Can’t attend live? Register and you’ll receive the final recorded webinar via email.
The world of artificial intelligence is touching every aspect of life, and none more than academia. In this webinar, we will explore how AI can be used effectively by students. We will answer questions like:
• What is AI and how does it work? • When is it appropriate to look to AI for help with academics? • What kind of prompts will help me get what I really need from AI? • How do I vet what I get from AI so I know it’s accurate? • How do I use AI and still learn what I need to in school? • Where can I get more help with using AI in conjunction with academics?
Come learn more about how to reconcile AI with education.
This session is led by Tutor.com’s Training and Development Team. We’ll be holding a Q&A session after the presentation, so stick around at the end.
Next week libraries will receive information (blog posts for websites and a social media tool kit) to inform patrons.
After the Daily Spending Cap has been in place, we will be reaching out to gather feedback on how the Spending Cap is impacting the patron experience. Please consider gathering the feedback as you’re hearing it so that you can share it with us.
Thank you for your continued support as we work through the ever changing and evolving world of eResources! Please reach out to Hilary Lewis with questions.
Do you remember your Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) username and password? Neither do I! It makes it frustrating to read the EBSCO eBook I downloaded! Is this familiar? Well, good news.
Due to the upcoming ADA II compliance deadline, EBSCO eBooks is sunsetting its Adobe Digital Editions requirement. The product will not be in compliance, and EBSCO has moved on! Welcome to the modern era: Thorium Reader!
Thorium is a modern alternative to ADE, specifically designed for offline eBook reading. Unlike ADE, patrons will nolonger have to create a separate username and password (note: they will still be required to use their EBSCO username and password).
Thorium’s benefits include a range of text-to-speech functions, the ability to choose font type, text size, and spacing, as well as change the overall layout of the eBook. It is also designed to work with a variety of screen readers, making it accessible to more types of readers than ADE could ever dream of.
This will only affect offline reading, when a patron checks out and downloads an EBSCO eBook from our collection. Right now, Thorium is only available via desktop and iOS apps, though the Android version is coming down the pike.
Again, the online reading experience won’t change. When a patron wants to download an eBook for offline use, they will need to download Thorium instead of ADE. Below, you can see what it will look like in the EBSCO experience. Note at the bottom, patrons are provided with a passcode that they will be prompted to enter once they open Thorium.
They will only need to enter the passcode once per device to open the downloaded eBook. Additionally, they can use the same passcode across six devices simultaneously. If, as happens, they forget the passcode, it is easy to generate a new one.
Thorium is available as an app on our Microsoft desktop and laptop computers. You can download it now to take a look!
Especially with the Hoopla changes coming May 1…now’s the perfect time for a reminder to take advantage of “bonus borrows.” Bonus Borrows, which are available the last seven days of every month, are not impacted by the overall daily spending cap in Allegheny County and also do not count as part of the 5 borrow monthly limit per person. Titles include books, movies, and more, and there are quite a few to choose from. So regardless of whether you’ve reached your personal limit, or your library has reached its daily limit – there’ll be things to borrow on the last week of the month!
Bonus Borrows show up as a list on the main page of the app when they are launched. This month’s are available March 25-31.
-Heather Auman, Western Allegheny Community Library
