How do you maintain your public computers?
Librarians want to know.
Librarians want to know.
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.'"
And so she did. Faye acquired five computers, some she built from older machines. These computers aren't connected to the Internet, but are loaded with educational games that appeal to all ages. Many games only run off a CD which can be problematic if several children want to play the same game simultaneously. She solved this problem by creating a virtual drive that makes the computer think is has the CD. To learn how you can do this click here. Using a virtual drive will save you the expense of replacing scratched or stolen CDs.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Take two minutes to tell us what you'd like to know more about so we can improve the resources we create. Thanks!
Tell us about your daily routine maintaining public computers, or a moment when you were particularly proud. Don't forget that what might be "that's nothing" to you may be an "aha!" to someone else!
Visit TechSoup to find donated and discounted software and technology products for your library.
Participate in a MaintainIT forum, where difficulties are aired and solutions are shared. Post your thoughts and be sure to share how you've used the MaintainIT Cookbook in your library.
Technorati Tags: