Read the manual, will ya
Last week we were having a library chit chat (replete
with Mr. Donut and office coffee) and my good friend and WLN: not
the bibliographic utility reader EW asked me about using a
particular piece of software. He lamented that I had advised him to
buy the package, yet he was upset that it didn’t do this or that.
“EW” I says, says I, booting the software in question, “
it is done thusly,” A few keystrokes and his querry was canceled.
“Well my wired friend, where did you find those
commands?”
I whipped out the reference card, pointed to the
keystrokes with a puzzled look.
“Gee, where did you get that?”
“Well mine came with the package, and it was right
underneath the documentation.”
“That’s probably why I didn’t find it” EW replied, “I
never bothered to take it out.”
“And that my good friend is why this reference card did
not fall in you lap.”
Remember this tip, number seven from the Wired
Librarian’s Book of the Obvious (not available at your newsstand:
make us an offer, we’ll write you one) WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, AT LEAST
LOOK AT THE MANUAL. SOMETHING MIGHT FALL OUT OF IT.
Smitty’s corner
note: for our new reader’s this section reports on
parameters and copy instructions for popular Apple copy programs.
If you have discovered parameters and would like to share them with
other reader’s, send them to WLN: not the bibliographic utility.
Copy II plus has released a new version 4.4. It’s
supposed to pick up self sync bytes; sync and gap fields, and
specific headers. We ordered ours here at the office but it has yet
to arrive. Expect more details next month.
Up on the Soapbox
Dump the Hype
My interest in micros is primarily to use them as a
library management tool. Because I am a school librarian, I am also
involved in educational computing, and extremely concerned about the
direction education has taken with the micro. We are betting a lot
of money on a bum horse.
To me the micro is a tool. It is something that helps
me get my work done, and it needs to be introduced to kids as a tool
which will help them do their work. I think we ought to expose kids
to word processors, spreadsheets, data bases and graphics tools so
they can do their work, be it school related or not, with it.
We’ve got a lot of people who see the micro as the next great
educational babysitter. You and I know that a great proportion of
the visual aids that get used (films, video, filmstrips, etc) are
only tangential to the educational design; they are a great way to
keep the kids occupied on a Friday; a tremendous way to solve that
hangover on Wednesday, and generally make the day go faster.
I am in no way indicting the educational value of media
when it is used as an inherent part of the instructional program. I
am only say that this is a rather “grey” determinate that is loosely
applied. I remind you that my undergraduate degree is in the
Teaching of History Through Film and Literature.
I have seen many staff members, even in the sainted
halls of 201; take the micro to heart like flies to a g-truck because
it kills time. Beyond that, some software tells you how well the
kids did while they were on it. Performance measured, the goal has
been achieved.
The real test is if Drill and Practice software does
something a $3 workbook can’t. The real exciting software puts kids
in situations they could never have in their schooling and then
teachers inductively or deductively how the situation came about.
What we’ve got snowballing is this maniac bunch of
schools, trying to keep up with the Krempler’s, dumping all of their
chapter money into micros without a clear purpose in mind. And I
can’t sleep at night because I’ve been part of it: part of the push
for better software and more hardware.
To top it off I go to a blue presentation and they tell
us not to worry: they’ll give us everything we need because they
have the computing experience. We’d better wise up, and wise up
quick; and be damn careful about preaching the micro gospel.
Personally, unless software is very unique or does
something very well, I just send it back to the producer. I hope
you do the same.
