Texas Workskills Web Site

I thoroughly enjoyed and, indeed, was most impressed with the resources and links provided at Texas Workskills Development in Libraries website for Texas job-seekers. I particularly loved the Typing Arcade. I summarily recommended the Web site to a patron whom I am well-acquainted who is in dire need of employment.

In navigating the links to employment services and sites, I pondered the plethora of job opportunities provided by the 'Net. One definite handicap I envision, however, for the less tech savvy job-seekers leaping into the on-line job quest here at Lovett Memorial is the necessity of acquiring an e-mail address or addresses.

Many of our patrons use our computers to access something as simple as a special on-line coupon only to quickly discover this handicap for themselves. In most cases, these patrons have no idea how easy it is to establish an e-mail address and, consequently, walk away from our library in anger and/or frustration. Anger and frustration because they feel helpless and deem the effort of setting up such an account a needless and a time-consuming waste.

"Why set up something I am only going to use once?" is the typical response I receive after apprising the patron of the impossibility of moving forward to reach their ultimate goal (in this case, the sought-after coupon) without providing such coveted information to the Web site they are attempting to navigate.

I, too, find it infinitely frustrating on several levels. I most particularly resent the inability to point the patron towards a reliable and easy-to-use, unbiased, all-in-one resource to guide them through the first and second steps of the set-up mail process, namely 1) the selection of an e-mail provider among the many e-mail providers out there on the Internet, and 2) clear and concise direction through the creation of said account from start to finish while ensuring and assuring privacy which is a huge issue for these uneasy and often technophobic individuals.

Most frustrating of all is my lack of an understandable, acceptable "one-size-fits-all scenarios" answer to indignant patrons who demand to know WHY they must create an e-mail account to access whatever Web service they are pursuing in the first place. Some first-time job-seekers I have encountered at the library are older, low-income individuals wholly uninformed and naive to all Internet processess up to and including the fundamental role the e-mail address plays in the on-line job bonanza.

As for the use of on-line tutorials, after viewing some of these basic lessons, I believe the success of such lessons lies in the "tutees" level of expertise. In interacting with patrons at all levels of computer literacy at Lovett Memorial, I have discovered a number of patrons who find manipulating the mouse a roadblock to achieving basic computer tasks, so, no, when faced with a patron at this particular level of learning many of the Goodwill Community Foundation’s computer training assistance would not be helpful. However, to a great many other patrons such assistance could open doors to greater use and knowledge of computer software and the Internet.

I also believe interactive is ALWAYS best. Training that throws a multitude of computer jargon and an abundance of text at the novice computer-user can discourage instead of inform.