A signature file is used by your e-mail software to include contact information about you in every message you send. A signature file is a block of lines that identify you more fully than just a name and an e-mail address -- it contains the information that would be shown on a letterhead. Follow these directions, and from now on, each time you send an e-mail your signature file will automagically be appended:

Step 1: Create your signature file.

a. Click on Windows 95 or WindowsNT Start Button, then move your mouse pointer over Programs, then Accessories, and click on Notepad.

b. Once Notepad is opened, enter the basic information about you and your library, which may include these items:

• Your name
• Your job title
• Library name
• Library street address
• City, WI, Zip code
• E-mail address
• Voice phone number
• Fax number
• Your library's Web site URL (make sure to use the http:// prefix so it's a "clickable" hyperlink).

You can use punctuation or spacing to put this information on 4 or 5 lines, like this:

Melvil Dui                           | e-mail: dui@winnefox.org 
Technical Services Manager           | phone: 920-233-8383 
Sanford Berman Public Library        | fax: 920-235-0123
Packertown, WI                       | Web site: http://www.winnefox.org/ 
"If you didn't want them to think, you shouldn't have given them library cards."
                                                     -- Robert Kaufman

c. Save the file by clicking Notepad's menu bar File | Save As, choose a folder like your My Documents folder, and name the document "signature.txt".

Step 2: Set your e-mail application's preferences to use your new signature file.

a. Open Netscape 4.51 Communicator.

b. On the Netscape menu bar click Edit, then Preferences.

c. Double click the Mail & Newsgroups folder, and click on Identity. The bottom field is Signature File, and the easiest way to do it is to click the Choose button to locate your new signature file -- once you've found it, click the Open button, and then click the OK button.

d. Create a new message to make sure your new signature looks right, and you're set!

And if you want to spruce up your signature file with a quote, take a look through The Laughing Librarian's Lib.Sigs.: Quotations for Librarians' E-mail Signature Files. I like this one from Will Manley: "In fact a few simple mathematical calculations reveal that if reference librarians were paid at market rates for all the roles they play, they would have salaries well over $200,000."

Have you ever needed to go to a web site that you visited last week, but it's one that you didn't bookmark? Don't worry, there's a no muss, no fuss way to find it again! Netscape keeps track of the web pages you've visited and stores them in its History file. Unlike the list of sites you can see from the Go menu bar, the History List includes sites visited in both current and previous sessions.

To open the History List in Communicator 4.51, either:

• Press the Ctrl and H keys, or
• From the Communicator menu bar, choose Tools, and then History.
  
  
  

Here's a sample History List:

The history list displays the most recently-visited web page first, but the columns can be sorted or rearranged to suit your needs. For details on sorting the List go to Netscape's Features of the History List in Communicator 4.x.

However, the quickest way to find that elusive web page is to search the History List. To search, click Edit, and then Search History List.

In the Search History List window that opens, enter in the information you remember about the web page you want to re-visit, and click the Search button. If you don't remember a word in the web page title, click the dropdown list that includes Title to also search by a word that's part of the web page URL/location.

The results should look something like this:

Once you spot the web page you're looking for, double-click item (and don't forget to set a bookmark for it this time!)

To read more about it, visit Netscape's Features of the History List in Communicator 4.x.

In last month's Ides I talked about the value of running Disk Defragmenter on PCs that are running Windows 95 and Windows 98. Did you feel left out if you use a PC running Windows NT? Both Windows 95 and 98 include a defragmenter utility, but not Windows NT.

The day I was writing last month's Ides I located a free software application that defrags Windows NT, but there wasn't enough time to have the WALS staff test it that day to find out if I could include it the Ides of March. Fortunately for us Windows NT users, Diskeeper Lite has now received the WALS "seal of approval" and is available for downloading from the WALS software site.

To get your copy of the defragmenter utility so you can improve and maintain your Windows NT workstation's performance, just follow these steps:

1. Go to the WALS Software page.
2. Enter the PIN (contact WALS_HELP@winnefox.org or Joy if you've forgotten it).
   (Or if you don't have access to the WALS Software page, you can download the free software directly from Executive Software's web site.)
3. Scroll down to the Utilities section.
4. As soon as you click on the link for "Disk Defragmenter for NT" the software is ready to be downloaded to your PC.
5. In the "Save As" window, either accept the default installation location, or click the "Browse" button to choose a different directory. Then click the Save button.
   
6. Close all programs and software applications you have open.
7. Locate the newly-downloaded file (named defrag.exe) and double-click the file to install the software on your PC.

To run the defragmenter,

1. Open Diskeeper Lite.

1. Double-click the Diskeeper Lite Analyze button

to get a window that looks like this:

where you can click the OK button to proceed.

2. Next, click the Defragment button

and you can watch the software go to work on your PC's hard drive. A PC this fragmented took about 15-20 minutes to defrag:

You can multitask and run other programs while defragmentation is occurring, but performance of the other open processes will probably be slowed down.

Bibliozine: The E-magazine for Librarians is a new "web zine" that's worth a look.

Having a bad day? Don't take it out on others...go to Cataloger's Revenge and give Melvil Dewey a piece of your mind.

"It's a mistake to assume that empowerment of the user necessarily means disempowerment of librarians. The truth is that at no time have we been more necessary. In a way, librarians are sense makers -- the ones who are going to help people make sense of all this stuff. All that has happened is that there's a lot more stuff there. The problem of finding the nugget in all this dross becomes a more critical problem than before because the whole pool has increased and also become muddied. There is stuff in there, but how do you find that little bit of stuff that is of value?

I see us more as navigators now, as people who help the people creating the tools know how to create those tools -- by asking what these tools need to look like and by making sure that the tools are meaningful and useful. Today's search engines are so crude. For example, there is no search engine on the Internet today that could tell the difference between "a blind Venetian" and "a Venetian blind." When you are looking for a blind Venetian, you don't want information about Venetian blinds."

Eugenie Prime

From "Eugenie Prime: Librarian for the Digital Age", Hewlett-Packard Laboratories: Profiles

is Roasted Corn and Black Bean Soup With Lime Sour Cream (winner of the Staff Association "Souper Tuesday" recipe cook-off.)

This issue of The Ides was written on April 16, 2001
Copyright 2001, Winnefox Library System

The Ides is written by Joy Schwarz.
Please direct any questions, comments or recipes to schwarz@winnefox.org

URL: http://www.winnefox.org/ides/idesapr01.html