LM_NET 11/20/98: No Subject

I like the idea of sharing reading lists with the public library---back and
forth---and promoting the public library's summer theme.

At our elementary school we invite the public children's librarian in to do
storytelling both in conjunction with the winter book fair and with the end
of year activities when she promotes her summer program to all the children
in the school and they get to know her.  we also get all the kindergartners
to the public library on a field trip and each child gets a library card at
that time.

Joan


Joan Kimball (jkim@borg.com)
Clinton, NY
Hart's Hill Elementary School Library
Clark Mills Road, Whitesboro, NY 13492
tware.  My feeling is that it would be a little like buying
the Reader's digest version of books for your library--they're
cheaper and shorter, but not appropriate for education.

Second (PC-only), Office97 will be available in mid-January.  (If you
buy it now you get a free upgrade)  If you haven't seen a demo of
Office97, it would be well worth your time to track down someone
(the local Microsoft headquarters?) and beg, borrow, or buy
a demo.  Office97 has the best built-in help concept I've ever
seen (something completely new!), it is fully integrated with
the web (imagine browsing the web within Word!), you can create
and edit HTML documents directly in any package (Word, Excel,
PowerPoint or Access), and much more.

More info about Office97 is at:  http://www.microsoft.com/office/



Stephen E. Collins sec@umn.edu
    http://web66.umn.edu/

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Our high school has used Microsoft Works for years and changed to
Microsoft Office about two years ago thoughout the district grades 1-12.
It is great! and very useful to be consistent so parents can match the
district's curriculum when buying for the home.  I've not had experience
with ClarisWorks, but don't know where Office could get much better.

Sandy Barron                 Tomball High School
sbarron@tenet.edu                      30330 Quinn Road
713-357-3219                            Tomball, Texas 77375
FAX 713-357-3252             "making the difference with information science"

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>Joan--  I have a version of Microsoft Office on my Powerbook and I have
>always loved it.  However, I recently acquired a PowerMac with Clarisworks
>4.0 and the capabilities of the draw and paint as well as the database do
>not match my office package.  I have used the spreadsheet on both and my 21
>year old daughter has also.  She loves the Office package and I prefer the
>Clarisworks.  I found Excel harder to manage than the spreadsheet in
>Clarisworks.  Both my husband and daughter love the tool bar in Excel but
>now that there is a shortcuts bar in Clarisworks, I am sold on the latter.
>
>        If I haven't totally confused you, go with Clarisworks!!  Linda
>
>Linda D. Sherouse, LMS
>North Hampton School (K-8)
>North Hampton, NH 03862
>PHONE 603-964-5501
>FAX 603-
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>Personally I have used all three programs and Microsoft Office is the
>better of the three.  Clarisworks is ok but it is not as powerful or
>usser friendly as Office.  Microsoft Works is a very easy program to
>learn but it is extremely limited.  Even at the elementary level I think
>Office can be learned and used with great potential.  Good luck.
>
>Tammy Dineen
>Library Media Specialist
>Lomira High School
>Lomira, WI

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>Joan - I've used all three and definitely prefer Office - it's much more
>versatile and powerful.  Be sure to get the version that includes
>Powerpoint and Access as well as Word and Excel.  Judy Smith

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>Joan,
>If you have the money, go for the MS Office package...
>it consists of word processing, database, and a presentation
>program...
>
>If you don't have the money, MS Works is more than an
>adequate substitution.  I used it all through college and
>still revert to it from time to time ... an example is just
>this year, I began working at a new school and they use
>the SIMMS program from the state for keeping student
>statistics.  When I began to automate the library, I used
>SIMMS as the student info source so as not to have to
>retype all that info.  In addition to placing the info into
>the circulation database, I also wanted to create some
>library cards with barcoded information. . .well, I tried
>both MS Access _and_ MS Word to try to open the database
>information from SIMMS with no success...  When I jumped
>into MS Works and tried it, the file opened on the first try...
>
>So, although I use Office for many endeavors, I still keep
>MS Works on the computer in case nothing else works...
>
>All that to say this. . .don't believe all that trash from
>Stephen about _real_ programs and such. . .  MS Works
>is still a viable and practical solution to many problems...
>and it also takes up less memory...
>
>Stephen's comments reminds me of the Apples are for
>kids drawing pictures and playing games and IBMs are
>for real computing problems. . .  Those kinds of
>distinctions and attitudes are a thing of the past...
>
>Aloha...   Earl J. Moniz
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Thanks to everyone for their information.

Joan Kimball


Joan Kimball (jkim@borg.com)
Clinton, NY
Hart's Hill Elementary School Library
Clark Mills Road, Whitesboro, NY 13492