings, presentations, or training that you do through the internet. And the best part? Most of the time, they are FREE!

The following are some places you can find free webinars on different library topics:

Webjunction - upcoming webinars
Webjunction - webinar archives
Library Journal Webcasts - covers different issues in libraries.
Microsoft in Education Webinars - a listing of all the webinars on Microsoft products for education.
OPALescence Archive - past webinars on library topics
InfoPeople - archived webinars

Also, don't forget to check Ollie for relevant webinars provided by the Staff Development Librarian. Go to Ollie and click on the Learning link at the top of the page.

Enjoy!

Ask a Librarian Director's Chair Contest

Calling all Florida HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS!

What is The Director’s Chair?
The Director’s Chair is a video contest for Florida high school students.
Create a 30-second video promoting Ask a Librarian for a chance to win some great prizes.

So…what exactly IS Ask a Librarian? It’s a free online service that allows you to chat with a Florida librarian for instant help with homework, papers and general questions. (Want to learn more? Click here.)

Now that you know what Ask a Librarian is, go out and make a creative and entertaining 30-second video that tells the world just how wonderful Ask a Librarian is. Just submit it here between Oct. 1, 2009, and Jan. 24, 2010 (11:59 p.m.), and the grand prize could be yours.

Be funny! Be serious! Do a spoof! Do a dramedy! Do whatever you want! Just be creative and have fun.

Click here for The Director’s Chair contest rules.

Maps and Directions

Besides looking in the 912 section of the library for maps and atlases, you can use the Internet to print of quick directions and maps for those customers looking for driving directions.

Some useful sites for driving directions are Google Maps and Bing Maps. Both offer street views of locations, which are actual photographs, so you can see a relatively current picture of the place and the surrounding area. You can even choose to avoid highways and toll roads when creating your set of driving directions.

Another great free product is Google Earth, which you download and install on your computer. You can explore satellite imagery of the world, from outer space to the ocean floor.

Last, but not least, there are traditional map websites as well, such as InfoPlease World Atlas and Map Library and National Atlas.

PSA from Ask a Librarian

Ask a Librarian - 2009 PSA from Ask aLibrarian on Vimeo.

Note: You might have trouble viewing this video using the Firefox browser.

Flock

If you're a fan of social networking and have an account with Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc., then you might be interested in a browser called Flock.

Flock is a browser based on Mozilla's Firefox that calls itself "the social networking browser." It allows you to log into all of your accounts at once, surf the web at the same time, and do other cool things. Watch the video below to get an idea of what Flock is.



For more videos, explore Flock's YouTube channel.

Bonus! If you don't know anything about the websites mentioned in the first paragraph, when you download and install Flock it helps you set up accounts with those sites and more. So, whether your a beginner or an expert, Flock would be a fun program to experiment with.

Ask a Librarian

Is the Librarian off for the day? Can't get a hold of a Librarian at another branch of the library? Does your customer need a Librarian's help right now? Tell them to try Ask a Librarian.

Ask a Librarian is a FREE service that allows customers to chat with a live Librarian. It is staffed by professional Librarians all over the state of Florida (including Osceola Library System). When you click on the chat button, your question enters a queue. Librarians answer questions in the order they receive them. When the librarian accepts your question, you are able to chat one-on-one with that librarian while he or she helps you find what you need by guiding you through the myriad of resources available. The librarian might screen-share these resources with you. Screen-sharing allows the librarian to co-navigate resources on your PC.

Want to see how it works? Watch this demo.

Would you like to try it? Click here or:

1. Go to www.osceolalibrary.org
2. Mouse over the Research tab
3. Click on Ask a Librarian
4. Click on the Ask a Librarian logo on the bottom left of the page.
5. Follow the steps to chat with a Librarian.

Help is only a click away.

LinkedIn

If you haven’t had the chance to take the staff Social Networking class, one of the services discussed is LinkedIn. Before I continue, if you need a refresher on social networking, click here

To learn about LinkedIn, watch the video below.



To try LinkedIn, go to www.linkedin.com

Civil War Database

A few months ago, the Library got a new database about the Civil War from Sources in U.S. History Online. The database contains 500 titles totaling about 90,000 pages of text. All of this is selected and edited by Professor Paul Finkelman of the Albany Law School. These pages of text are: personal narratives and memoirs, pamphlets and political speeches, sermons and songs, regimental histories and photograph albums, legal treatises and children's books.

