Screencast-O-matic is good. Make good screencasts. I like.

It's taken awhile, but I finally found a screencasting program I like. I was gonna use Jing, but they discontinued Jing Pro, and basic Jing didn't have enough editing tools. So then I was gonna use Screenr, but I could never get the screen recorder to launch. I tried many, many times on my work computer and my laptop, and it just spun there, never loading. A promise that never delivered, like some cavemen I knew back when there were cavemen. 

So I gave Screencast-O-matic a shot, and so far I'm happy with it. The screen recorder opened right away and before you knew it I was recording. I decided to get the pro version cuz it has editing tools ---change the speed, zoom and pan, add overlays, animations, transitions, fade in and fade out, add text, add call-outs, add images and audio ---and only costs $15 a year. Which in your world is what they call chump change.

I liked that Screencast-O-matic had little videos on its website showing me how to use the editing tools. That way I could see what the editing tools could do before I decided whether or not to go pro. I also like that the edit tools give you the option of sizing your video for YouTube. And whether you use the free version or pro, you can publish directly to YouTube, or to a MP4, AVI or FLV file.

I'm completely new to screencasting and to adding animation and call-outs and all, but Screencast-O-matic is pretty easy to use and I'm learning quickly. Even for a cave-woman. I recommend it.

Viable E-book Options for Libraries

I am cavewoman librarian. I being always confusion. Talking the books and e-books. Confusion.  Make me raise armpit hairs to my sky and say, "What happened to the tablets?" I mean the stone kind, not the shiny black kind that have spirits living inside them.

The spirit tablets have gods of many names. Ipad. Nook. Kindle Fire. But the Kindle Fire is a weak god. It has no real fire.

Major librarians say people read these spirit tablets, read e-books. They say these e-books are the future world and I am must learn them.

They give me two rules about e-books for libraries:

Rule #1  Ownership privileges are GOOD
Rule #2  DRM software is BAD

Must pound head with club to learn rules of e-books. Pound head good so rules don't fall out.

Here is guide to e-books for libraries that do rules. You use for good hunt:

http://lisinfo.org/ebooks/