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Computer Services -- Highland County District Library
Our Computer Related Services at the Library:

Internet Access Computers: 

Each of our four Libraries have at least 5 Internet PCs running Windows XP or Windows 7 available to the public.   We also now have a Wireless Hotspot at each of our 4 branches! Users must sign an acceptable use agreement, and users under age 18 must have parental permission as well. We do not permit the use of Chat or Instant Messaging. Use of the PCs is limited to one hour if there is anyone waiting for a computer.

  • Please, You must bring in your library card to "check out" an Internet PC.  No, an image of a card on your smartphone is not the same.
  • We do have audio capacity on almost all of our PCs,  but you must bring your own headphones or earbuds.
  • We do not allow information to be saved permanently to our public computers.
  • We encourage users to log off Windows when they are finished with their session to protect their privacy.
  • If you need to save a file then we would encourage you to bring in your own Flash Memory Drive to store your files and carry with you. (If you have taken the time to create a file, you should probably save it.)Most of our computers still have 3.25 floppy drives and a few have writable CD drives, but unfortunately our staff does not have time to train you and cannot support you on the use of CD-R drives.
  • We cannot allow you to load software onto our computers.
     

[Wi-Fi hotspot Directory] http://www.jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm

[Local Wi-Fi Hotspot Map from Southern State] http://www.sscc.edu/home/LRC_staff/wi-fi.htm

Known Highland County Wireless Hotspots:

  • * Hillsboro Library at 10 Willettsville Pike, Hillsboro, OH now has Free wireless access during the library's hours of operation. Drop by the library to sign an agreement and recieve our passkey.
  • * Greenfield Library at 1125 Jefferson Street, Greenfield, Ohio now has Free wireless access during the library's hours of operation. Drop by the library for more information.
  • * Leesburg Library at 240 E. Main Street, Leesburg, Ohio 45135 now has Free wireless access during the library's hours of operation. Drop by the library to sign an agreement and receive our passkey.
  • * Lynchburg Library at 102 S. Main Street, Lynchburg, Ohio 45142 now has Free wireless access during the library's hours of operation. Drop by the library to sign an agreement and receive our passkey.
  • * Holtfield Station at 1620 S. High St., Hillsboro (Across from Ponderosa) has free wireless access.
  • * McDonalds on 62 N in Hillsboro has free wireless access.

 

Word Processing Computers: Three of our four Libraries have a computer devoted to Word Processing, however  all of the Internet PCs also have Microsoft Office 2000® with Microsoft Word® or OpenOffice. If you need to bring in a document typed in any other program to print, we'd recommend that you "save as" a Microsoft Word® .doc file first. All of our public Internet computers also have the file conversion update loaded so you can open a Microsoft Office 2007® file on those computers to read, but you can not save changes to it as a 2007 file. The Word Processing computer at Hillsboro does have Microsoft Office 2007® installed along with a tutorial program to teach you how to use it.  (The New Gates Grant Computers at Greenfield have Microsoft Office 2010.)

Reference Computers: Each of our four libraries have at least one computer devoted to research and reference. They can not be used to access the Internet for any other purpose, so they are free more often and do not require the users to have parental permission or a signed agreement. They can be used for homework or any other type of research. The Libraries of Ohio have subscriptions to many useful databases like the Worldbook Online, American and English full text literature collections, Oxford Reference Online, NewsBank (America's Newspapers) ,Business Source Premier, Science Online, and All EBSCOhost Databases which are quality research tools with a wealth of information that can be accessed from our library computers or from your home computers by using your library card number. Additionally, our library has subscribed to the Auto Repair Reference Center for information on approximately 25,000 vehicles.

* All of our computers have Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP or 7, we have no Linux at this time and no Apples.

* We do NOT have Microsoft Works on our computers, so if you need to bring in a file written in Works it is best to choose Save As and on the document type choose Word Document. The same applies to other word processing programs you may be using elsewhere.

* PRINTING is currently 10 cents a page for black text or 35 cents a page for color or pictures.

* SAVING YOUR FILES Not all of our computers have the ability to save to CD-R's, we recommend the use of USB Flash Drives (also called "pen drives", "thumb drives", "flash drives", "USB keys"...) as a faster and simpler solution to saving larger files to carry with you. Many of our PCs will still accept 3.25" floppy diskettes as well.

* SCANNING We do have flat-bed scanners at Greenfield and Hillsboro Libraries attached to one of the public Computers. The Greenfield, Leesburg and Lynchburg Branches have a multi-funtion printer that will allow you to a scan an image and save it to a flash drive. Hillsboro also has a computer with the microfilm reader which will allow you to scan to file instead of printing if you wish. (Again we would recommend using a USB Flash Drive with this as the file size would be rather large for a diskette.) Other Computer related services:

* E-books, and Digital Audio books you can download from home http://seoebook.seo.lib.oh.us/

* CD-ROMs - We still have some CD-ROM titles to check out for 2 weeks.

* Computer Classes for New Users- Check Out the Free Online Computer Training for right now;  or  call your branch library to check if there are scheduled local classes.

  * For more advanced topics such as use of Microsoft Office , go beyond the basics with step by step computer based instruction software. We have installed tutorial programs on most of the libraries' reference or word processing pcs. This training software helps the user learn about Microsoft Office®, Microsoft Windows®, Dreamweaver®, Internet Explorer® and other software with practice using them. Additionally there are now tutorial programs covering many of these topics provided with our online databases as a part of the LearningExpress Library (under Computer Skills) which you should be able to use from home or in the library. The password and login that they require is primarily to allow you to save your place in whatever tutorial you are working through, but they recommend using your card # and pin as you do in the catalog. (These may require the installation of a plugin and may be very slow to load on a dial-up connection.) See Also: Computer Tips http://highlandco.org/?q=blog/5