Bio
Cindi Trainor is the Coordinator for Library Technology & Data Services at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky. She blogs at Citegeist and can be found on flickr, twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Submitted by Cindi Trainor on September 2, 2010 - 8:44am
 Death by Powerpoint. You’ve seen it; we’ve all been there. You saunter into a conference session, drawn in by the succinct abstract, the scintillating topic. It only takes a scant few minutes to decide you’ve made a terrible mistake, that it does not matter what words come out of the speaker’s mouth: if you don’t leave immediately, snoozing will ensue.
Here are some tips to transform your slides from a crutch into what they’re supposed to be: a visual aid.
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Submitted by Cindi Trainor on July 20, 2010 - 10:15am
Creative Commons 101
 Where U.S. Copyright law dictates how creative work cannot be used, Creative Commons licensing makes it clear how a work may or may not be used. Creative Commons licensing has several attributes, or conditions, each of which can be assigned independently: Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, and Sharealike. Attribution is just that: if you use a work, its creator must be credited. Works that use the Non-Commercial stipulation may not be used for any commercial purpose. No Derivatives means that the work must be used exactly as it's provided. Sharealike requires users to license any derivative works the same way that the original was licensed.
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Submitted by Cindi Trainor on July 2, 2010 - 8:27am
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Three years ago, at the ALA Annual Conference in DC, I wrote this blog post. I was a month into a new job and trying to find my way into the impenetrable depths of the seemingly endless ALA. My past experience in other associations told me that Woody   Allen was right when he said that eighty percent of success is showing up: associations like ALA and its chapters and divisions depend on volunteers to get business and planning done, and there are never enough volunteers. So, looking back, what have I learned?
Submitted by Cindi Trainor on June 3, 2010 - 9:53am
 I use Flickr all the time personally, and my library has two accounts, a general library account and a University Archives account. Flickr has been around for a few years now, and librarians all over the world use it to share images from their personal and professional lives. Flickr is more than a great place to post and share photos with your community; it's a community in itself, and a starting place for all sorts of activities. Read More »
Submitted by Cindi Trainor on May 27, 2010 - 9:22am
'Photo Paper' courtesy Orin Zebest
In sitting down to write Part 5 of this series, "Turning Images into Objects," I realized I'd gotten ahead of myself. If you've been keeping up with this series, you'll know that we've covered photography basics, what the modes on your camera mean, and ideas for using your camera creatively in the library. Before we can think about prints, greeting cards, business cards, stickers and other interesting and practical things that you can make from photos, you have to get them off the camera and onto the web. Simple, right? Well.... It can be, if you plan ahead a bit. Here are some tips that may help. Read More »
Submitted by Cindi Trainor on May 5, 2010 - 11:36am
Now that you've learned how to take better photos, what should you take photos of? The obvious answer is to document events and activities in your library, but libraries everywhere are getting creative with their digital cameras and to inspiring users to get creative with theirs. Here is a sampling of library photo sets on flickr:
A photo booth can accompany any event, whether a summer-reading costume party or library staff day. Use paper or fabric to create a backdrop, which you can accessorize with paper cutouts or printed signs. Read More »
Submitted by Cindi Trainor on April 21, 2010 - 12:35pm
Modern digital cameras, whether small hand-held models or digital SLRs, often have more modes and options than the average picture-taker needs, but knowing a bit about how modes work can improve photos.
As explained in the previous post, three measurements work together to ensure a properly-exposed photo: ISO, shutter speed and aperture. Most cameras have various modes that enable photographers to give weight to either shutter speed or aperture, while allowing the camera to dictate the other measurements. If you aren't yet comfortable experimenting with aperture or shutter speed, you can try using some of the automatic modes. Ever wonder what those little icons on the settings dial mean? Read More »
Submitted by Cindi Trainor on March 31, 2010 - 3:59pm
There are three measurements that work together to make up a properly-exposed photograph: ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. These three measurements are to a large extent dependent on one another; changing one setting requires that at least one other be changed to compensate.
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Submitted by Cindi Trainor on March 22, 2010 - 9:09am
Show off Your Library Staff with Great Portraits Read More » This summer, I had the pleasure and privilege of participating in a LITA Preconference session with Michael Porter and Helene Blowers titled, "A Thousand Words: Taking Better Photos for Telling Stories in Your Library." Michael and Helene shared great tips for using and reusing photos to record and relate the stories of our libraries and our communities, and I explained and illustrated the basic principles of photography, and that pictures can be improved by understanding how these principles work together to produce a properly exposed image. There was a ton of content shared over the day; over the next few months, the “Take Pictures, Tell Stories @ Our Libraries” series will share some of this and other photo-related content with TechSource readers.
Submitted by Cindi Trainor on March 2, 2010 - 10:39am
 Mobile, mobile, mobile. It’s all we hear these days. Mobile…it’s the new black. Mobile…you just GOTTA. At my library, mobile web browsers have only accounted for .3% of the total site traffic so far this semester. Taking all the public PCs into account (the default webpage for which is of course the library web page) only takes this up to .5%. So, should my staff and I still put effort into a mobile library site, just to serve this handful of people?
In a word, yes. Yes, there is a lot of hype right now, but nonetheless, this traffic will continue to grow. With some initial planning like that so thoughtfully presented by Beth Ruane, Missy Roser, and Courtney Greene of DePaul University, at the ALA Midwinter meeting in Boston, a mobile-optimized website is within every library’s reach. Read More »
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