Technology

Contact: Reference Desk 203-438-2282 x1015 or x1016 referencedesk@ridgefieldlibrary.org

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Public Access Computers | Wireless Access | Presentation & Training Technology |
Digital Collections | Text a Librarian | Technology Instruction | About our New Website | Additional Resources

Public Access Computers (PACs)

Public workstations
Located in Reference and Children's Services departments and equipped with black & white and color printers and popular personal productivity software (Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher and PowerPoint).

Color scanner and desk-top publishing software
Perfect for creating brochures and other promotional materials.

Internet access
More than 20 public workstations in Reference and Children's Services departments with printers and high-speed access to the Internet.

Computer Use Guidelines & Procedures

Internet Use Policy

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Wireless Access

Free Wi-Fi network
Available throughout the building. Bring your wireless-ready laptop and log on, using your Ridgefield Library card. Residents of other towns in Connecticut should register their hometown library cards at Circulation first. Out-of-staters and those with no library card may get a guest pass at any reference desk. Sorry - no print capability from our wireless network.

Wireless Internet Policy

Wireless FAQs

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Presentation & Training Technology

Come to the Library to host a speaker or film for your organization or hold a training meeting for your whole staff. The Dayton Program Room accommodates up to 100 and is fully equipped with state-of-the-art media projection system, integrated audiovisual capabilities and Internet access; modest rental fee applies.

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Digital Collections

Online Databases
Downloadable Audio & E-Books

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Text a Librarian

Send your text to 66746. Start the body of your message with askrdg then a space, followed by your question.

This is the newest way the Ridgefield Library invites you to send us your reference questions. Wherever you are, you can use your cell phone to ask all the same questions you might by phone, email or in person. During the Library’s open hours, our librarians will be monitoring and responding promptly to incoming text messages. At other times, you can send a message but it will not be answered until our librarians are next on duty.

The first time you use the service, you will receive a message with an introductory message from Mosio, the company that provides this service to libraries. After that, you should only receive responses from our staff. Please note that Text a Librarian messages will incur whatever charges are customary under your phone plan.

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Technology Instruction

Microsoft Office 2007
We've moved to Microsoft Office 2007! Visit our Computers& Technology reference page for a list of tools to help make the transition to these newer versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access and other Microsoft Office applications.

Senior Gold Card
If you are a Ridgefield resident aged 65 or older, you qualify for a free Ridgefield Senior Gold Card, which entitles you to discounts, freebies and special services at businesses and organizations around town. At the Ridgefield Library, show your card to schedule a personal half-hour session with a librarian to take a tour of the Library or get one-on-one instruction on how to use our computerized "card catalog," our downloadable audiobook service or one of our many electronic databases. Call Assistant Director Mary Rindfleisch at 203-438-2282 x1009 to schedule your Gold Card visit.

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About our New Website

Usability Issues
Fixed width versus fluid width website layouts is a common concern when planning a website, and we worked with the site developer to plan accordingly. We took a few factors into consideration when deciding to use a fixed-width layout for the new ridgefieldlibrary.org. Among them are the following points:

• Fixed-width layouts are much easier to use and easier to customize in terms of design.
• Widths are the same for every browser, so there is less hassle with images, forms, video and other content that are fixed-width.
• There is no need for min-width or max-width, which isn’t supported by every browser anyway (such as Internet Explorer 6 and other older browsers).
• Even if a website is designed to be compatible with the smallest screen resolution, 800◊600, the content will still be wide enough at a larger resolution to be easily legible. The current, most common screen resolution is 1024x768, based on web standards statistics.
  

As you can see, when we designed the site, we had to keep in mind the maximum compatibility to serve all of our website users, including not only screen resolution, but design elements, different platform types and browser versions.  Many large websites also adopt this method, such as CNN.com. With this in mind, we would recommend setting your computer’s screen resolution to 1024x768 to best view the website.

Special Thanks
A number of individuals and companies contributed to the design and functionality of the new ridgefieldlibrary.org. We would particularly like to thank Sarah Bagwell at our crackerjack design firm Miranda Creative; illustrator Jamison Odone, who created special drawings just for our children's pages; photographer Nina Pomeroy, who captured the faces and physical features of the Library in many of the photos on the site; and the helpful staff at Plymouth Rocket and BookLetters, who designed custom interfaces for our event calendar and other features used in the site.

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Additional Resources

Watch for notice of new software and services and of upcoming computer instruction classes.

 

The Library's Network Administrator helps a patron with her laptop.

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