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December 2005 |
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| Ever wish you had just a few extra minutes of study time before a big exam? Students who live in Roddickton have an extra 90 minutes – the time they save not having to drive the 123 km to the St. Anthony Campus of the College of the North Atlantic (CNA). CNA students can go up the street to the Roddickton CAP site in Cloud River Academy to complete their tests on-line. Chantal Weir, the CAP site worker books the test times with the college invigilator and provides a quiet, supervised area in the CAP site. “The CAP site provides multiple computers for test purposes…it’s a great example of how CAP sites can create partnerships that help out the community” said Chantal. This is the second year that the CAP site has been available for testing purposes and it is becoming more popular. Ten students have taken advantage of the service to date. | |||
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| When it is least expected, the service that a CAP site provides is welcomed and praised by a group from away. This is what happened in Twillingate this year. “Big Lessons from Small Places” an international forum on rural research was hosted in that area from October 13 – 16, 2005. This conference was hosted by the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation (CRRF) and the North Atlantic Islands Programme (NAIP) and economists, researchers and community economic development leaders from all over Canada and beyond spent several days in the Twillingate area. Many of the conference participants became very familiar with the Twillingate Public Library CAP site. They sent and received emails and surfed the Internet for information related to conference topics. Luc Bisson, a PhD. candidate from the Universite du Quebec a Rimouski, who was a frequent user of this CAP site during the conference, said "the services that the CAP site provides is a fundamental service and is very important for a community. It is very important for many researchers that were here in Twillingate for a conference.” Luc went on to say that “I can express all my gratitude for myself and many of my colleagues for the service that the CAP site provides.” CAP sites continue to receive high praise for their services, whether it’s from people living down the street or from people who have come from another country. For further information on the conference, please visit the following website: http://www.crrf.ca/news/pr121005.shtml | |||
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| We often suggest that committees come up with inventive ideas or “hooks” to bring new patrons in to their site, but the Placentia CAP site has taken this literally. The site recently hosted Stitch it, Hook it, Surf it, an informative session on rug hooking and quilt making. The committee invited Barbara Keating, a long time member of the craft guild, to display crafts that she had created using patterns from the Internet. She shared patterns with the group and demonstrated how to use an Internet search to help with craft projects. Those in attendance learned that they could seek out new projects; search for patterns or order supplies online and the CAP site found a whole new group of patrons. Sometimes all you need to do is Make a Connection! | |||
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A FrontPage Success Story On November 18, 2005, the Independent Living Resource Centre (ILRC) CAP site in St. John's began its first, two-day seminar course on Microsoft FrontPage. The purpose of this seminar was to teach participants how to create a personal webpage and how to post their résumé online. In conjunction with the Full Steam Ahead employment program, 14 participants learned the basics of HTML and photo-editing. The program also integrated the on-line interactive career resource called Career Cruising http://www.careercruising.com which allows users to explore different career options and plan future education and training. Youth intern, Graham Case, facilitated the sessions and incorporated the various adaptive technologies available @ the ILRC. He even created handouts to allow participants to follow along and for post-training reference. This and other training handouts are available for download on the ILRC CAP website, at http://www.ilrc.nf.ca/CAP/index.html.
Creating CAP Site Buzz CAP site usage is going up at the Greta Hollett Memorial Library CAP site in Garnish! Before youth intern Natasha Connolly came on the scene, some residents of Garnish were unaware of the CAP program and the many services available to the public. Only 2.6% of the town's population was using the CAP site. Natasha decided to start a "buzz" around town through advertising training, contacting local newspapers and promoting the 10th anniversary of CAP. Her hard work paid off in October when usage increased to 17% of residents. This is a large achievement for a town with a population of less than 750. And it's slowly growing! In November, this number grew to 24%. With a little work and creative marketing, the youth intern at the Garnish CAP site is proving that big things can happen in small places. Click on the following link to check out the article featured in The Southern Gazette on Tuesday, October 18, 2005: http://www.southerngazette.ca/index.cfm?iid=582&sid=3313.
Getting the Word Out When the Froude Avenue Community Centre in St. John's wanted to up-grade and expand their CAP site, they decided to call on help from the local community. Youth intern Mike Barrington submitted a posting on a local Newsgroup (nf.general) asking for donations in the form of computer equipment. CBC Radio One caught wind and asked Mike to do an on-air interview with Jeff Gilhooly, host of the St. John's Morning Show. On November 16, 2005 at 6:00 AM in the morning, Mike was interviewed. The early rise was worth it when donations started coming in! To date, people have donated approximately 300 MB Ram, hard drives, monitors, and much more! A larger donation of seven (7) CPUs was also received from Husky Oil. Mike has been playing Dr. Frankenstein, putting all the pieces together to create workable computer stations. The site is also giving back to the community, using left-over parts to help bring computer systems of low-income families back to life. What started as a simple posting has made an incredible impact on the CAP site and is inspiring the community. Want to hear Mike's interview? Click here: http://www.cbc.ca/thestjohnsmorningshow/interview_archives.html; select November 2005, Week 3, November 16, 2005, "Looking for computers - and films". |
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The Canadian Health Network is a web site designed for Canadians looking to get health information from a reliable source. It's a very thorough web site, containing a vast array of information on health topics from active living to healthy eating to disease prevention. They also have monthly articles on seasonal topics such as climate change. For anyone who is actively looking for information about their health, this is one web site they will want to visit often and should have bookmarked. With so much information provided on this web site, the creators have realized the challenges that may exist in easily finding the information that you or your patrons may want. As such, they have created a companion web site to help you navigate and promote the Canadian Health Network. The Canadian Health Network Toolkit is meant for anyone who wants to promote the benefits of using the aforementioned web site. It shows people how to search their web site, how to evaluate health information found on other web sites and tells them how to sign up for the monthly newsletter. They have provided many resources in .pdf documents that you can download and pass out to your interested patrons and even have training presentations that you could use. At a time of the year when many people have health information on their mind, this may be a great training idea. For many sites this may offer a new training alternative to the regular training courses such as email and Internet use. For new patrons, it may even be the initiative they need to begin using the Internet! |
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Did you ever wonder where you could go to check your e-mail, work out, have a cup of tea and buy a locally made craft to give a loved one for Christmas? The Riverhead CAP site of course! Located in the Father Val Power Memorial Learning Center in St. Mary’s Bay this CAP site is very busy. Stephanie Singleton is the on-site supervisor and training facilitator. High speed Internet access is available for only $1 per hour. Basic computer training sessions are held several times per month to meet the demand - 26 sessions have been offered so far this year! This site has been very creative in its fundraising efforts. Throughout the summer they sold tickets with the first prize being two tickets to the George Jones concert that was held at Mile One Stadium, second prize was a basketball and hoop, and third was complimentary Internet access at the CAP site. They have also tried to tap into the high tourist population that frequents the area by opening a tearoom. When tourists stop to purchase tea, coffee, muffins and cookies they can also e-mail their friends and family, or send a digital picture. Pretty innovative! |
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| The Riverhead CAP Site |
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In the last issue we told you that on CAP Day three CAP site patrons throughout the province won iPods as a part of our special CAP Day promotion. Below you will see the three lucky winners being presented with their prizes. Two of the three were able to come into the head office to receive their iPods.
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| Christmas days are here again. May peace, hope and happiness be with you today, tomorrow, and throughout the coming year. The CAP NL staff have enjoyed working with you throughout the past year and we hope the coming year will be as enjoyable and productive. From all of the CAP NL staff, we would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! | |||
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