Gates Foundation & Internet Access
December 19, 2008 at 9:31 AM | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentFrom Ars Technica:
Public libraries haven’t been just about books for some time now, but they are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the costs of infrastructure, faster Internet access, and new computers. To help struggling libraries get on their 21st century feet, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a grant program of $6.9 million that will go toward launching a pilot broadband initiative in a handful of US states.
The seven states included in the Gates Foundation’s pilot grant program include Arkansas, California, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Virginia, and the money has been awarded to two separate organizations. $6.1 million goes to Connected Nation, a non-profit broadband Internet advocacy group that will help these states to gather and activate various public library leaders and officials who can support broadband Internet in each state’s libraries.
The rest of the funds, a hair over $850,000, will go to the American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP), which will help state library agencies implement sustainable broadband strategies. The organization will also perform and distribute a series of case studies that demonstrate how other public libraries can successfully manage broadband services for their patrons.
Read the entire article here
And now, a word from our Principal Developer…
November 4, 2008 at 9:07 AM | In EventKeeper, Product News | Leave a CommentJust a quick note to let you know that there’s a new release of several of the Plymouth Rocket applications.
It contains a handful of changes under the hood which should not change your user experience and also a couple of things that might interest you.
EventKeeper: – The maintenance of the search index has changed. Several users have enough events so that the reindexing process was taking a painful amount o time. We added a new button which you can use to reindex only those event added or modified in the last 24 hours. Much quicker. We also changed the way the Reindex All function works to make that quicker as well.
TixKeeper: – Our museum pass management system is spreading to a lot of libraries outside New England and we’ve been happy to respond to requests to provid a Patron Authentication interface to several new ILS providers. The list now includes: SirsiDynix, Innovative, Polaris, and The Library Corporation.
EKRegistration: – Our patron authentication feature now can be used with EKRegistration as well. Let us know if that is of interest to you.
EKRooms: – It is now much easier to manage equipment that is not associated with a particular room. Check with us if you have always wondered how to do this.
Best regards, Ric
Ric Bailey rbailey@plymouthrocket.com
NELA 2008
October 23, 2008 at 8:18 AM | In Library News, Lifelong Learning, Trade Shows & Demos | 1 CommentTags: library conferences
NELA 2008 was an excellent conference, and documenting the proceedings through the blog, often in real time, was a terrific addition. We had the pleasure of sponsoring internet access for the conference. Our next stops will be at conferences in New York and Pennsylvania. Here is a link to the NELA Blog.
Another good reason to back-up…
August 1, 2008 at 4:28 PM | In Current Affairs, Lifelong Learning, Travel | Leave a CommentAccording to a Reuters report:
U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers’ laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.
Traveling safely by land, sea, or air is important to all of us. TSA does a good job under very stressful conditions 99% of the time. How far will the government go?
Read the entire article here.
TixKeeper by the Numbers
July 22, 2008 at 5:14 PM | In TixKeeper | Leave a CommentTags: Museum passes
TixKeeper is our museum pass reservation software, part of our suite of applications that began with EventKeeper a few years back. This is kind of fun. Click here to get a sense of how often patrons are using Tixkeeper to reserve passes. Pass usage is up, administration time is down. A good thing.
Additionally, if you are coming to Massachusetts for a vacation, check out the listing of museums represented. Rain or shine, lots of great places to check out.
A Calendar with a View
July 9, 2008 at 1:07 PM | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentNot an opinion, just a new EventKeeper monthly view that provides folks who prefer to link to the monthly view with a more powerful, informative look at your calendar. If you subscribe and would like us to enable this feature for you, just let us know. Of course, We’d be glad to tell you how to do it yourself. It’s really easy.
Link to our Newsletter
July 8, 2008 at 2:12 AM | In Uncategorized | 1 CommentSome of you received this, most of you didn’t. We’ll get it right soon. In the mean time, you can catch up with Plymouth Rocket, Inc by clicking here: June 2008 Newsletter.
New England Aquarium/EventKeeper
May 2, 2008 at 2:51 PM | In EventKeeper, Product News | 1 CommentWow. If you are visiting Boston and wish to find out about all of the very cool things happening at the New England Aquarium, visit their newly designed web site. It’s spectacular.
Their web team worked closely with Plymouth Rocket’s Principal Developer Ric Bailey to create what we call a “branded” calendar, that extends and sustains their brand across their event listing. Check it out by clicking “Events Calendar” on their home page.
Debut of LibraryShowKeeper.com
April 1, 2008 at 5:14 PM | In EventKeeper, Library News | Leave a CommentSince we’re all about helping lots of organizations get the word out regarding events, we figured we’d utilize EventKeeper to help folks keep track of state, regional, and national library conferences. Check out LibraryShowKeeper and find out what’s happening library-wise in your state or region.
Did we miss some? Please let us know!
HTTPS Protocol enabled within EventKeeper
February 20, 2008 at 2:16 PM | In Product News | Leave a CommentIn response to some interest from both existing and prospective subscribers, we’ve enabled the HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer, or HTTP over SSL) protocol within EventKeeper. We haven’t noticed any speed or performance changes, but we’ll keep an eye on things for you.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say regarding https:
https (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer) is a URI scheme used to indicate a secure HTTP connection. It is syntactically identical to the http:// scheme normally used for accessing resources using HTTP. Using an https: URL indicates that HTTP is to be used, but with a different default TCP port (443) and an additional encryption/authentication layer between the HTTP and TCP. This system was designed by Netscape Communications Corporation to provide authentication and encrypted communication and is widely used on the World Wide Web for security-sensitive communication such as payment transactions and corporate logons.
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