Protecting Your Privacy Online

Overview

More and more of our private information is on the internet these days.  This makes it more vulnerable to misuse and identity theft.

In this presentation, learn a few strategies to start protecting your privacy online.

Topics Included

  • Creating strong passwords
  • Enabling private browsing
  • Installing browser extensions
  • Using social media

Creating Strong Passwords

What makes a strong password?

  • A minimum of 8 characters
  • Use upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters
  • Do no reuse the same password for other accounts.
  • Make passwords are hard to guess
  • Do not use your name, pet names, birth dates, anniversaries, or street names
  • People can easily look up this information about you on social media

Storing Passwords

  • Do not save passwords to your browser
  • Refrain from keeping passwords on a Google Doc or Word
  • Try a password manager (LastPass, Bitwarden, Dashlane)
  • Write passwords down in a notebook or piece of paper and secure it.
  • This is actually more secure than having them somewhere electronically on a laptop, tablet or phone.

Enable Private Browsing

What is private browsing mode?

  • When enabled, private browsing mode prevents browsers from keeping a record of searches, websites visited, login details and cookies
  • This is helpful when using a public device or whenever you would like to keep your web history private.

How to Enable Private Browsing

Google Chrome

  1. Open the Chrome browser.
  2. At the top right corner, click the menu icon.
  3. Click on “New Incognito Window.”
  4. Start browsing privately.

Firefox

  1. Open the Firefox browser.
  2. At the top right corner, click the menu icon.
  3. In the menu, select “New Private Window.”
  4. Start browsing privately.

Safari

  1. In the Safari app on your Mac, choose Safari > Preferences, then click General.
  2. Click the “Safari opens with” pop-up menu, then choose “A new private window.”

Browser Extensions

  • Extensions add a specific feature to an existing software application. Extensions are browser specific. So if you’re using Firefox, you need to download the extensions for Firefox.
  • While most extensions are junk, some actually help protect your privacy.
  • UBlock Origin is a free ad blocker. It will also show who’s tracking you and will prevent websites from collecting user data on browsing habits.

Social Media

  • Do not share too much information on social media
  • Do not share your address, email address or phone number on your social profile.
  • Be wary of sharing your location as well
  • Check your privacy settings on social media
  • Change your audience on Facebook to “Friends” instead “Public” so only your friends can see your posts and pictures
  • Visit this link to change more Facebook settings to private: https://www.lifewire.com/steps-to-make-facebook-private-2654416

Sources

by Susie, Reference Specialist

Adapted with permission from the Denver Public Library

2020-06-05T17:14:32-05:00June 9th, 2020|

#BLM and Civil Liberty (for Teens!)

Here are some great reads for young adults (on Hoopla, Libby, & Axis360!) that discuss racism, inequality, civil liberty, and activism within our community. #BlackLivesMatter #WeStandInSolidarity

Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You: A Remix of Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

Things that Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett and Dave Zirin

Black Lives Matter by Sue Bradford Edwards

Racism in America by Meghan Green

Exposing Hate by Michael Miller

Race Relations by Barbara Diggs and Richard Chapman

Racial Profiling and Discrimination: Your Legal Rights by Corinne Grinapol

Coping with Racial Inequality (Coping Series for Teens) by Tamra Orr

Coping with Racial Profiling by Del Sandeen

Coping with Hate and Intolerance by Avery Hurt

Girls Resist! A Guide to Activism, Leadership, and Starting a Revolution by Kaelyn Rich

Student Rights in the New Age of Activism by Anna Collins

– Katie Smith, Reference Specialist

2020-06-04T20:42:00-05:00June 4th, 2020|

Antiracism Reading List

Knowledge is power, and the best way to understand what’s happening in our country is to dig in to resources that explain racial inequality in America by examining our history, institutions, experiences, and culture — as well as ways to unite for meaningful change. Most of these titles are available in multiple formats — book, eBook, audiobook, etc. — from our collection.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Coates offers a framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men — bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion.

Citizen by Claudia Rankine

Rankine recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person’s ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named ‘post-race’ society.

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

In this groundbreaking history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein, a leading authority on housing policy, explodes the myth that America’s cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation — that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, The Color of Law incontrovertibly makes it clear that it was de jure segregation — the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments — that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day.

