Second Super Smash Brothers Qualifier Complete!

The second of three Super Smash Brothers Tournament of Champions is complete with a rousing success! We had 64 contestants vying to become one of eight finalists to join the previous winners receiving an invitation to the Tournament of Champions Finals to be held on September 26th.  If you have not had a chance to try (or if you didn’t win and want to try again) for one of eight more slots in the Tournament of Champions, your next chance comes on August 1, 2015 where 8 more finalists will be chosen.  On September 26th,  you will also have the chance to enter the tournament as a wild card finalist (8 more will be chosen via raffle).  The 32 finalists will compete to be the one and only best at Wii U Smash Brothers (plus a fantastic trophy and a 3DS XL!)  Be sure to come early on August 1 since we ended up turning a few people away last time.  Call the Jacobs Technology Center 610.280.2666 if you have any questions.

Our qualifiers for round 2! (As well as some of our JTC staff)

Microsoft Offers Access to Office Online – Free!

Microsoft’s Office Online is a completely free, web-based version of Microsoft Office. For those of you with a Surface tablet that did not come with Office 365 or those of you who just can’t justify the cost of the Microsoft Office Suite on your laptop, desktop or tablet, Office Online is an excellent substitute.

What’s that you say? You don’t have a PC or a PC compatible device? No worries, Office Online works through your browser so you can have access to all of the Microsoft Office Suite of applications with your iMac, iPad, Android tablet, Android phone, and Chromebook without having to download a thing.

Of course you won’t get the entire feature sets included in the full applications, but the features that are included are enough to take care of simple to moderately complex correspondence, worksheets, and presentations. Office Online also includes hundreds of free templates as well, so you don’t need to start from scratch every time you create a flyer, calendar, budget, invoice, school project, photo album, or many other kinds of documents.

What’s the catch you say? Nothing is free? Well the catch is that must have an email address (personal accounts are better than work or school accounts requiring you to use Office 365 which is not free) and you can only run the programs when you are connected to the internet. If you have no internet connection, you will not be able to edit or create documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. You can save files locally (although you will receive 15gb of storage free), but you will only be able to edit or create files if you are connected to the internet.

What then do you get with Office Online? With Office Online you get: Word online, Excel online, PowerPoint online, Calendar, OneDrive (15 GB of cloud storage), OneNote online, and Outlook online.

Office Online runs in your browser and is supported by Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome. So take a look, this just may be the software you’ve wanted to add to your applications that does not require downloading!

For more information, click here: Office Online

First Super Smash Brothers Qualifier Complete!

Congratulations to the winners of the first qualifier leading up to the Super Smash Brothers Tournament of Champions! The eight winners shown on our blog have each received their invitation to compete in the Finals coming on September 26^th – congratulations to each.

All-in-all the tournament was a rousing success with more than 50 players competing to become a finalist.  The games were hard-fought and everyone had a blast! At various times throughout the tournament the excitement could be heard all the way down to the front desk as entrants sought to gain the upper hand and win their games.  If you didn’t win or if you didn’t get a chance to compete, not to worry, there are two more chances, the next one coming on July 11^th. So get your game thumbs into shape and come on out to the library on Saturday, July 11^th (registration starts promptly when the library opens at 9:30 AM). We’ll have the Struble Room set up and ready for fast-paced action offered to everyone of all ages willing to play for the chance to win the Smash Brothers Trophy and the prizes being awarded at the finals (haven’t seen the trophy yet, then come on out on July 11^th it will be on display). Invite your friends and let’s see if we can break the record of 55 entrants set last month.

The eight winners of the first qualifier and the JTC Staff

New Recorded Workshop – Intro to MS Word

If you haven’t had a chance to see our introductory Word class live, now you can watch it from home. Follow along with the accompanying handout, and you’ll be formatting documents in no time!

See more here, or start watching below:

Super Smash Bros Tournament of Champions Announced

Another Thank You!

A kind patron dropped of these flowers and some sweets to thank us for helping her with a project. They are very beautiful and we couldn’t thank her enough. Thank you!

April Tournament

The April tournament was full of fun and excitement. We once again had a group of all ages show up to compete for prizes as well as bragging rights.

Only minutes after opening the library doors to the public did we have a group of contestants practicing for the upcoming matches.

We also held our second Scavenger Hunt for prizes. Contestants and watchers alike were urged to explore the library and answer questions about the services the library offers. In exchange for their participation our hunters were given tickets for a chance to win a mystery grab bag filled with library goodies.

We had a heated final battle between the reigning champion, and a silver clad newcomer. Just look at the focus and determination on those faces!

Our 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place winners! Congratulations guys! See you next time!