Anyone who has ever been to my home knows that I love pictures. I have picture walls. Most of the subjects are my two lovely daughters who, when they were young, were quite adorable. They are very close in age and I took great pleasure in dressing them alike which caused people to constantly ask if they were twins. During their baby, toddler and early elementary school years, I would take them to have their photograph taken every month. Back then, they had such cute girly-girl outfits and that was one way to show off those adorable garments.

Of course, as the years have passed, they have grown up and don’t look anything like each other nor do they dress alike. One is very conservative and the other is a bit trendy. Then of course, there are the teenage facial blemishes and the bad hair days that accompany the process of growing up which no one wants to see in a photograph.

I was recently asked if I could provide some pictures of the girls when they were little for a family member. Since this person lost all of the photographs they had in a fire, it would be quite a job for me to gather together all of the pictures I had and get copies made. I decided it would be just as easy to scan in all the pictures on my computer and then place them on a USB drive and give them the drive. That way, they would have all the pictures and there would not be any time constraint on them to file them away. They could print off what they wanted easily by taking the flash drive to the local photo shop and have them print it off.

This turned out to be a big hit. They loved the flash drive idea. It was so convenient for them and they got to print off as many as they wanted of what they wanted. In fact, it was such a nice gesture, they asked me for permission to reproduce that flash drive to give away as Christmas presents to other family members. The idea caught hold and other family members decided to do the same thing and passed out flash drives with family photos on it. I now have a family photo file on my computer that has tons of pictures of my nephews. Perhaps someday my sister will wise up and produce a niece or two so that the balance between male and female can be reestablished.

I’ve set my screen saver on my computer to slide show all the family photos. I’m hoping to get one of those electronic picture frames that you load pictures on and have that resting on my entry-way table.

As for those two adorable little girls, they’re still picture perfect in my eyes. I just wish they hadn’t grown up so quickly. Thankfully, I have all those pictures on my walls to remind me of what the early days were like and I look forward to completely filling all the empty spots with my granddaughters.

Libraries exist to serve a community. Though most people associate libraries just with books, CDs, and DVDs that they can come to check out, often they provide a wealth of other services. Tax dollars provide support for a wide range of resources that citizens of a town or village or city can take advantage. Shelves full of reference works, thousands of newspapers on microfilm. Computers with internet connections, word processing and spreadsheet software, encyclopedias, genealogical records, and much more. Clerical and legal information. Local historical files.

Depending on the library, its budget, and the innovation of those who run it, it may offer more than or less than what’s listed here. But generally people don’t know about what is available in their local libraries.

As a service for the community, the library should find a way to communicate to the local people and let them know what is available. First, they could start with their own employees. There’s nothing more annoying with asking an employee where to find something and finding out that he knows nothing about what you’re asking for. Workers from the lowest level up should be familiar with as much as possible in their place of work.

Flash drives are one way to package this information in one place and give it to employees in an accessible format. CF Gear can help to design a layout—it could open to a page with a picture of the library and its logo in the background, with links on the side going to the various resources available. The pages could either link to online listings and descriptions or contain the information right on the flash drive. CF Gear’s quality, time-proven duplication services guarantee that all the information is placed on the flash drives properly so each one will work for each employee.

The library workers could pick a flash drive in the color of their library’s theme, and/or have it imprinted with their logo, address, and phone number. Or whatever text or logo they may choose to have on it. A logo can also be engraved with laser for a classier professional look.

Each employee could be given a custom USB drive. These could help serve as a ready reference for information, both for new employees and for old employees who need to refresh what they know. They would also help preserve the corporate identity of an organization as each person is given one. They could even contain worker-related information such as employee manuals, insurance and compensation details, and info on employee benefit packages.

If you think a little piece of technology holding a wealth of information for any employee to access would help your library, consider a bulk flash drive deal with CF Gear. Vancouver Public Library and the University of Illinois Library are two libraries that used flash drives and were very happy with the results. Check out CF Gear’s website, where you can browse through words from happy customers, an array of flash drives to choose from, and a variety of details about the company’s services.