Fogler Library, University of Maine - Library newsletter for faculty

FOGLER LIBRARY NEWS SERVICE
Publicizing events, collections, acquisitions and services at UMaine's library
-- Wednesday, May 3, 2006--

SUMMARY
1. Events
    A.   Cancellation
2. Collections
     A. Serials Collection Review 2006
3. Services
     A. Advice on Format: Uploaded PowerPoint Presentations For Classes
*********************************************************
1.    EVENTS
A.   CANCELLATION
The Tapas Bar scheduled for Thursday, 4 May in the University Club at Fogler Library has been canceled.

2.   COLLECTIONS
A. SERIALS COLLECTION REVIEW 2006
Fogler Library has posted information about the annual review of the serials collection at
http://www.library.umaine.edu/colldev/Serials2006/ . The anticipated serials budget for next year should be sufficient to continue existing subscriptions, and there are no titles on the watch list at this time. Please contact Deb Rollins for more information (deborah.rollins@umit.maine.edu or 581-1659).

3.   SERVICES
A.   ADVICE ON FORMAT: UPLOADED POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS FOR CLASSES
The appearance of PowerPoint and similar presentation software has caused a technical revolution in instructional resources for University education. Just the ability to quickly share a class presentation via email, WebCT and Blackboard represents a quantum leap over what was possible with 35 mm slide shows designed for the same purposes. Two bits of advice follow, that would increase their utility for your students.

Most presentations require large fonts to project well on a screen. However many undergraduates ask us if they can "condense" the presentations, which appear unduly large when printed. There is a simple solution. Under the File/Print menu, if they select "Handouts" from the "Print What:" dropdown menu, they can choose to have from 2 to 9 slides appear per printed page. However many cluster computers do not have the full PowerPoint program, only PowerPoint Viewer, with which this technique will not work.

Another consideration is that most students will print the presentations on a black-and-white printer, from which any solid dark background color will appear as pure black on their copies. We have found that this consumes the toner cartridge at about ten times the rate of average text pages. Our staff also report that excess toner from printing solid dark backgrounds builds up quickly on the internal rollers of the printer, causing a failure about every 15 to 20 copies. A solution for most cases is to advise them to select "Background" under the Format menu, choose a medium gray color, and click on "Apply to All." Again, this will not work on computers that do not have the full PowerPoint program.

_____________________________________

Distributed by the Fogler Library, The University of Maine, Orono, Maine.
Please send comments or requests for more information on news items to
Gretchen Gfeller 207-581-1696 gretchen.gfeller@umit.maine.edu or Frank
Wihbey, 207-581-1681 frankw@umit.maine.edu. Newsletters are also posted and
archived at www.library.umaine.edu/librarynews. If you would prefer not to
receive future issues of this news service by e-mail, please send a message
to: library.news@library.umaine.edu.

Link to past issues of the Newsletter