Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Free Income Tax Help!

The UNI Vita Club offers free income tax help Mondays and Wednesdays, February 9-April 15, with the exclusion of spring break, March 16-20.

VITA, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, was established by the IRS to provide future tax professionals with experience while offering free tax preparation help to low-income people.

For more information, call the UNI Department of Accounting at 319 273 2394 or check out their website.

c 2008 Waterloo Public Library

Friday, January 23, 2009

On Line Tutoring


The Waterloo Public Library Learning Center has yet another service for patrons: Online tutoring from TutorVista.com!
Library patrons with questions about Math, Science, and English, may receive one-to-one attention from experts in the particular field.
Assistance, directed primarily at grade levels 2-12, if available 360 days a year from 3:00-11:00 p.m.
Users will be asked to log on using their library card number. TutorVista will want to know the users grade-level and the topic for which advice is needed.
When you or your friends and family are need of schoolwork help, log on to the the Waterloo Public Library's TutorVista service and talk to an expert!

Thanks to the Friends of the Waterloo Public Library for subsidizing our TutorVista subscription!

c 2008 Waterloo Public Library

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Teen Advisory Meeting

Calling all teens: Have a voice at your library. Attend the Teen Advisory Group Meeting, 5:00 p.m., Thursday, January 15, 2009 in the Teen area on the second floor.

Join Kristi the Teen Librarian for fun, pizza, and discussion of the future of teen services at the Waterloo Public Library. If you have questions, please call Kristi at 291 4496.

c 2008 Waterloo Public Library

Sunday, January 11, 2009

IRS Tax Forms Online!

The tax season is upon us and once again demand for forms and instruction booklets is high.

The Waterloo Public Library tries hard to keep commonly used tax materials on hand, but we're not a comprehensive repository. For unusual forms or instructions, please visit the Internal Revenue website: www.irs.gov.

The library has does not provide advice to tax filers, but does provide access to IRS services. Our 30+ public access computers may be used to file taxes on line. We can't guarantee complete data security, but we're confident that when you finish a session and restart your computer, your personally identifiable information is cleared from the computer.

c 2008 Waterloo Public Library

Sunday, January 04, 2009

WiFi at the WPL

Free high speed WiFi access is one of the Waterloo Public Library's many services to patron. The second floor has two Linksys 802.11a/b/g access points serving some 250-300 sessions each month.

Usually, if you start up your computer, wait a few seconds, then start your browser, you'll automatically attach to an access point. If you're unsuccessful the first time, wait a minute or two (yes, 60-120 seconds!) and try again. If you're still not connecting, use your computer's network utility to search for available networks.

The two access points will show up as "linksys" and "TrainingCenter" when you scan (your computer should have done this automatically) for available network services. If your computer finds reference01 and reference02, select the one with the strongest signal.

Once you're connected, wait a few seconds, then launch your browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or FireFox). If you've successfully attached to an access point, you should be prompted to login. Agree to our acceptable use policy, then either login with a user name and password, or click the "skip" button and off you go.
Once you're connected and browsing, you have 8 hours of 4mbs/256 access to the Internet. You may also download up to 2gb/day. Most of the commonly available ports are accessible, but if you have difficulty using a resource, give a detailed report to a librarian who will forward the problem to our technical staff.

While the AP signal is strongest on the second floor in the vincinity of either the stairwell or the Tranining Center, some computers are sensitive enough to connect and work well on the first floor; especially in the area west of the large type collection. At some point we'll be improving service on the first floor and will also upgrade to 802.11n service.

Meanwhile, enjoy the WiFi access, report any problems to staff members, understand that staff members have been asked to NOT configure patron WiFi devices, and try to be careful with your drop cords! If someone were to trip over a dangling cord they could be injured or your expensive computer might be damaged.



c 2008 Waterloo Public Library

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Color printing returns!


Thanks to the team at ASI the our Kyocera Color printing is back online.

If you ever get a printout that's streaked, blurred, or is otherwise a poor result, please report the problem to a staff member. We expect only the best quality from our printers.

c 2008 Waterloo Public Library


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