To access the database:

1. Go to www.osceolalibrary.org
2. Mouse over the Research tab
3. Click on the Database link
4. Scroll to the Biography section
5. Click the Civil War Link.
   

Ways to Explore:

1. Scroll through the Spotlight Pictures on the main page. Click on the picture to access content about that photo.
2. Go through the database like you were reading a book. At the bottom, scroll through the sections and click on one to read about it. The topics link to more information once you're inside.
3. Browse subjects, authors and titles. On the main page, pick a topic on the right hand side and click on it. It brings up a list of documents you can peruse. At the top of the page there is a Browse A-Z section. Click on the Author link to see a list of authors. Click on Title to see a list of titles.
4. Do a basic keyword search. Type in your Civil War topic and see what comes up.
   

Go and explore! You'll never know what you might find.

Hurricane Preparedness & Response for Florida Public Libraries

A new web portal for hurricane preparedness was created by Florida State University. Watch the video below to learn all the portal offers.

Librarian Blogs

I've talked about blogging before, explaining what they are (what this very site is!) and how to get your own. However, I haven't mentioned that there are other Librarian blogs out there besides this one. The following is a list of popular librarian blogs, ranging from those who post new information about the profession and those who like to complain, in an amusing way, about it.

• The Shifted Librarian - This Librarian blogs "about about how the change from pursuing information to receiving information is and will be affecting libraries."
• The Annoyed Librarian - She started on blogger, but was then hired by Library Journal.
• Alternative Teen Services - "The Alternative teen services blog is maintained by teen librarians who share ideas, resources, and advocacy about serving teens."
• LibLime Open Sesame - Talks about open source technology in libraries.
• Librarian.net - Blogging about libraries since 1999.

Lists of other blogs:

The Top Fifty Librarian Blogs

Enjoy!

What's Twitter?

Heard about twitter? Don't know what it is? Watch this tutorial from Common Craft.

What is Social Networking?

Have you heard this term and wanted to know what it meant? Here is a quick video that explains it...in plain English.



To see more explanations in plain English, go to the Common Craft website or check them out on YouTube.

ILoveLibraries.org

Would you like to spread the word and "support one of our nation's largest resources?" Then tell your customers about ILoveLibraries.org! The American Library Association (ALA) created this website for the public to spread information about what is happening in today's libraries.

On the website you can:

• Find out what your library can do for you
  
• Ways to get involved
• Library value calculator
• How to take action to help libraries
• How to find your local library

Check it out. Show your customers!

Open Source

Would you like to try operating software different from Windows and Mac? Would you like to explore other browsers, word processing, or photo manipulator computer programs? Would you like to try them for FREE?

Then you might like to learn about Open Source products. Open Source is peer-reviewed software. This means the community creates, edits, and distributes the software and you the consumer get to have it for free. For a more in depth definition, go here.

Some examples of Open Source products you may already be using:

• Mozilla Firefox Browser
• Mozilla Thunderbird Email Client
• Ubuntu
• GIMP
• Linux

If you would like to try open source programs that are comparable to the Microsoft Office Suite, try OpenOffice.org.

You never know. Microsoft and Apple might soon be a thing of the past.

Mango Languages

Missing Rosetta Stone? Check out the Osceola Library System's new database: Mango Languages! It is a self-paced, web-based language learning program, which customers access for free through the library's site and use in the privacy of their homes. It has 100 course lessons, which include audio narration.

It carries the following courses for English speaking customers: Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, German, Greek, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese. If Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish is your first language and you want to learn English, they have courses for that as well.

To try it:

1. Go to www.osceolalibrary.org
2. Mouse over the Research tab
3. Click on Databases
4. Scroll down to the Education and Languages section
5. Click on Mango Languages.
6. Follow the directions and you are off!
   

Custom Guide

Do you know any customers who would like to learn more about computers, but they're unable to make it to the library? Do you have customers asking for more advanced Microsoft Office classes? Do you have customers wanting to know more about Macs?

