safari

Safari answers your technical questions

Colleen1 Comment

Technology annoys me. Every time I learn something new, it changes again on me and I am left scowling at small children who roll their eyes at my incompetency. I am of the generation that had to put their finger in a hole to dial a number and wait for the big circular dial to return to the start – none of that speed dial business!

If you are more technically minded, then I have the electronic resource for you! We provide access to Safari Books Online, an electronic reference library of technology, business and digital media. Safari has it all – from artificial intelligence and mark-up languages, to desktop publishing and online security. If you know that a “Server” is not actually another name for a waitress, that “Perl” is not just a knitting pattern and “Hacking” is not just a violent cough then this resource will be for you.

You can search across all of Safari’s texts or simply flick to the page you need at any time of the day or night to help out with any issues you come across.

Personally I still preferred my old phone – I miss the whirring noise as the dial swung round.  Maybe there is an app for that?

Have you tried glamping yet?

robertafsmith5 Comments

Cover of Out of Africa“You should blog about glamping,” she said. “It’s all the rage now.”

I know I’m not as cutting edge as I might once have been, but it isn’t often I am so completely out of the loop that I don’t even recognise a word. And what a word. Glamping. Ugly as, formed from the unlikely coupling of glamorous and camping.

Glamping is all the rage, and it’s even got as far as New Zealand. But this is not number-eight-wire, she’ll-be-right-mate camping (aka Real Camping), where you do more with less: pitch tents, fend off rising rivers, fumble to drop loos at midnight. Instead Glamping is where you do less (actually nothing at all really, someone else is taking care of all of that) with much much more. Think artfully draped canvas on your luxury tent, G&T’s lurking behind every bamboo screen and gourmet meals created from the animals you have just observed at the waterhole.

The library, of course, has resources on all types of camping:

So the jury is still out on glamping for me. But one thing is for sure, it will be a low point in my career if two of the least attractive words in the English language these days combine, and I become known as the glamping blogger.

Safari Books Online – Keeping up with technology

ColleenLeave a comment

Whether we like it or not, computers and their various applications are now a fact of life. Another fact is that as soon as you figure out how to use new technologies then they will change and update on you!

This where the library can help. Recognising the need for up to date information, the library has subscribed to 150 titles in the Safari Books Online electronic reference library for those with an interest in computer science. The information needs of amateur dabblers, IT professionals and programmers are all met here. Other areas covered include business and management.

Below is just a small sample of available titles:

This easy to use electronic library is one of the many benefits of library membership. You can access this database and its titles and many other useful databases from home with your library card number and PIN through Premium Websites, or from any of our libraries.