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

At once a powerful evocation of his early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice to both the individual and the body politic, James Baldwin galvanized the nation in the early days of the civil rights movement with his eloquent manifesto.

The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward

National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin’s 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time.

The Half has Never Been Told by Edward Baptist

Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution — the nation’s original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America’s later success. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bondage of their full legacy. As historian Edward E. Baptist reveals in The Half Has Never Been Told , the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American independence drove the evolution and modernization of the United States.

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

“The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it — and then dismantle it.” Kendi’s concept of antiracism re-energizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America — but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other.

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice. The Warner Brothers film is also available from FDL and streaming for free on most digital platforms.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Despite the triumphant dismantling of the Jim Crow Laws, the system that once forced African Americans into a segregated second-class citizenship still haunts America, the US criminal justice system still unfairly targets black men and an entire segment of the population is deprived of their basic rights. Outside of prisons, a web of laws and regulations discriminates against these wrongly convicted ex-offenders in voting, housing, employment and education. Alexander here offers an urgent call for justice.

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature. In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change.

So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the “N” word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don’t dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.

Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society. Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history, using the lives of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists.

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life.

When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele 

A memoir by the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement explains the movement’s position of love, humanity, and justice, challenging perspectives that have negatively labeled the movement’s activists while calling for essential political changes.

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

In this groundbreaking and timely book, antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility. Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo explores how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

2020-06-04T15:16:11-05:00June 4th, 2020|

FDL Match

Wondering what to read next? Try our new reader advisory service FDL Match! Just fill out the form online and we’ll find up to 5 titles for you to pick up from the drive-up window! You can even leave a review and let us know if our suggestion was a good match. Find the form and more info at fondulaclibrary.org/fdl-match.

2020-06-03T12:46:47-05:00June 3rd, 2020|

DIY with FDL – Introduction to Cable Knitting

Have you been wanting to learn how to add twisting cables to your knitting? Follow the video instructions and the cabled swatch pattern provided below and you’ll be cabling in no time! You can add simple cables to any knitting project using knitting needles, yarn, and a cable needle. Prior knowledge of how to cast on, knit, purl, and bind is needed before you begin.

In order to knit a cable, stitches are slipped onto a cable needle. These stitches are held in back or in front of the work while you knit past them. The stitches on the cable needle are then knitted to complete the cable. When slipped stitches on the cable needle are held in BACK of the work, a Right Cross is formed. This is also called a Back Cross. When slipped stitches on the cable needle are held in FRONT of the work, a Left Cross is formed. This is also called a Front Cross.

Introduction to Cable Knitting

(a cabled swatch pattern)

Using Long Tail Cast On, cast on 29sts.

Knit 4 rows (garter stitch edge)

Begin Cable pattern:

Row 1: K5, P2, K6, P3, K6, P2, K5

Row 2: K7, P6, K3, P6, K7

Repeat Rows 1 & 2 one time (8 rows total)

Cable Row: K5, P2, Right Cross, P3, Left Cross, P2, K5

*Repeat Row 2. Knit Rows 1 & 2 two more times. Knit Cable Row. Repeat from *

Right Cross = Slip 3 stitches purlwise onto cable needle. Move the cable needle to the back of the work. K3 stitches from left needle. K3 stitches from cable needle.

Left Cross = Slip 3 stitches purlwise onto cable needle. Move the cable needle to the front of work. K3 stitches from left needle. K3 stitches from cable needle.

Continue knitting until the swatch has reached the desired size or you are comfortable with your cabling.

After a Row2 , Knit 4 rows and bind off.

Download Pattern

– Melissa, Reference Assistant

2020-06-02T13:30:37-05:00June 2nd, 2020|

FDL Game Review: Splendor

If you’ve never played Splendor, join Jimi for the latest edition of FDL Game Review and find out why this Renaissance-themed family card game is one of the top-rated games around! Place it on hold from our online catalog for your next family game night!

2020-05-29T17:05:41-05:00May 29th, 2020|

Historical Fiction

Many people enjoy reading books set in historical time periods that feature the author’s characterization and fictionalization of people from those eras. I am one of those people and have read several in the past year. Here are a few that I recommend.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

Kelly uses the lives of 3 young women in Germany during World War II to vividly portray the lives of resistance women, a Nazi physician, and an American relief worker and how their lives overlap. Available from Overdrive and Axis 360.

Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini

Resistance Women covers the time period before World War II through the end of the war and details the lives of those who resisted against and worked to sabotage the Nazi government in Germany from inside the country. An eye-opening look at the lives of daring and dedicated opponents to Hitler’s regime. Also available from hoopla.

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

The actress Heddy Lamarr began her acting career in pre-World War II Austria and was actually married to a man who worked with Hitler.  This disastrous marriage helped precipitate her immigration to the United States where in addition to her film career in Hollywood, she contributed as an inventor of technology which helped to end the war. This title is also available on Overdrive, Axis 360, and hoopla.

The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

Shattuck relates the story of women married to resistance fighters in World War II who lost their lives after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944. Several of the widows unite in an abandoned castle to care for each other and continue the work begun by their husbands. Available on Overdrive, Axis 360, and hoopla.

– Becky, Reference Assistant

2020-05-27T13:36:08-05:00May 29th, 2020|

Books for Stranger Things Fans (on Hoopla!)

With the summer nearly in full swing, would you like to go back and relive the excitement of Stranger Things?  If so, then check out these titles — they’re filled with 80’s nostalgia, childhood friendship, and survival against all odds (especially supernatural)!

Click on the title to be taken to Hoopla — just use your library card # and PIN to get started!

Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Chiff Chiang and Matt Wilson

In the early hours after Halloween on 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and supernatural mysteries collide in this series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

1988. Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinnydipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act — different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries — and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

A carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour on a chill Midwestern October eve, ushering in Halloween a week before its time. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show’s smoke, mazes, and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes — and the stuff of nightmare.

The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore by Kim Fu

A group of young girls descend on Camp Forevermore, a sleepaway camp in the Pacific Northwest, where their days are filled with swimming lessons, friendship bracelets, and camp songs by the fire. Filled with excitement and nervous energy, they set off on an overnight kayaking trip to a nearby island. But before the night is over, they find themselves stranded, with no adults to help them survive or guide them home.

Let The Right One In by Anne Billson

It is autumn 1981 when inconceivable horror comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenager is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last — revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day — but the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door — a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though. Something odd. And she only comes out at night …

Post by Katie Smith, Reference Specialist

2020-05-26T17:23:30-05:00May 28th, 2020|

Services Available June 1

Starting Monday, June 1, patrons will be able to pick up FDL materials through the drive-up window (or in the Atrium for walk-ups). Patrons can place holds through our online catalog at fondulaclibrary.org, through the RSAcat Mobile app, or by contacting staff. Staff will be available to answer your questions, place holds, assist with accounts, and help access our digital collection via phone, email, and live chat during service hours. Mobile printing will also be available to be picked up at the drive-up window or in the Atrium. The drop box will also be open, with an additional drop box available in the Atrium.

New Service Hours Starting June 1

M, T, Th, F          10am – 6pm

Wednesday         12pm – 8pm

Saturday              9am – 1pm

  • After items are placed on hold, you’ll be notified by phone or email when your items are ready and will have 7 days to pick up those items.
  • Patrons may pick up items only once every 7 days (due to limited availability of materials).
  • Only FDL materials will be available at this time (no items from other libraries or ILL requests).
  • Patrons may check out half the regular quantity of items at a time (25 books, 5 DVDs, etc.) due to the limited availability of materials.
  • Please request all materials in advance by placing a hold; staff cannot take requests for additional materials at pickup.
  • All FDL materials that normally circulate, such as games, equipment, kits, etc. will be available to check out.
  • Once returned, all items will be quarantined for 7 days, so it may take 7-10 days for items to be removed from your card.
  • All previously checked out materials are due on June 30th. Materials checked out after June 1st will resume their regular lending periods (3 weeks for books, 1 week for DVDs, etc.).
  • Fines accrued before the library closed on March 16th are still due, but no new fines will be charged until further notice.

Please note the library building will still be closed to the public and no in-person programs will be held until further notice. Readers of all ages are invited to participate in Dig Deeper, our online summer reading program, and to follow the library on social media for updates and online programs and activities. We appreciate your patience and support and look forward to see you at the drive-up window!

2020-05-26T12:06:58-05:00May 26th, 2020|
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