Technology

Sifting for Truth in Media

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment


Feeling bombarded? Feeling like every minute of every day someone is throwing information at you, demanding your attention? Do you feel like you have to “Like” everything, or that you want to hide in a closet just to catch your breath? If it’s not a skewed news headline, it’s an unwanted advertisement. Throw in AI-generated content, and how do you even know what’s real and what’s fake anymore?

Deep breath. 

You aren’t alone.

And there are ways around it.

Cheshire Public Library recently hosted a talk by John B. Nann on exactly that – Navigating the News, and how to trust what you’re hearing and seeing is real. It doesn’t matter if you swear that headline makes total sense. It doesn’t matter if you’ve seen similar photos on the news. It doesn’t matter where you fall on the political spectrum – anyone can be easily manipulated by false or heavily biased information. Here’s an example: Would you approve of your seven year old’s school class watching a movie about a girl who kills an old woman, then joins up with a bunch of dysfunctional friends to kill again – on screen, in technicolor? 

No? Opposed to that? Angry that some people would be okay with that? 

That’s the plot of the movie The Wizard of Oz. It’s all in the wording, and you’re not alone if you fell for it.

If you’re on social media, you may have seen the Media Bias Chart. Professional media analysts have decided (in sometimes hard to read print) where a source is on the spectrum of a) fact and b) political bias. The further you get from the middle – either side – the less likely what you’re reading is actually true, and more likely you’re reading propaganda deliberately meant to upset you. Let’s face it – calm, soothing news doesn’t sell copy or clicks. Mainstream, respected media such as Time, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, MSN, Forbes, BBC, tend to be factual and reliable. If the headlines on your paper start with “Bigfoot Gives Birth to Alien Werewolf Baby,” you should probably consider it suspect.

Don’t feel like digging for truth? Run the idea past Snopes.com, which relentlessly searches for facts, and facts only.

If a photo looks sensationalized or “off”, do a reverse photo search (Google image search). It’s possible the photo has nothing to do with the claim, or is outdated, or happened somewhere else. Here, in a viral photo, the ship is not dumping waste into the ocean, but churning up sediment with its turbines before anchoring. Check the dates on articles – articles can sometimes reappear ten years later. Sorry, that celebrity died 8 years ago. It’s not news.

Another way to check for devious sites involves looking at the URL – the website address in the search bar. Look at the last letters. If there’s a two-letter ending after a dot, the source is questionable. Every country has a country code, or domain. You won’t see it on domestic sites, but the code for America is .us.  Russia is .ru, China is .cn, Rwanda is .rw, Moldova is .md, not to be confused with Maryland. If it’s not coming from the US, it could be a scam. The .co code is technically for Colombia, but it’s often used when companies or organizations can’t get the .com address they want. Approach these sites with an extra grain of salt.

On The Media, a podcast by WNYC, New York Public Radio 93.9 FM, lists the following points to think about:

  • Big red flags for fake news: ALL CAPS, or obviously photoshopped pics.
  • A glut of pop-ups and banner ads? Good sign the story is pure clickbait.
  • Check the domain! Fake sites often add “.co” to trusted brands to steal their luster. (Think: “abcnews.com.co”)
  • If you land on an unknown site, check its “About” page. Then, Google it with the word “fake” and see what comes up.
  • If a story offers links, follow them. Garbage leads to worse garbage. No links, quotes, or references? Another telltale sign.
  • Verify an unlikely story by finding a reputable outlet reporting the same thing.
  • Check the date. Social media often resurrects outdated stories.
  • Read past headlines. Often they bear no resemblance to what lies beneath.
  • Photos may be misidentified and dated. Use a reverse image search engine like TinEye to see where an image really comes from.
  • Gut check. If a story makes you angry, it’s probably designed that way.
  • Most importantly, if you’re not sure it’s true, don’t share it! Don’t. Share. It.

Finally, here are the resources included on the handout Mr. Nann passed out after his presentation at CPL. Stay informed!

Navigating the News, a presentation at the Cheshire Public Library
John B. Nann, MSLS, JD, LLM, retired law librarian

Organizations and other resources

Sources used in presentation

Did You Know: Lesser Known Library Materials

/ Coleen / Leave a comment

I was recently helping a patron at the circulation desk when someone returned a mobile hotspot. The patron I was helping was pleasantly surprised to learn that we have them available to borrow. As a result, I thought I’d write about some of the items the Cheshire Public Library has available that you may not be aware of.

We currently own six mobile hotspots you can borrow. What is a mobile hotspot? A mobile hotspot is a little box that works like a Wi-Fi router to bring you wireless internet. You power it up and can connect phones, computers, and TV streaming devices. They are great for traveling when you may not otherwise have access to the internet, and come with easy-to-follow directions on how to set them up and a number to call for help during library hours. Ask for one at the circulation desk on the main level or reserve one here.

