For ‘Celebrate Our Stories’ with Friends of the Appleton Public Library – June 8, 2025
Isn’t it great to be here in this wonderful room with all these beautiful people? Let’s give a round of applause to our cooks and servers who supplied us with a great meal. I’ll give my remarks and leave some time at the end for questions, but first:
I’ll start with a question: Why can’t elephants use desktop computers?
Anybody? Because they’re scared of the mouse.
Hi there, I’m Martin Jansen, a Volunteer working in Technical Help. I think it’s sad that our older patrons are often afraid of their computers. I love computers! The computer industry gave me a job that has become my vocation for many years.
As a library volunteer I get to talk to people about different aspects of their lives. Many are trying to accomplish things with computers. When I say computers, I’m talking about cell phones, tablets, laptops and even the library desktops. That’s where Technical Help comes into play.
Some people need help with jobs. We can help them fill out applications, their resumes and cover letters.
One patron was looking for work in child care. She had come from Brazil to live with her daughter looking for work with a green card. She also just happened to be a professional violinist. We used these strengths along with her picture to post on a child care website.
We advertised her as a Brazilian Violinist looking to assist children. Parents interested in cultural exchange would find her services valuable.
A few weeks later she came in to announce that she had found work with a father and his disabled child. She was so happy with the library that she arranged to give us a small concert.
Other people are also looking for jobs. Consider this exchange between the boss and a new employee:
Microsoft humor
Boss: “How good are you at PowerPoint?”
Employee says: “I Excel at it!”
Boss: Was that a Microsoft 365 pun?
Employee winks at Boss: WORD!
Too Many Computers?
Is it possible to have too many computers? I think the answer is yes, especially if you are mixing technologies. It can get very confusing.
An older patron came in with two Kindle PaperWhites, an iPad and she said she had a laptop at home. Here she was mixing several operating systems and trying to learn them all. Owen Anderson and I worked with her to connect to the internet on all these devices. She wanted to be able to borrow books on Hoopla, but you can’t install the app on PaperWhites. Instead we installed Hoopla on her iPad and borrowed a book, making sure to pick the “I want to read on Kindle” option. With that option picked, she can now read the books on her Kindle Paperwhites and on the Kindle app.
I like to prescribe to the principle of KISS when trying to help patrons. One thing taught and learned at a time – just fast enough to meet the patrons needs.
Here’s Another Question: Why are Microsoft software engineers always nervous? I don’t know, but they do seem to be on Edge.
Listening
Our patrons come in with many questions, but sometimes they just want to be heard. One patron came in with her story, she had had a hard life, traveling around the country trying to find a home. I listened to her story before helping her with her paperwork issue. She had felt ignored and discarded by so many in the government. I hope I was able to provide her with some solace.
One of the best free services offered by the library is the ability to digitize paperwork. The library Xerox printer is also a powerful scanner able to create Optical Character Recognized PDF documents. Patrons can send digitized paperwork directly to their own email address for distribution to others. It is this service that I used to help our wandering patron submit her now digitized papers.
The usual procedure is to scan the documents, making sure the name of the document reflects the content. When the document is received from the email on a cell phone, the patron downloads the attached PDF to the phone. From there they can send the PDF as an attachment in their email to the organization requesting the document.
I used this free service myself to scan my old Masters thesis that I wrote in 1987 on, get this, a Commodore 64 – yes, I’m that old. I printed that thesis on a Star Dot Matrix printer before submitting to my advisors at Cardinal Stritch.
Anyway, the scanner did a great job using OCR to identify the characters of the document in the PDF I sent to my email address. I then copied and pasted the characters into a Google Doc, recreating my thesis in a new format. What a wonderful free service from the library.
One last question: How does a computer learn something new?
Bit by bit.
What I Learned?
What did I learn while providing Technical Help to the patrons? Mostly, I learned patience and a desire not to fail. My love of computing is not easily passed on those seeking to learn something about their device. I do have a ‘can do’ attitude about technology in general and that helps me find answers to most niggling computer issues. I thank God for internet search engines that help find those answers for the patrons. For instance when I started volunteering, I didn’t know much about Apple iPads and iPhones – I’m more of an Android guy. But working with the owners of Apple products has given me a deeper knowledge of the “i devices”.
The most difficult problem I encountered? One patron came in with an iPad that was locked and he had no idea of the numbers to open the device. Through some research I learned that you needed another PC or Mac with iTunes installed. Since there was some doubt whether the patron owned the iPad or not, I wasn’t able to help him.
Conclusion
In conclusion I would like to say that being a Tech Help volunteer is a great opportunity to help people with their most difficult computer issues, but it is more than that. It’s a chance to listen to people and help them along in life. And along the way, the volunteer gets so much more in return.
Now there is a little time for questions. Anybody?