Gotta love Gothamist.

Our film series was featured in the “pencil this in” section of Gothamist yesterday, and it certainly paid off!  Our attendance was made up of mostly Gothamist readers, and they seemed to enjoy the program.  It’s nice to be able to reach an audience that might not have come to one of our programs before.  Hopefully we will increase our attendence to all of our upcoming events.

What’s with the new computers?

You may have noticed that the new computers at Seward Park are a bit different than they were before.  We have installed a new operation system, Windows XP, and there are some changes in the way things look and work.   The regular desktop (including the taskbar and the start menu) was removed for security reasons.  All programs that are allowed for the public to use (Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc) are now inside what is called the Novell Applications Folder. 

You might be asking,  How do I get around this new system?  Good question!  Let me introduce you to the ALT TAB keyboard shortcut.  By pressing on the ALT key with your left thumb, and then tapping the TAB key with your finger you can toggle between the Applications Folder and any programs you have open.   Feel free to ask one of the librarians if you need help working with ALT TAB.   Here is a link to many of the other keyboard shortcuts that you can use in Windows XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/kB/301583

Another major change is how you print your documents.  The print button has been greyed out, but you can see that the Print Preview button is not.  Click on Print Preview to see what your print job will look like.  If it looks right, then go ahead and hit print from the preview screen.  This was done to help you avoid sending blank print jobs to the computer, thus wasting your free pages.

Those are the two biggest changes, but you will probably come across more as you work on the new computers.  Please feel free to ask a librarian for help.  Hopefully you’ll be enjoying our new computers and getting what you need!

Seward Park Library back in the day

The NYPL Digital Gallery has some amazing pictures of the Seward Park Library in the early 20th Century.  It’s neat to look at what the library was like back in 1915 and see how much has changed.  Back then they let patrons read on the roof!  Our library has  certainly kept its popularity.  It is just as crowded today as it was back then.  Although I would love it if I could get this kind of attendance at one of my programs.

Sci-Fi Film Shorts

Hey!  We’ve got a 16mm film projector!  And a libararian who loves running it!  Don’t you want to come on down to the basement to watch some films?  Thanks to the amazing collections at the Donnell Media Center, we can see great films from the days before video and DVD.   Here’s what’s coming up for April:

Date: Monday April 7, 2008
Time: 6pm

Program Title:   “Science Fiction Films at Seward”

Descripton: Come see three innovative 16mm sci-fi films:

“Arcade Attack,” 1983 (8 min.)  Dirs. Phil Austin, Derek Hayes. It’s pinball machines vs. video games in this awesome 80′s animated film.

“Autobahn,” 1979 (13 min.) Dir. John Halas. Set to the music from the Kraftwerk album, this sci-fi animated film by Roger Mainwood experimented with innovative techniques to tell the story of an alien travelling through space.

“La Jetee,” 1963 (27 min.) Dir. Chris Marker.  Chris Marker’s post-apocalyptic time travel film is told almost entirely with still photographs!  This was an international sensation and became the inspiration for the film 12 Monkeys. (in French with English subtitles.)

Cost: FREE