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13 Ways (and 147 Tools) to Help Your Library Save Money on Technology

January 24, 2010

Below you will see my 13 Ways (and 147 Tools) to Help Your Library Save Money on Technology.

These are my favorite options for libraries to use as alternatives to the expensive paid services and software that we use now, usually because our parent organizations or IT departments have gone along with the mainstream, bought the expensive stuff from the well-known companies, and never blinked.  But now that we are all facing budget crunches the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades, we have a chance to show these alternatives to the decision-makers, save the organization some money, and support the open source movement at the same time. I have personally used all of these, at least in a demo setting. Most of them I use on a regular basis at work or at home. So trust me — these recommendations do not come lightly!  I think these tools are darn good, otherwise they wouldn’t have made the cut.

This list has come out of a few different presentations I’ve given for public libraries recently, from Hawaii to Iowa.  Take a look, see what you want to try, and let me know how it works.  The list is not exhaustive, so I invite all of you to comment on this post and add your own favorite free web tools, software, and open source awesomeness.

1. Free Software for Public & Staff Computers

  • Operating System (instead of Windows) – Ubuntu
  • Email/Calendar (instead of Outlook) – Google Calendar & Gmail
  • Web Browser (instead of IE) – Firefox, Google Chrome
  • Financial Software (instead of Quicken) – GNU Cash
  • Productivity Software (instead of Office) – Open Office
    • - word processing (like Word), spreadsheets (like Excel), presentations (like PowerPoint), databases (like Access), desktop publishing (like Publisher), and calculator (like, errr…, a calculator)
  • Image Editing (instead of PhotoShop) – GIMP
  • Typing Software – GNUTypist or TypeFaster Typing Tutor
  • CD writing – Brasero or InfraRecorder

2. Free Security Software Suite

3. Free Staff Scheduling Software

4. Free Team Meeting Tools

5. Free Tech Support Tools

  • Embedded chat (pop it in your intranet header) – Meebo Me chat widget
  • Voice or video chat (another way to contact tech support) – Skype, Ekiga, Sightspeed, or Tokbox
  • Screencasts on the fly (for tech support to help you!) – Jing
  • Discussion board (create a staff board re: common tech issues) – Google Groups
  • Remote Support (tech support folks can log in & control/see your computer) – LogMeIn.com, TightVNC

6. Free Audio & Video Tools

7. Free eLearning Tools

8. Free “Contact Us” Tools to Communicate with Customers

9. Free Social Network & Extended Web Presence Tools

10. Free Website Management Tools

11. Free eBooks (need to cut your eBook budget? that’s ok – there are a lot of free eBooks out there.)

12. Free Articles

13. Miscellaneous Other Free Stuff

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“13 Ways (and 147 Tools) to Help Your Library Save Money on Technology”

  1. uberVU - social comments Says:
    January 24th, 2010 at 9:14 pm

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by TheLiB: New post on LibrarianInBlack.net: 13 Ways (and 147 Tools) to Help Your Library Save Money on Technology: http://bit.ly/4zyYW1…

  2. jessamyn Says:
    January 24th, 2010 at 9:49 pm

    This is terrific having this all in one place like this.

  3. Tweets that mention 13 Ways (and 147 Tools) to Help Your Library Save Money on Technology | Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan -- Topsy.com Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 8:51 am

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  4. Mike Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 10:24 am

    Never see Olark (formerly hab.la) mentioned for chat and its free for libraries. It’s a really good option for small libraries – you can see it in action at http://www.glencoepubliclibrary.org

  5. John Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 10:30 am

    This is a great list but I did notice a couple of things that people should be made aware of.

    1. AdAware is free for personal home use only . Use by any organizaztion requires a license.
    2. Skype reserves the right to appropriate both the cpu and bandwidth of any computer that it is installed on to use for its own purposes such as routing calls through.

  6. Melissa McCarthy Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 11:28 am

    Super list! One great addition to the security arsenal: Microsoft Security Essentials. Lifehacker concurs: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/11/stop-paying-for-windows-security-microsofts-security-tools-are-good-enough/

    Standard disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with Microsoft (or Lifehacker, for that matter).

  7. Claudia Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 4:23 pm

    Thanks for the great tools!

  8. Ed Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 7:50 pm

    Microsoft Security Essentials is only licensed for Home use and/or Home based business use only according to their EULA which can be found here http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/eula.aspx#mainNav

    DimDIm has a free online meeting tool that can be found here http://www.dimdim.com/ .

  9. james fox Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    2 more quick. VLC to play almost any media (dvd’s cd’s etc, also takes screenshots) and TubeChop to only play clips of any youtube video. great list.

