I’ve posted about USB flash drives in the past and hopefully convinced may of you to get one if you haven’t already. That having been taken care of, it’s time to present to you the next weapon in your patron-assisting technology arsenal: the USB flash card reader/writer.
Chances are you have patrons with digital still and video cameras who may just want to send their creations off to friends and family. Many of these devices will easily connect to your computers’ USB outlets but what happens if the patron decided to just bring in the storage card from the camera? Or, they’ve found a document online that they want to save and the only storage they have available is the micro-SD card in their cell phone. What’s a librarian to do?
The simplest thing to do is to buy a USB card reader/writer like the one shown in the image to the right. This one reads 80 (yes 80!) different types of cards and
costs just $17. If a patron has a storage card, chances are this small device will give them full access to reading from and writing to it. Just keep it at the reference desk and when someone asks, exchange it for their driver’s license. They plug it in, do what they need to do, then return it when finished. How could it be simpler?
This is a great idea, as memory cards are becoming so prevalent in consumer devices. Also consider including a media card reader in any new computer you purchase for your library. Most manufacturers will include such readers in certain models or will add them as an option for $10 to $20. Even some models of notebook computers can be ordered with an SD card or memory stick reader.
Anyone out there who knows where to download the driver for Win98SE? I purchased this fantastic reader but couldn’t make it work for my Win98SE PC.