Technology
plays a major role in School Library Media Centers. The following list of suggested skills are
those most frequently used by media specialists. This is by no means intended to be inclusive,
nor mandatory, however it is a self-evaluative tool that can be used to
determine the skills one has, needs, and is willing to learn. There are many books, free online tutorials,
and computer classes offered by various districts, community colleges, etc. The skills listed were selected based on
frequently asked questions and tasks media specialists' perform for faculty,
staff and students.
Check (ü) the skills you feel you
have mastered.
General Computer Skills
¾ Install
a program on a fixed (hard) disk
¾ Install
or run software applications from a CD-ROM disk.
¾ Use the
mouse
¾ Format
a floppy disk
¾ Copy
files from one disk to another.
¾ Delete
files from a floppy or hard disk.
¾ Create
folders / directories
¾ Copy
files from one directory or folder to another
¾ Renaming
a folder
¾ Deleting
a folder and all its contents
¾ Work
with more than one application at a time
¾ Save
documents
¾ Print
entire documents
¾ Print
specific pages of a document.
Presentation Programs
(Powerpoint, Hyperstudio)
¾ Create
a Blank Presentation
¾ Create
Presentation from Template or Wizard
¾ Add /
Delete Slides
¾ Use
different views
¾ Change
slide order
¾ Insert
Clip Art / Graphics
¾ Create
a Text Box
¾ Cut /
Copy / Paste Text
¾ Create
Hyperlinks
Word Processing Skills
(Microsoft Word, Works, WordPerfect, etc)
¾ Create
a new document
¾ Open an
existing document
¾ Change
Margins
¾ Center
a Cover Page
¾ Save a
document to a floppy or zip disk.
¾ Edit /
copy / paste
¾ Format
text (different fonts, color, size, style)
¾ Check
the spelling and grammar in a document.
¾ Find
and replace text.
¾ Change
text alignment.
¾ Use
Tabs
¾ Create
Columns
¾ Insert
Clip Art
¾ Insert
saved graphics from a disk
¾ Use
Word Art
¾ Create
Tables
¾ Use
undo and redo feature
¾ Insert
/ Format Headers and Footers
Spreadsheets (Excel, Works,
Clarisworks)
¾ Enter
data
¾ Insert
rows / Delete rows
¾ Insert
cells / Delete cells
¾ Insert
Columns / Delete Columns
¾ Sort
Data
¾ Use the
formula bar
¾ Copy
spreadsheet data into word processing document.
¾ Format
Spreadsheet
