Some different ideas about what librarians need to know about technology:

• Library Revolution’s “Librarians & Technology: Minimum Competencies“
• David Lee King’s”Basic Competencies Of A 2.0 Librarian” & “Basic Competencies Of A 2.0 Librarian, Take 2“
• The Shifted Librarian’s “20 Technology Skills Every Librarian Should Have“, written in 2005, but seems to hold up well

There is also a webinar on 25 July, 11:00am (furiously does the maths to figure out what that translates to for Melbourne players) about core competencies for library staff.

The company I work for recently switched over to VOIP for all their remote employees. Now I have an Engin box, a router & no need to add up my business-related phone calls at the end of each quarter.

To be honest, though, I didn’t know much about VOIP before the IT guy came to my house and installed it. I had a hazy idea it had something to do with Skype. (It doesn’t, necesarily.) I spent a few hours doing a little digging and came across this “everything you wanted to know about VOIP but were too scared to ask” type article on the Whirlpool forum. There’s also the VOIP Stuff website, which cleared up most of my confusion.

As far as I can tell there are three different ways to set-up VOIP. It depends on whether you want to invest in software or hardware.

Software
1. Download software (e.g Skype), buy yourself a headset with a microphone & you’re away with little upfront cost. Skype-to-Skype calls are free. If you are calling users with a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) line, then you will need to pay per call and the quality can be pretty bad. You can only use Skype when your computer is turned on.

2. VOIP with a softphone (which is software). You can call users on their POTS. With this option, like Skype, you need to have your computer turned on to make calls.

Hardware
3. This option is good for people who want to use their existing phone handset and access VOIP when the computer is off. Invest in hardware (the box, and probably a router) and pay for a monthly plan. The monthly plans vary and may include additional call costs. The call quality will increase when using hardware specifically made for VOIP.

This list of VOIP providers by Market Clarity details all of the VOIP options available to Australian users.

One of the advantages of using Engin (or another hardware-based VOIP service) for business calls is the voicemail feature, where you can opt to have an email alert sent to you when someone leaves a message, without actually having the phone plugged in.

One of the disadvantages of VOIP I’m finding at the moment is that it chews up a load of bandwidth, so talking on VOIP and downloading stuff from websites at the same time is out of the question. At least with the connection I currently have.

But the biggest advantage I can see is the cost. The VOIP box has more than halved my quarterly telephone bill. And if I was paying for my business call costs this would make me very happy. As it is I’ll deflect most of this happiness to my employer.