Useful tools, hardware, software and information of use to Systems Librarians.

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Revised: March 10, 2002

Useful information

 

 

Essential Crystal Reports Books

 

Crystal Reports  works with many   major Library Systems.

Crystal Reporting writing skills are very useful for the Systems Librarian to acquire and portable between a number of systems. 

This books are guidesl to developing powerful reports and optimising businesses with Crystal Reports.

T

The Library Jobs Networkjob-network.gif (741 bytes)		 Library Locums
Top Australian employment agency for Librarians and Information workers
Looking for work or someone to work for you - this is the place.

Highly recommended

Running an Effective Help Desk

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 Published: March 1998

I believe there is a close fit between the business help desk and the public library reference desk. Many libraries are now running there own mini IT department. This book has a number of uses. - Recommended.


Synopsis
They're the people who feel the wrath of every system crash. And like the rest of the organization, the help desk is being transformed by the potential of intranets, extranets, and the Web. This updated edition to the definitive help desk guidebook now offers timely and practical suggestions for upgrading the service of a help desk using the latest technologies. Ready-to-use templates are included on a companion Web site.

Reviews and Commentary
From Library Journal:
Czegel covers all aspects of help-desk design and implementation: staffing, training, evaluation, problem resolution, tracking, marketing, and outsourcing. She covers traditional help desks with telephones and the new help desk on the Internet. Aimed at business managers and information technology departments supporting commercial products, this book will work for general circulating collections that support businesspeople as well as corporate collections. There is also a close fit between the business help desk and the public library reference desk that is providing service for walk-up patrons, voice and FAX phone access, and information via E-mail and the web; as such, this may be useful for libraries considering expanding reference access.  
From The Publisher:
The thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded Second Edition of the critically acclaimed, first-ever guide to running an effective Help Desk, this book tells you everything you need to know to plan, budget, staff, implement, track, upgrade, and even outsource your organization's Help Desk. Drawing upon her extensive experience as a leading North American expert on Help Desk planning and management, author Barbara Czegel guides you step-by-step through every phase of setting up traditional and Web-related Help Desks for the Internet and an intranet; provides a wealth of practical advice on all technical, management, and human-factor aspects of running an effective Help Desk; and supplies ready-to-use templates in both Word and HTML formats for an array of Help Desk projects. On the companion website you'll find real-life Web-based Help Desk examples, and all the templates from the book in HTML and Word formats.

Persistent URL Home Page National Library of Australia		 A PURL is a Persistent Uniform Resource Locator. Functionally, a PURL is an URL. However, instead of pointing directly to the location of an Internet resource, a PURL points to an intermediate resolution service. The PURL resolution service associates the PURL with the actual URL and returns that URL to the client. The client can then complete the URL transaction in the normal fashion. In Web parlance, this is a standard HTTP redirect.

In other words - you can shift your webpages between providers and still have them accessed by the same URL

The other way of course is to acquire your own domain. This is a little more expensive but I recommend this option because it shows people you are serious.
If your home page is on Geocities or Tripod it does not hel your image.

 Persistent URL Home Page   OCLC PURL Service
 EASI Equal Access to Software and Information  Adaptive Hardware and Software Resources Hardware and software resources; Articles and Documentation.
Search Engine Watch: News, Tips and More about search engines.   The place to look to find out about search engines.
I subscribe to the free newsletter.
  Criteria for Evaluating Internet Information Resources.  Smith, Alastair G. "Testing the Surf: Criteria for Evaluating Internet Information Resources." The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 8, no. 3 (1997). (Refereed Article)
 HTML quick reference guide.
  Quick Guide
 HTML Tutorial
  Useful learning tool
 W3 Access for Visually Impaired  Have a thought for others.
 Running A WWW Service - Title  Interesting article.
Help Desk Handbook:
The Help Desk Institute Guide to Help Desk Operations & Problem Management  

  " It presents proven answers to your toughest questions and practical advice so you can make the right decisions for your support centre. You also get sample forms, procedures, policies, reports, and graphs. You'll learn about support centre objectives, job descriptions, team building, burnout, measuring customer satisfaction, and recording, diagnosing, and escalating service requests."

I found this an interesting read.  Certainly a good introduction to Help Desks.

HELP DESK INSTITUTE
  Useful colletion of information and material.

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Useful Software

Click here to download Copernic 2001 Basic

Copernic.com Great searching software. Their business solutions that interest libraries the most. are: Copernic Aggregator, Copernic Summarizer Server, Copernic 2001 Server and Copernic Indexer. For example the Copernic Aggregator is a powerful enterprise data aggregation platform that creates a single access point to the right information using internal and external information sources and databases. Their products would be of interest to most knowledge workers.

self promotion button.gif (2179 bytes)

If you have a website, you absolutely have to check out this amazing, wonderful, incredible resource. You can use it for free to register your site with all the important search engines and indexes, and THEN decide if and how much you want to pay to support the service. It's great -- so great that even a notorious cheapskate like me gave them some money!
  

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pcANYWHERE

Very useful for providing remote support across a network or direct dial. Can be configured for both - makes it incredibly useful if the WAN has problems. I use it to support 32 servers around the state of Queensland Australia - separated by thousands of miles.

Highly recommended.

Seagate Crystal Reports

 

Crystal Reports  works with many  major Library Systems.

Crystal Reporting writing skills are very useful for the Systems Librarian to acquire and portable between a number of systems. 

 Seagate Crystal Reports, the market-leading desktop query and report writer, is for anyone who needs to report or query directly from data sources, provide reports, or include reporting in database applications. Access over 30 data sources and perform powerful data analysis with presentation-quality output.

 Crystal-Reports.Com

The World Wide Source for Crystal Reports Consultants, Training, Tips, Tricks, Videos, Software, and Books

 Nortons Ghost Software  Incredibly useful for repartioning hard disks and or duplicating them. GHOST is essentially a hard disk copying program. The entire contents of a disk may be copied from one disk to another, or they may be copied to a disk image file, and that image file can then be used as a template to create copies of the original disk. This appears to be the only thing on the market that does this.
 Funk Software - Proxy 

Proxy - Network Remote Control From Windows

With Proxy, you can gain full control of any PC or file server on the network, right from your own PC. You’ll be able to diagnose and resolve users’ computing problems, reconfigure and reboot devices on the network, even monitor such critical devices as file servers, rack-mounted processors and print servers – all without leaving your Windows, Windows 95, or Windows NT session.

I f you support networks at other sites, you can run Proxy over a dial-in connection you’ve established to a PPP remote access server, and provide all the support required on the remote network, in the most cost-effective manner possible. No more travelling; no more hiring on-site support personnel for all your branch offices or remote sites. Just support them from your own PC, as if you were on-site.
Track  Track Helpdesk System from Soffront.
I have used this extensively and would highly recommend it depending on your needs.  It is highly configurable and I use Crystal reports to supplement the reporting function. 
It has a web interface and can grow with your needs.  See also my helpdesk pages
 Spectronics  Special needs technologies - very large and interesting range of products in this area. Comprehensive Web pages with descriptions and price list. Very useful if you are in Australia. Supply a good range of hardware and software.  I highly recommend them.
 The Limit Software - Cookie Crusher You can configure your web browser to alert you when a web site tries to send you a cookie, but the browser will still ask whether you want to accept or reject the cookie. When a Web site uses persistent cookies, this can be very annoying. Some sites try to set up to 20 or more cookies per page.
 Decode Shell Extension Freeware and Other Utilities by Funduc Software  Decode Shell Extension allows you to decode Internet e-mail attachments simply by right-clicking on a saved message file from Explorer and selecting Decode from the menu.
 ICQ  Great software package that notifies you when various friends and contacts are using the Internet. Plug ins include IRIS Phone.
 IRIS Phone.  Internet phone package works well with ICQ.
PGP Pretty Good Privacy  Public Key Encryption system for use with e-mail. Excellent.

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Useful Tools for your Website

 

self promotion button.gif (2179 bytes)

If you have a website, you absolutely have to check out this amazing, wonderful, incredible resource. You can use it for free to register your site with all the important search engines and indexes, and THEN decide if and how much you want to pay to support the service. It's great -- so great that even a notorious cheapskate like me gave them some money!
LinkMaster™ Promote your site on the Internet
Web Site Garage Reccomended
WC3 Validation Service Validate HTML Code 
Doctor HTML Web Spell Checker - Single Page Analysis 
 Freestats  Provides comprehensive statistics for Web pages - including the referring page. which most other free counters do not.
 AMPS FREE HIT COUNTERS and TRACKERS FOR WEB PAGES  Very useful if you have noncommercial web pages that do not
incorporate comprehensive statistics.
 Unified Web Site Accessibility Guidelines  The Trace Centre at the Univ. of Wisc. offers specific recommendations for making World Wide Web pages accessible to the disabled .

Electronic Marketing Business Kit

In this Special Report, you'll discover the latest strategies that let you turn your computer into an automated 24 hr. a day cash-machine! Learn the Top 10 Reasons to sell information on the internet! The electronic marketing revolution - How to make money selling information on the Internet. Go to the website to read it all!

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Useful Hardware

 Spectronics  Special needs technologies - very large and interesting range of products in this area. Comprehensive Web pages with descriptions and price list. Very useful if you are in Australia. Supply a good range of hardware and software.  I highly recommend them.
 Leatherman Super Multi Tool  I highly recommend this multi tool ( 14 tools in one). This is the only tool I carry for working on computers. Don't leave home with out it.
 SyQuest Products What  PC Magazine had to say . Recommended. Very useful tool for those who move between or have to work on a number of different computers.

 

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