Also great for vacation are selfie sticks! The two selfie sticks we have available use Bluetooth. You pair the selfie stick with your phone the same as other Bluetooth devices like speakers, keyboards, or Apple Watches by accessing Bluetooth settings on your phone. They are great for all kinds of situations: when no one is around to take your photo, when you want to photograph an expansive area beyond the reach of your arm, when you want everyone in your group to be in the photo, or when you’d rather not hand your smart phone to a stranger. Ask where to find them at the reference desk on the lower level or reserve one here.

Patrons are often surprised to hear we have boomboxes available to checkout. These are useful for audio books and music CDs. They can also play the radio, which is handy at the drive-in movies so your car battery doesn’t die! Ask where to find them at the reference desk on the lower level or reserve one here.

We also own three portable CD players. These include a car kit that attaches to your car stereo, making them another useful item for traveling! They are especially wonderful for listening to audio books during long drives when you don’t have a CD player in your vehicle. Like the selfie sticks and boomboxes, these can also be found on the lower level. Reserve one here.

While the games located in the Teen Room are for library use only, we do have an extensive selection of board games you can bring home to play. They are located on the main level near the Fiction books. You can find the list of what we own, and reserve one if you like, here.

Mobile hotspots and board games can be checked out for 2 weeks. Selfie sticks, boomboxes, and portable CD players can be checked out for 3 weeks. These items will automatically renew once as long as no one else has placed a hold on them.

Please note that the items listed above will be held behind the circulation desk on the main level for pick-up if you put them on hold, and not on the hold shelves at the front of the library. We ask that they all be returned to that same desk inside the library; they are all delicate, and we want to make sure they do not get damaged and are available for the next person.

The final items you can borrow for use outside the library are ones my own family has utilized throughout the years: museum passes! However, our passes are not just for museums. We also have passes for State Parks Centers, a Nature Center, and even Mystic Seaport! Look through our collection here, where you can decide whether to search by venue or date. You can reserve passes up to 30 days in advance.

Once you decide on your venue and date, simply print the pass from home*. If you don’t have a printer available, come to the library and ask to have it printed for you. Some of our passes are also available digitally and do not need to be printed at all. The printable/digital passes are good only for the date you reserve them, so no need to worry about late fees.

*While most passes can be printed out at home, the “CT State Parks Centers and Historical Buildings” pass must be picked up at our reference desk. This pass is subject to a $10 per day late fee. The “CT Science Center” coupon we offer must also be picked up at the library, but does not have any associated late fees.

The last items you may want to know about are not things to borrow, but rather things you may have left behind. The Cheshire Public Library has Lost and Found bins in both the adult and children’s areas; please ask about them next time you come in. We also keep smaller and/or more valuable items behind the circulation desk on the main level, so whether you are missing an earring, glasses, or a notebook full of all the books you’ve read, please be sure to ask.

I hope you found this information informative. If you have any other ideas for things you’d like to see The Library add to its collection, whether books or items, please let us know here. You never know, you might find it at at the library in the future!

Save Your Memories

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment

In December of 1983, we didn’t have internet. We barely had personal computers – a 256k machine cost $500, and you had to program it yourself. You couldn’t just save to disk, you had to format the darned thing before you could even use it. Video tape machines cost $600, and DVDs were still a dream. We were on the cusp of the CD player, but the real world still ran on cassette tapes. 

I was no different, with a cassette tape built into my stereo, eagerly recording songs and programs off the radio as they played live. Yes, we still listened to live radio programs back then, whether Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 Countdown, or Radio Mystery Theater, or, on Sunday nights, Dr. Demento, the leading program for off the wall parody and novelty music.

What’s novelty music? Novelty music is a humorous song that doesn’t fit in any other category but entertainment. You know it well. Alvin and the Chipmunks is novelty music. Barnes and Barnes’ Fish Heads. The Purple People Eater. The Monster Mash. Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. Steve Martin’s King Tut. Anything by Tom Lehrer or Weird Al Yankovic. While it’s a serious industry with all the requirements of mainstream music, and such songs can hit high on the pop charts (The Monster Mash hit #1), novelty music isn’t considered “serious” music. 

On that Sunday, it was the Christmas edition of Dr. Demento, and I threw a cassette in the player and hit record, because, back then, Grandma Got Run Over by A Reindeer was just a basement tape on Dr. Demento, it hadn’t gotten a contract yet. Weird Al wasn’t mainstream, and hadn’t gotten permission from the Kinks yet to record his Lola parody Yoda. On that tape, I happened, by luck, to record a song that in the history of radio may only have been played one time. It was a “bonus” track to fill space, and it was the only time it ever appeared on Dr. Demento. It hasn’t even been uploaded to his website. And it is one of my absolute favorites of underground tapes. In the era of the cold war, that song scared the living daylights out of me.

Cylent Night, by the Scrooge Brothers, tells a short story of the start of World War 3 to the tune of Silent Night, while air raid sirens start in the background and grow slowly louder. Off went the bomb at a quarter to three/ It’s the end of you and the end of me….  Have that hit you out of nowhere when you’re listening to the radio at 10 at night in your basement. In 40 years, I’ve never forgotten a line. And I just happen to have that song on tape. 

