Smith-Welch Memorial Library

That's a direct quote from Faye Hover from the lovely Smith-Welch Memorial Library in Hearne, Texas. Faye is a contributor to the MaintainIT Project and has shared her experiences in the Cookbooks, in a Feature (download the pdf), and now... in the new MaintainIT Project WebJunction forum!

An enthusiastic crowd of 84 librarians and staff members attended last week's webinar on keeping public computers running. Faye Hover, Renee Goss, and Marian Wynn shared their perspectives, experiences, and know-how on the importance of fearlessness, the power of collaborations, and the benefits of using open source technologies.

Many of the libraries that contributed to the Cookbook extol virtues on software that "locks down" or "wipes clean" their public computers. As any librarian will tell you, much of the maintainance of computers is derived from reversing what patrons left behind. Faye Hover from Smith-Welch Memorial Library may have said it best, "because I'm sick to death of coming in in the morning and having everything changed--the background, they would change the wallpaper. I needed something that can prevent them from doing all of this."

What's educational, fun, and found in most libraries? Computer games!

Faye Hover from Smith-Welch Memorial Library in Hearne, Texas is using computer games to educate her younger patrons, and they don't even know it. "When the kids were here, they didn't have anything to do, and I thought, 'well, if I get a game computer and put some interesting games and trick them into thinking they're having fun, when they're really learning something, well this will be a good thing.'"