I work as the public geek at a public library in Maryland. Libraries can be a good entry point for open source. My library has been committed to open source for more than 25 years, so my place on work is already fully on board already, but I visit other public libraries in the Washington DC-area to nudge them forward.
For raising open source awareness using public libraries I recommend these steps: 1. Get to know the staff at your local public library. Find out how open minded they are. If they are not so open minded, don't try to change them. Just move on. They are not worth your time. If they are open minded, tell them that you'd like to volunteer to teach a workshop on LibreOffice. For me, LibreOffice Draw is the most enjoyable entry point. I use the speech bubbles (callouts) in Draw on top of funny animal photos from the web. Kids love it if you ask them, "What do you think this dog is saying? What is this elephant saying? What is this monkey saying?" Then, type their text into the speech bubble, print it out -- and they become a walking testimonial for LibreOffice. 2. Point out to library staff that open source promotes digital inclusion. You can share with them an article I wrote for PCWorld magazine, back in 2011. "Does Free Software Promote Dignity." A link to his article can be found on my opensource.com profile page at [ https://opensource.com/users/pshapiro | https://opensource.com/users/pshapiro ] 3. For the past year, I've been having a blast using LibreOffice Calc to create a fun, free paper-based math game which promotes conversations about numbers around the dining room table. See [ http://pairsmathgame.com/ | http://pairsmathgame.com ] . and the recent article I wrote for Computers in Libraries magazine, accessible here. [ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EpAYR-YHrOEvc6aBSykYK5-92Z5ucKNl/view?usp=sharing | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EpAYR-YHrOEvc6aBSykYK5-92Z5ucKNl/view?usp=sharing ] 4. Public libraries, by definition, are interested in storytelling. Did you know you can LibreOffice Draw to do 8K storytelling on YouTube? See my example video at [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsgg4hgjdoY | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsgg4hgjdoY ] Hope this helps, Phil Shapiro Silver Spring, Maryland -- -- Phil Shapiro, [ mailto:pshap...@his.com | pshap...@his.com ] [ https://opensource.com/users/pshapiro | https://opensource.com/users/pshapiro ] https://pairsmathgame.com [ http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/stories.menu.html | http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/stories.menu.html ] He/Him/His "Wisdom begins with wonder." - Socrates "Learning happens thru gentleness." "We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options." David Suzuki -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: marketing+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/ Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy
