Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Tax Time

Its tax time again and currently about 70% of Americans file their taxes electronically. The IRS is no longer mailing out tax forms unless specifically requested by households. However, if you follow this link to the Brentwood Adult Reference Website you will be able to download all federal and NYS tax forms https://sites.google.com/site/adultreferenceservices/brentwood-community-resources.

In addition, hundreds of the most popular federal tax forms and publications are available for download from http://www.irs.gov for sight impaired individuals. These products range from talking tax forms to Braille formats, and is accessible using screen reading software, refreshable Braille displays and voice recognition software. Click on the links below to download these forms and publications:

Download Accessible Tax Forms (Braille and Text Formats)
Download Accessible Tax Publications (Braille and Text Formats)
Download Accessible Talking Tax Forms

Download Tax Instructions (Large Print Format)
Download Tax Publications (Large Print Format)

The IRS also offers customer service assistance for persons who are deaf or who have hearing disabilities. People with TTY equipment can call 800-829-4059, which is a toll-free number, for assistance.

People who are unable to complete their tax return because of a physical disability may get assistance from an IRS office, or through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA) sponsored by the IRS. Taxpayers can find a nearby location by calling 1-800-906-9887 or checking the partial list on the IRS’s website.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Shelfari






Shelfari helps you discover new books. Shelfari lets you see what other members are reading now and what books are the most popular. You can even discover the top sellers in your favorite genre! You can connect with friends to see which books you have in common, what they are reading or what they think of the books they have read. You can ask your Shelfari friends for book recommendations or create a group where you can talk about your books. Shelfari lets you build a virtual book shelf to display the books you have read, want to read, or are reading now. Then you can be the critic in rating and reviewing your books so your friends can see what you think. This is an excellent “free” tool to help you discover and pick your next book to read. Once book is selected you can go you your local public library and take out the book or inter-loan from another public library.

First join Shelfari and create an account at http://www.shelfari.com/.









Enter in your account information:


















Once account is created you can sign in with your credentials.










To add books to your shelf select profile and then “my shelf”.










Now select “I plan to read”.







Select “it’s easy to add your books”.










You can select by “most popular, recent edits, subjects, series, community lists, tags, or by author”.











You can also perform your own custom search then select add.







Now “add” the book you want to your shelf.











Now select one of the three options below and select next.











You can add a review if you like.














You can edit my edition details.














Tag your book.















Then select what to do next and select done.










Now if you select profile and my shelf you will see the book you just added.





Saturday, March 17, 2012

iBooks







iBooks is an amazing way to download and read books. iBooks includes the iBookstore, where you can download the latest best-selling books or your favorite classics – day or night. Browse your library on a beautiful bookshelf, tap a book to open it, flip through pages with a swipe or a tap, and bookmark or add notes to your favorite passages. Watch the prices of the ibooks they tend to be on the high side. You can download the iBook app free!
Features:

• Enjoy a complimentary copy of the beautifully illustrated classic, Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne.
• Download many of your favorite books from the included iBookstore.
• Read a free sample of any book on the iBookstore before making it a part of your collection.
• Reorder your books on your bookshelf or browse them in a list sorted by title, author, or category.
• Organize your books and PDFs into personal Collections. Swipe left or right to jump between collections.
• Easily adjust your screen brightness to find the perfect lighting for any environment.
• Change the font size and pick from six included typefaces to make your books more comfortable to read.
• Find a word, character, or phrase anywhere in your book with the built-in search feature.
• Keep your bookmarks, notes, and your current page wirelessly in sync between iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with the new automatic bookmark syncing feature.
• Quickly find a specific page using the page navigator at the bottom of every page.
• Read your books on white or sepia colored pages.
• Choose left or fully justified text layout from Settings.
• Highlight your favorite passages and add notes with the built-in bookmarking features.
• Add books in the industry-standard ePub electronic book format to iTunes and sync them to iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
• Add PDF documents to iBooks from Mail, or add them to iTunes and sync them to iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
• Print PDF documents and notes you've written in iBooks using AirPrint.
• Use iBooks with the amazing accessibility features in iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch – such as speaking the words on a given page.
Requirements:

• iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPod touch (2nd generation), iPod touch (3rd generation), or iPod          touch (4th generation) is required.
• iPhone or iPod touch must have iOS 4 or later.
• The iBookstore is available in many countries. The selection of books in the iBookstore may vary by country.
• An Apple ID is required to download from the iBookstore.
• Automatic bookmark syncing requires an active Wi-Fi or cellular data connection and an Apple ID.
• iBooks only opens books published in the ePub electronic book format or documents in the PDF format.
• To add ePub books from outside the iBookstore to iBooks, they must be DRM-free and synced using iTunes 9.2 or later.
• Some PDF documents may not be compatible with iBooks.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

How do I Download Music onto my Kindle Fire?