But cassette tapes are fragile things. They demagnetize. They fade. They tangle. My very rare basement tape has been bouncing around drawers and basements for 40 years. So what did I do? With the equipment at the Cheshire Public Library AV Studio, I very easily threw that cassette into the player and transferred that song to digital Media. Now I can store it digitally, share it with other Dementoids and Dementites who have never heard it (if you didn’t hear it live, you truly never heard it), even send it back to Dr. Demento. 

We all have those things kicking around our homes. Media changes so rapidly, from reel to reel tapes to 8 Track to cassette to CD to memory stick. We all have Grandma’s vacation slides of the Old Country, with relatives no one ever met. Dad’s wedding videos. That old LP you have that’s never been released on CD (or singles, like Rolf Harris’s Two Buffalos, which Bob Steele used to play on WTIC-AM). Your personal video of MTV’s top 100 countdown of 1985, when music videos were short stories of their own. You can transfer all of them to digital media, right here.

Beware, though – transfers occur in real-time. If you’re planning on transferring that 12-hour MTV countdown, it’s going to take 12 hours to put it onto digital. You might want to do it over a few weeks. But that LP? 40 minutes, you’ll be done.

Call (203) 272-2245 ext. 61245 to schedule an appointment at the AV Studio!

Still using the OverDrive app? It’s time to switch to Libby!

/ cheshirelib / Leave a comment

On May 1, 2023, the OverDrive app will be discontinued. Now’s the time switch to Libby, OverDrive’s newer reading app. Libby is made by the same people, with the same goal of connecting you to your favorite books, audiobooks, and magazines, and is streamlined to make finding and downloading digital materials easier than ever!

Why is the original app going away? Libby has actually been around since 2017, and and for that period of time OverDrive offered both options. Since then, Libby has seen much more use than the older OverDrive app, and it no longer made sense to maintain both apps.

Making the switch is easy! Simply download the app on your mobile device to get started. Good news, once you add your library card to Libby, all your loans and holds will be waiting on your Shelf! You won’t lose your place in line for any items you have on hold. If you have a Wish List, you’ll be prompted to import it from OverDrive via an in-app notification. Your wish list items will become a tag that’s available on your Shelf.

After checking out a digital item with Libby, you can read/listen right through the app. Prefer to read ebooks on a Kindle? Check out your ebook through the Libby app, then send it to Kindle and read it there:

  1. Tap Shelf.
  2. Tap loans at the top of the screen.
  3. Tap Read With….
  4. Tap Kindle.
  5. You’ll be taken to Amazon’s website. If prompted, sign into your Amazon account.
  6. Verify the “Deliver to:” device and tap Get Library Book to finish getting the book.

If you use a Kindle Fire tablet, you can sideload the Libby app to your Kindle Fire by following these instructions. You can also use the OverDrive website or Libbyapp.com in your Fire’s browser. 

Finally, if you’re more comfortable using a computer instead of a mobile device to access our digital collection, don’t worry, Libby works on a computer, as well! Visit libbyapp.com to browse, search, read or listen and more on your computer.

The New AV Studio at Cheshire Public Library

/ Louise / Leave a comment

Do you have a lot of precious memories sitting around on outdated media formats like VHS tapes, audio cassettes, or photo slides? Digitize those memories in our new “AV Studio”, a fully equipped digital media lab for audio and video creation as well as digital conversion. 

Digital conversion is taking an old format like a VHS tape and converting it to a digital format, which can then be saved as a file on a computer or USB drive. We currently have equipment available with the capability of digitizing the following formats:

  • VHS Tape
  • VHS-C
  • HDV Tape
  • Mini DV Tape
  • Hi 8
  • Digital 8
  • Vinyl Record
  • Audio Cassette Tape
  • 8mm Film
  • Super 8 Film
  • DVD
  • Film Negatives (135, 110 and 126)
  • 50mm Slides

The equipment in the AV Studio is available for public use, by appointment. Call our Tech Coordinator Jared at 203-272-2245 ext. 33019 to book time with the equipment. Jared will walk you through using the equipment and get you started.

Another feature of the AV Studio is audio and video creation. We have a Mac computer equipped with professional quality software for creating and editing digital content. We currently have the following software available on the Mac:

  • Final Cut Pro X
  • Logic Pro X
  • Premiere Pro
  • After Effects
  • Photoshop
  • Audition
  • Animate
  • Lightroom
  • Media Encoder
  • Illustrator
  • Handbrake
  • VLC Media Player
  • Wondershare DVD Creator
  • Indesign

This gives creators free access to expensive, high-quality software to make professional quality content. This computer is available for use by appointment, call our Tech Coordinator at 203-272-2245 ext 33019 to book time.

The AV Studio was made possible by funds from Friends of the Cheshire Public Library.