The library now has a subscription to a database called Custom Guide. Through this database, you can do interactive tutorials about Windows (2000, XP, Vista), Mac OS X, all Microsoft Access, PowerPoint, Word, Publisher, Excel, Outlook, and Quickbooks, plus some others. The good news is, customers can do these tutorials from HOME!

Things to Know:

1. You have to create an account with Custom Guide to use it, which means you have to have an email address
   
2. Custom Guide tracks your progress and gives you assessment tests.
3. It's fun!
   

Atomic Learning

When you have a free moment at the library you should check out the Atomic Learning Database. If you've ever been unsure of yourself using a computer program it might be a good idea to study some tutorials.

Some things to explore:

• The Software question database contains answers to popular questions about different software products are available in seconds with an easy keyword search
  
• Technology skill tutorials available in English and Spanish for Mac and PC products.
• Tutorials on assistive technologies for the hearing, learning, and vision impaired.
• Lesson accelerators help teachers create fun curriculum-based projects using computer programs.

Check out the list of tutorials

Criss Cross Apple Sauce with ReferenceUSA

Not only does ReferenceUSA provide reverse-lookups for phone numbers, but it also gives the same option for street addresses. The reverse phone look-up can be found under the Quick Search tab.

To look up a person or business by street address, create a Custom Search by clicking on the tab of the same name. There you will find all the options for making your own customized search page.

Depending on if you are searching Business or Residential, your options will be different. Both, however, give the option for creating a search page by clicking the boxes next to Address and City, State. Click the blue Create Search button and you've made your very own customized search page that can now criss-cross addresses!

Pets and Vets

When something is wrong with your pet it is always a good idea to get them medical care straight away. However, sometimes something can seem wrong with the pet, but it is normal pet behavior. How can we has owners save ourselves from unnecessary veterinary bills and still be sure our pet is safe? By doing a little research. There are resources in your local library and on the internet that can allow you to learn more about basic pet first aid, common pet problems, and even your pet's behaviors. Try reading up a bit on your animal to discover if that snorting sound your puppy makes is a breathing problem or a perfectly natural backwards sneeze.

Do remember that if the injury or problem is serious it is best to consult your vet, but until then, try exploring the following resources.

Online:

Medline Plus: Pet Health
~ From the National Library of Medicine, it provides trusted health information for your pet.

Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine Library
~ Quality health information selected by a Veterinary Librarian.

Doctors' Foster and Smith Pet Education
~ Fulfilling their commitment to provide pet owners with trustworthy pet care information, every Drs. Foster & Smith catalog contains up to 30 articles written by the doctors about the health and care of pets.

Pet Health Topics
~ From the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University. "The purpose of this Web Site is to provide information on preventative health care in companion animals, to help you determine when to seek veterinary care for a problem in your pet and to help prepare you to respond to questions asked by your veterinarian about your pet’s problem."

AVMA Pet First Aid
~ Pet first aid information from the American Veterinary Medical Association.


In the Library:

Nonfiction: 636-636.8

Federal Citizen Information Center

Remember those old "Oh! Pueblo!" commercials? According to their website, "for over 35 years, the Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) has been a trusted one-stop source for answers to questions about consumer problems and government services. Consumers can get the information they need in three ways: by calling toll-free 1 (800) FED-INFO, through printed publications, or through information posted on FCIC’s family of websites."

To Learn more go to http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/

Consumers can read, print out, or save the current Consumer Information Catalog and the full text of all the publications listed in it. You can also access additional information on a wide range of subjects (cars, computers, education, employment, family, federal programs, food, health, housing, money, and more) by clicking on different topic headings.

Find such information as:

ID Theft: What It's All About
Food Safety Education
Consumer's Guide to Mortgage Refinancing

Explore. You'll never know what you'll find.

Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation

Have you ever explored the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation? FDBPR is the place to go if you want apply for or renew a business license. However, you can find much more:

• Find statistics for hotels and restaurants going back to the 1950's
  
• Detailed listings of license and plan review applications, active licenses, inspections, and food worker training in Florida.
• Guide to food service sanitation, employee training and food manager certification prepared by the Hospitality Education Program (HEP).
• Find Elevator laws, apply or renew and elevator licenses and permits, or learn industry information.

And more! Go and explore. You'll never know what you'll find.