Simplified Access to the Web (SAW)
The most compelling feature of SAW is that it allows the library administrator to provide the access points, custom descriptions, and helpful text for each of the DLOS screens. Here are just a few examples of access points that the local library community might identify as useful to various demographics among their patrons:
- Caring Kitchen
- Homeless Shelter
- Veteran Support
- Clothing&Hygiene
- Affordable Care Act
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- Welfare
- Food Stamps (EBT)
- Homeless Assistance
- AVDA (Aid to Victims of Abuse)
- Soup Kitchen
- Substance Abuse Hotline
- Divorce Recovery
- Grief Recovery
- Local Job Listing
- Resume Builder
- Volunteer Opportunities
- Parks&Recreation
- Find a Doctor
- Find a Hospital
- Find a Health Club
- Planned Parenthood
- Aftercare
- Summer Camp
- Find a church
- Local Activity Calendar
- Train Schedules
- Bus Schedules
- Free Shuttle Services
- DMV
What is SAW?
DLOS (the Digital Library Operating System) includes Simplified Access to the Web, or SAW. SAW puts librarians in control, allowing them to set up simplified access to internet sites that provide services that meet the needs of their patrons.
A public librian is often keenly aware of the kinds of problems and needs their community is most interested in addressing when they come to their local library. It makes sense to put tools in the local librarian’s hands that allow them to customize internet access screens to best serve their local community’s needs.
SAW makes it easy for librarians to design customized access to websites that they can group together under specified titles and even add “librarian assitance” comments to offer a convenient and productive experience for library patrons. Librarians can also choose to share their SAW configurations with other librarians using SAW Commons.
Choose All-in-One Touch Screen DLOS stations, or access DLOS from a standard PC.
SAW’s large touchscreen makes it easy to browse through subjects. There’s no need for a keyboard or a mouse. Just touch and swish through a revolving carousel of topics and touch any topic of interest to get immediate access to detailed information as well as helpful suggestions from library staff to help you find what you’re looking for.
Veteran Support in the Los Angeles Area
DLOS SAW helped me learn more about PTSD and find a local couselor. The text under the friendly librarian icon is fully customizable by you, the librarian, providing you with an easy means of adding encouraging and informative commentary that is specifc to the URL the patron selected. I also found an LA Veteran Support Group that meets within a mile of my home. These tools are right here in the library, and it’s great to know that someone cares and that these services are available to anyone in need. "
Employment Assistance in Hoboken, NJ
I am dissabled, and when I was laid off from my cashiers job at a local supermarket last summer, I went to the library to find out about government assistance for living expenses while I looked for a new job. The librarian showed me to a DLOS station, and I was surprised not only by how many employment assistance and support programs where available right here in Hoboken, but at how easy DLOS makes it to learn about them. "
Medicare Application Assistance
My husband and I are both 64, so I did a little research while I was at my local library. The DLOS application there made it easy for me to find out how simple it is to apply for Medicare Benefits. What I thought was going to take days took just about 15 minutes. "
SAW Commons
A Colaborative Tool for Librarians Across the Nation
What is SAW Commons?
Sharing Your SAW Listings is Easy! Here’s How SAW Commons Works
Select one or more listings and click on the green right-arrow icon. This will move a copy of your SAW listing to the SAW Commons area on the right side of the screen.
SAW Commons is a powerful feature that leverages the collective knowledge and insights of librarians all over the nation. It is a colaborative space online where librarians post their SAW listings so that they can be shared with other librarians nationwide. SAW Commons is a feature that works with SAW, Simplified Access to the Web. Both the SAW and SAW Commons screens are show below.
Anything listed in SAW (on the left side of the screen) can be copied or shared with SAW Commons (on the right side of the screen). Using this common space, librarians can work together to provide better, simpler and faster access to various service and educational information for their patrons and patrons for other libraries acrros the nation.
Librarians can choose to share their SAW website collections and commentary in part or completely by selecting some or all of their SAW websites and porting a copy to SAW Commons with a single touch. Share and unshare at will.
Librarians Across America Cooperating to Bring Better Service to Patrons
Librarians are frequently asked the same questions across America. Common questions like “Where can I find support services for veterans?”, “Is there anything on the Web to help me file my taxes?” and “I’m retiring soon. Can I learn about Medicare on the Web?” are asked on a regular basis. Questions about federal services and information are also common to all American libraries. The same applies to states, counties, coastal areas, areas suffering from the same extreme weather, etc.
DLOS Simplified Access to the Web can answer these questions, and SAW Commons is an easy to use national database of Web sites and helpful hints that librarians across America can contribute to and draw from to create their own local SAW system to best serve their own local patrons.