To load music onto Kindle Fire:
On PC where you have your music stored, logon onto Amazon website with your credentials and on home screen select manage your Kindle, select manage your mp3’s, accept agreement. Amazon provides you with 5GB worth of storage in Cloud. Select upload music, a pop up window will open asking you to download the “Amazon MP3 uploader”.
If you select all of your music the total size might be more than the allotted 5GB by Amazon. See below in figure 1, highlighted in red I am 0.5 GB over Amazon limit. 
To lessen amount of songs being uploaded to Amazon Cloud I unchecked artists.
You will notice below in figure 2, with artists unchecked I have 25 playlists (playlists are a compilation of songs) and 147 songs selected to upload to Cloud. My selections will use 0.9GB of Cloud storage.
Once you have your music selected on your computer select start upload as seen in figure 3 below.
After starting upload you will notice in figure 4 below a status indicator bar estimating time remaining to upload selected songs and playlists. In this example a 147 songs will take 10 minutes to upload to Amazon Cloud.
16 out of 147 songs uploaded with 6 minutes remaining as in figure 5 below.
25 playlists and 147 songs uploaded successfully as in figure 6 below.
Screen below in figure 7 will appear on local computer where you uploaded music to Cloud. You can play music on your local computer right from Cloud if you prefer.
On your Kindle Fire device, select music then select cloud. Your music will be viewable from the Amazon cloud.
Next to song there will be a little download arrow icon. Select download arrow to download song/album onto Kindle Fire device. Once the song is downloaded from the cloud your song will now be physically on your Kindle Fire device. In the music menu you have two tabs “cloud and device” to select from. Each time you select a song from the cloud you will be asked to “would you like to download album xxxx”? Select yes.
To download a playlist from the cloud, select music, playlists, select your play list, and select the download arrow icon to right to download all your songs in playlist. You will be asked “would you like to download playlist xxxx? Select yes.
 

Sunday, December 4, 2011

eBook download instructions for Kindle Fire








1.       From home screen menu bar touch Web. Navigate to http://live-brary.com.
2.       Touch eBooks on side menu bar.
3.       On top bar you can change “all formats” to Kindle only. Type in title or genre you are looking for.  
4.       Touch add to cart, proceed to checkout, select library, enter bar code on back of library card, touch go select 7 or 14 day checkout, touch confirm check out, and touch get for Kindle.
5.       You will automatically be navigated to Amazon website. Touch “get library book”. (You will notice deliver to: icon below “get library book”. If you have multiple devices - Kindles or even iPad2 – you have to register with Amazon) you can select which device you want eBook delivered to. For this example select your Kindle Fire if it is not the default already. Now touch “get library book icon”.
6.       You will now receive a thank you message that your eBook was delivered to your Kindle Fire wirelessly. 
7.       Touch the home icon button in lower left hand corner.
Note: your eBook will NOT be downloaded onto to your Kindle Fire until you touch upper right hand menu bar. You can touch the wireless bars or battery icon to bring up additional choices. You want to touch the “Sync” icon. Your eBook will now be downloaded. You will notice eBook has a little download arrow on bottom right hand of book. Touch arrow and eBook will now be loaded into your book shelf.

eBook download instructions for iPad2








1.       Download the Overdrive Media Console (OMC) app. You will notice while browsing at www.live-brary.com at bottom of screen you can select “OMC” app by tapping “get the app”.
2.       Select browse icon at top. You can select browse all Kindle books, Adobe EPUB, Open EPUB, Overdrive MP3 Audio books, and Public domain titles.
3.       If you select Kindle eBook title you have to download the Kindle app first. App is free. Select browse all Kindle Book titles, select title, add to my cart, proceed to checkout, select library, enter barcode from library card, select 7 or 14 day lending period, select confirm check out, and select get for Kindle icon. You will automatically be navigated to Amazon website. You have to sign in with your Amazon account credentials then select get library book icon. If you want eBook delivered to iPad2 you have to select deliver to: iPad2. However, you first have to register your iPad2 with Amazon. Start Kindle app and eBook title you selected will be downloaded.
4.       Next choice is Adobe EPUB eBook title. Make sure OMC app is loaded onto iPad2. Select title, add to my cart, proceed to checkout, confirm checkout, select download, OMC app will automatically startup on iPad2 and download eBook.
5.       Next choice is Open EPUB eBook title. Select title, add to my cart, proceed to checkout, confirm checkout, download, select open in iBooks, your title will automatically download into iBook on iPad2. If you have a problem downloading into iBooks it might be because Apple does not support PDF file format. Select “open in” and select OMC app. 
6.       Next choice is OverDrive MP3 audio book titles. Select title, add to my cart, proceed to checkout, confirm check out, download, OMC app will automatically open up and download MP3 title. Note: MP3 audio book titles will be downloaded in parts. Parts can be 30MB in size. MP3 book can consume a lot of space of you eReader device.
7.       Finally, public domain titles. Select public domain titles, you can browse by subject or featured eBooks. Select title then download. You will receive the option to open in iBooks or “open in…”. Select open in iBooks. The title you selected will automatically be downloaded.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Over 36,000 Free eBooks!

Project Gutenberg offers over 36,000 free ebooks to download to your PC, Kindle, Android, iOS or other portable device. Choose between ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats.
Copyright for most of these books has expired in the United States. (They may still be copyrighted in other countries). So anybody may make verbatim or non-verbatim copies of those works.
Follow this link to access over 36,000 free ebooks http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page. Additional information regarding eBooks can be found at the Brentwood Public Library Adult Reference website. https://sites.google.com/site/adultreferenceservices/e-books