Reviewing and Improving Workflow and Productivity: Methods and Tools

Most of our libraries and organizations have been around for numerous years, sometimes hundreds. Often that means many processes are created, changed as needed, and left in place long past their due date. Unfortunately, that means we are frequently working inefficiently, following old processes or cobbled together workflows.

The first part of the presentation will suggest methods for understanding and reviewing workflow. In the second half, we will take a look at various simple and lightweight tools and ways to use them to make work more efficient, especially in processing text, files, and data in batches.

Originally titled Tools, Tips, and Tricks to Making Work More Efficient. This webinar was presented for Florida Library Webinars on March 8, 2017. https://floridalibrarywebinars.org/events/16003/ Continue reading “Reviewing and Improving Workflow and Productivity: Methods and Tools”

Tips and Error Fixing When Using the Save As DAISY Word Plugin

I’ve been using the Save As DAISY Word plugin a lot lately, and while the documentation is pretty good, there are some bugs and other things that pop up. Since the plugin is no longer under development, I thought I would document here some of the workarounds and ways to fix errors caused by existing bugs. Continue reading “Tips and Error Fixing When Using the Save As DAISY Word Plugin”

Tips on Recording Audiobooks with Audacity

While there is a ton of documentation out there for using Audacity, recently, I’ve been recording some audiobooks in Audacity and struggled sometimes to find how to do specific things that are less to do with mixing tracks and more to do with editing a single track. So, here are a few tips and list of helpful resources. Continue reading “Tips on Recording Audiobooks with Audacity”

Accessible Format Production Part 4: Converting PDF & EPUB to E-Text

This is going to be a fairly short post. I would have combined it with another part but the parts before and after are long enough to need to be their own posts, so here we are.  Continue reading “Accessible Format Production Part 4: Converting PDF & EPUB to E-Text”

Zipping Files for Distribution: on Mac & In a Batch on Windows 

A lot of users don’t understand the sometimes lack of interoperability of zip files depending on how they zip things. In other cases, someone might know that automating or batch zipping is possible but don’t realize how easy it can be. Continue reading “Zipping Files for Distribution: on Mac & In a Batch on Windows “

Using MarcEdit to Populate (Sub)fields Using Data from Fixed Fields

Was supposed to post this last week, but didn’t actually have time. Big thanks to Terry Reese (MarcEdit developer) who helped me over twitter of all things. While not the most complicated, I just couldn’t find any documentation on this, so here it is. Continue reading “Using MarcEdit to Populate (Sub)fields Using Data from Fixed Fields”

Brief Review: DAISY Creation Software

What is DAISY?

DAISY, or Digital Accessible Information System), is basically a format for audio books. More than just mp3, there is also XML that adds features, such as allowing users to search, bookmark, and make notes. More information on Wikipedia. Continue reading “Brief Review: DAISY Creation Software”