  10. 20100127 « El blogsitorio Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 5:39 am

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  11. Jean Costello Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 7:29 am

    Hi –

    I’ve used these two sites that review & distribute freeware for years: Snapfiles
    and Freeware Files

    Also, here are two great Firefox plugins for web development and documentation: Firebug
    for inspecting and editing code and Fireshot for browser screen capture and annotation.

  12. Renato Jacobsen Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 8:38 am

    I would recommend Malwarebytes against malware and spyware. We’ve been using the free version (not real-time protection) successfully and I find it more efficient than some of the ones you mentioned that I have used on my personal computers.

  13. Diane Romm Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 9:17 am

    Great list!! For hardware, I would recommend thin clients. They’re affordable, last much longer than PCs, stand up to constant use, and require little or no maintenance.

    For more information, check out my article in Library Journal entitled “It Pays to be Thin.”

    http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6299864.html

  14. Justin Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    Thanks for the list. Any suggestions for free online storage?

  15. sharon Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 4:55 pm

    Google Docs and Box.net for free online storage and sharing.
    Dabbleboard for quick, and not so quick, diagrams, annotated images, etc.

  16. 13 Ways (and 147 Tools) to Help Your Library Save Money on Technology | Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan « Netcrema – creme de la social news via digg + delicious + stumpleupon + reddit Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 10:25 pm

    [...] 13 Ways (and 147 Tools) to Help Your Library Save Money on Technology | Librarian in Black Blog – …librarianinblack.net [...]

  17. Stefanie Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 11:27 pm

    malwarebytes is another great free antivirus resource. It isn’t a program that will run in the background, but it has gotten rid of MANY problems that our paid for antivirues and antimalware could not.

  18. Ron Says:
    January 28th, 2010 at 11:06 am

    Free subject guide creator: SubjectsPlus
    Other free citation keepers: Connotea, CiteULike

  19. Heather Braum Says:
    January 28th, 2010 at 2:29 pm

    Thanks for a great list; I’ve heard of many of these, but not all. I concur on the malwarebytes software others have suggested. It’s gotten me out of a bad spyware situation many times, and also picked up/removed nasty spyware that the other tools you mentioned didn’t catch.

    Also, I have to put in an extra recommendation for LogMeIn. I work for a 14-county regional library system (NEKLS in Kansas), and LogMeIn has been a lifesaver, timesaver, and money-saver for us. We use it in so many ways on our libraries’ computers: troubleshooting, training, software install, and extracting data for migration to our Koha Consortia, NExpress (www.nexpresslibrary.org). Without LogMeIn, our Koha migration would have taken 3 times as long. We don’t have to travel to extract the data; just remote into the servers, extract the data, and upload it to our vendor’s FTP server.

    Our librarians love it because they don’t have to sit there trying to explain a problem; they’re at the point where they just ask us to remote in, to explain something or fix a problem. We love it at NEKLS!

  20. Got a library? Got any money to run it? Yeah, me neither. | Librarians do it Between the Covers Says:
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  21. Sarah Says:
    January 28th, 2010 at 4:10 pm

    Favorite free online file storage is at adrive.com and box.net. There are others, but these are two goodies! Technology Magazine has a good list of more.

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  24. Chas Says:
    February 2nd, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    I like what I see on this list with one exception and one omission:

    Exception: AVG is awful, use Avast free, or AntiVira home instead http://www.avast.com or http://www.free-av.com

    Omission: Superantispyware found at http://www.superantispyware.com

    Cheers!
    C

  25. chris gibson Says:
    February 6th, 2010 at 9:36 pm

    A nice compilation. Thanks. I’ve added this to my delicious page.

  26. sherry Says:
    February 11th, 2010 at 8:52 am

    Thanks! Great List!

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    February 14th, 2010 at 2:05 pm

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  29. Cuberdon Says:
    February 15th, 2010 at 6:54 am

    Anything about library management softwares themselves?

  30. Sarah Says:
    February 15th, 2010 at 8:41 pm

    Cuberdon, I’m not totally sure I know what you mean by library management software. Are you talking about Integrated Library Systems (ILS)? Or something else? If you describe more, perhaps I or my readers can help out.

  31. Demetria Says:
    February 17th, 2010 at 11:36 am

    Thanks for sharing this information.

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  34. Blog(s) I follow « Another Document Management 1 Blog… Says:
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    [...] of other blogs similar to hers, but I think she strikes a good balance between concrete practical tips and tricks, and reflective analysis of wider issues related to librarianship and [...]

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