“An excellent resource that is simple to use and that fills a gap in the market for online resources at a competitive price”
Josie Butterworth, Bolton Library
The Library Users Charter, as announced by the MLA (July ’10), will broaden decision making processes for libraries looking to develop their range of services to the public.
The internet may have been around for decades, but there are still millions of people in the UK who are excluded from using it. Part of this problem is making web pages highly accessible. You or your library members may have found web fonts to be too small or do you have difficulty with reading long paragraphs. The good news is that JISC and the University of Southampton have developed an excellent solution to help you get round these problems. It’s called the the JISC Techdis Toolbar – but perhaps the best news is that it’s free.
Yes there is bad stuff ahead, but let’s not be too downhearted… read more…
I was interested to read Martha Lane Fox’s letter to the Observer about Britain’s Digital inclusion. This has been a topic of debate for many years now, however there were two statistics that stood out for me.
[Their] numbers show that 10 million people in the UK today have never used the internet and of this figure 4 million are from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.
This is the first time I’d read about Race Online 2010 and Martha’s role in it. If you have five minutes it’s worth reading up on their research. If these stats are correct then that’s a huge challenge but an incredibly important one. Many would agree that we’re now truly in an information age. To thrive in this, the whole of society must be equipped with the skills and knowledge – that society must be digitally inclusive.
Update: This position is now filled. Thanks to all candidates who applied. More news on our latest team member soon.
We’re looking for an enthusiastic, energetic and entrepreneurial marketing assistant to join our team and help us market our existing range of successful online services. Think you might fit the bill? read more…
I’ve been reading a recent Government White Paper called The Learning Revolution. It was launched on 23 March 2009 and sets out the Government’s strategy for informal learning. There’s an executive summary if you’re just wanting a taster.
Here’s what the government says it’s all about.
Informal learning can help people gain personal satisfaction, development and fulfilment. For the low skilled and with poor experiences of formal education, informal learning can be an important stepping stone to further learning, qualifications and more rewarding work. It can help keep people mentally and physically active and independent into old age. It can also bring people and communities together.
What I thought was interesting about this was the impact this has on public libraries.
An ‘Open Space’ Movement. We want a broad choice of learning options to be available, including traditional classes, activities in museums, libraries and other settings, as well as opportunities to learn online. Self-organised learning is an important part of the mix. Many people are already doing this. We want to empower more people to organise themselves to learn, with opportunities designed by communities for communities. But we know that starting a group can be difficult: it can be particularly hard to find low cost space locally, and people need more expertise and tips on how to build a successful learning group.
We want to sow the seeds of an ‘open space’ movement where organisations throw open their facilities for informal learning at low or no cost. DIUS, DCSF, CLG, DH, and DCMS will work together with partners to open up spaces for informal learning in schools, colleges, libraries, community centres and healthy living centres, whether this learning is provided by the public, voluntary or self-organised sector. We will also develop a toolkit on how to set up, support and maintain a self-organised group.
I’m already starting to see the momentum for these flexible open spaces in some libraries today. This seems to chime well with the modernisation report released a few months ago too.
You’ll notice when you sign in to Theory Test Pro and GoCitizen there is a new option available to Practice questions by topic. There is a vast amount of information to cover in both Theory Test Pro and GoCitizen.
We created the Topic Testing feature to provide users more control over the areas they study. This allows users to focus on areas that need special attention, resulting in a more personlised learning experience. Some of the features are listed below.
As you can see – Topic Testing is loaded with great features and benefits. We are confident that Topic Testing will greatly add to the success of all our users.
Have you ever thought how nice it would be if you didn’t have to sign in to your Library’s Dashboard to download our Logos? Well, now you can download Logo’s for Theory Test Pro and GoCitizen from right here. Simply click on the links below.
However, just because we made downloading logos easier for you, doesn’t mean we don’t want you to visit your Library’s Dashboard. The Library Dashboard has great features to offer, such as;
So when you get a chance – check it out. Until then happy downloading.
We are constantly improving our systems at Well Informed. This means that sometimes we will need to schedule time where our services will be unavailable. Have no fear though, any planned downtime will be scheduled between 5am and 9am GMT to minimise any impact on customers.
We aim to provide a service that has a 99.9% uptime. This means that our services are only allowed to be down for 43 mins 50 secs per month.
We have a standing maintenance window on Tuesday mornings between 5am and 7am UK local time.
We will always give two days notice ahead of any major scheduled downtime outside this service window. You’ll see these notices at the top of the Dashboard after you sign in to any service.
The availability of our services are continuously monitored by an independent third party. You may review our system’s availability by revisiting this page.
And if something bad does happen, we have dedicated support specialists based in London (UK) and St Louis (USA), who can provide any help or information that you need. Email-based support is available between 9am and 6pm GMT Monday to Friday. We expect to respond to all emails within 24 hours of receipt or by the next working day if received outside working hours.
You may also find it useful to follow us on Twitter.