June 2010                                                 CRS Advanced Technology IN THIS ISSUE CONTRA COSTA COUNTY LIBRARY WANT TO AUTOMATE THE PROCESS OF PLACING SUBS? ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD FOCUSES ON SUB-$100 TABLET PC FOR EDUCATION TEN RIGHT REASONS FOR RECYCLING   QUICK LINKS CRS WEBSITE NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE CALENDAR SUBFINDER MEET MAXX   Let the summer begin!   Welcome to the 6th month of 2010, and the June edition of InTouch Online! It’s hard to believe for many readers that the 2009 – 2010 school year has or is about to come to an end! There are books to return, graduation parties to attend, and summer vacations to be planned – June brings excitement to many for it is the start of summer break! For some of our customers, summer is a busy time of year – especially for our library customers; summer reading program plans are being finalized, and soon enough, people will be looking for a cool place to read a book during the hottest part of the day.   We have a great summer e-newsletter for you this month. As many know, SubFinder is not only used by school districts across the United States and Canada, but also libraries! Recently, our copywriter, Tamara Patterson, interviewed Stacie Deng from Contra Costa County Library to discuss how SubFinder has helped their library for the past 17 years! Read how Contra Costa Library has managed their staff absences, and their future planned conversion to SubFinder as an ASP! Confused about how to set up your itinerant employees in SubFinder? We have much more information to give to you, also! We hope you enjoy this edition of InTouch Online, and have a wonderful, relaxing summer!      Customer Highlight: Contra Costa County Library, CA Working Throughout the Year - 7 Days a Week   By: Corinne McLaughlin, Marketing Coordinator Interview by:  Tamara Patterson, Copywriter Interview with: Stacie Deng, Information Systems Programmer/Analyst     Contra Costa County is one of the nine counties in the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Area, and is ranked the 9th most populated county in California, having over 1 million residents. Created in 1850, Contra Costa County was one of the original counties in California. The Spanish name, Contra Costa, means ”opposite coast”, being situated to the east of San Francisco across the famous San Francisco Bay.   During the post-war baby boom in the mid-1940s, the desire of suburban living sky-rocketed. Counties such as Contra Costa experienced a spike in population and the demand for the picturesque, rural four-bedroom homes with large yards; these accommodations were either non-existent or unaffordable within city limits. Following their employees, many companies began to follow the same pattern creating business parks, which further increased the population. The development of large shopping centers and more homes led to the need for supporting infrastructure such as roads, sewage, police, firefighting, schools, and libraries – whereby Contra Costa County Library was born.   Contra Costa County Library developed their strategic plan based on the needs and preferences of their county residents. In order to continue a successful track record, the county established four top priority strategic initiatives: reading, lifelong learning, collaboration, and branding. With the continued projection for growth, as well as the increase in circulation, Contra Costa County Library does not have the time to manually find coverage for those employees who are absent between the 25 library branches in the county. Our copywriter, Tamara Patterson, recently got to interview Information Systems Programmer/Analyst, Stacie Deng on how the features and functionality within SubFinder has helped them for the past 17 years.     Prior to using SubFinder, what methodology did you employ to find substitute workers?         Before SubFinder, we would manually call to find our substitute workers.   Contra Costa Public Library has been a customer for 17 years!  What is it about the SubFinder product that has kept you as a loyal customer/user all these years?   SubFinder works well to automatically fill a large portion of our jobs, whereby manually calling out would take a lot of time and effort that can be placed on other important tasks elsewhere. We have found SubFinder to be an exceptional product because throughout the past 17 years, updates have been made to keep up with our needs and technology.   How do you utilize SubFinder?   Besides using SubFinder to automatically place substitutes, we use it to generate statistical reports, such as tracking substitute hours and the amount of permanent staff absences that were covered by a substitute staff member.   What has been your favorite upgrade/addition?   Having the ability to utilize SubFinder via the Internet was a huge step! It’s a proactive approach for our substitutes to be able to get online and pick out the jobs that fit with their schedule. Continually adding various reports also is beneficial for us.   On average, how many subs do you use in a day/week?   Our SubFinder system is always on the go! We are open 7-days a week; we use approximately 28 substitutes per day, 201 per week. SubFinder never gets a break around here!   When are you busiest and find you need additional assistance/staff?   Our busiest time of year is the summer; throughout the year, the busiest times are the evenings and weekends. Our county is currently on a hiring freeze that has prevented some positions being filled, therefore we have some substitute staff that are filling these positions as long-term substitutes. Also, due to budget cuts, we cannot schedule “additional” staff if and when needed.   What additional information can you share with us regarding your experiences/usage with SubFinder?   The Internet portion of SubFinder has made our experience (and our substitutes) with the system much more useful and convenient. It makes it much easier for our substitutes to “job shop” for those positions that they want, rather than wait for a phone call in the hope of receiving a job offer.   We would like to thank Contra Costa Public Library for being a loyal customer for the past 17 years! Considering the continuous changes and improvements always being made to SubFinder, it's hard to imagine where we will be in another 17 years! Thank you to Stacie Deng for letting us highlight her experience with SubFinder. To view more about Contra Costa Public Library, visit their website at http://ccclib.org/.    Back to Top Want to Automate the Process of Placing Your Subs? Start Off Your 2010 School Year With SubFinder     Currently using an automated solution, but frustrated because your current solution isn’t placing the most qualified substitute? Never use an automated absences management and substitute placement system, and looking for a solution that will make the most of every dollar, every day?   SubFinder is more than an automated substitute calling system, it’s a powerful tool used to streamline workflow, integrate with human resource and payroll systems, and promote a paperless work environment. For over 20 years, SubFinder has been a solid return on investment for school districts, libraries, and other institutions across the United States and Canada. SubFinder is the only solution where you can have peace of mind knowing the most qualified substitute or replacement worker will fill daily absences.   Learn more by visiting the CRS Advanced Technology website, or call us at 800.782.3463.   Back to Top One Laptop Per Child Focuses on Sub-$100 Tablet PC for Education     By: Scott Aronowitz     Nearly 2 million children worldwide already use the renowned XO laptop computer, according to its provider, the philanthropic organization One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). And now, with the help of no small amount of feedback from its users, OLPC has teamed up with integrated technology solutions developer Marvell to design the next generation of durable, low-cost computers for students in global regions underserved by technology: The sub-$100 XO tablet.   Like its predecessor, the XO tablet will feature a rugged outer casing for safe use and transport in rural, mountainous, desert, and other remote areas challenged by extremes in physical geography and climate. However, the new model will also feature several upgrades resulting from the feedback OLPC has received. The tablet will use less energy (1 watt, as compared to 5 watts for the XO laptop), and it will feature a multilingual soft keyboard with touch feedback, which will offer easy access to native speakers of virtually any language in the world.   According to a blog post today, "Some of [the tablets] will be OLPC machines targeted for the developing world, such as the XO-3. The line will be based both on Marvell’s reference design for its Moby tablet and on OLPC’s XO-3 designs (particularly for the low-power end of this line). The machines distributed by OLPC will run our standard Linux image, with Sugar & Gnome environments."   Read article: http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/05/27/one-laptop-per-child-focuses-on-sub-100-tablet-pc-for-education.aspx   Back to Top Ten Right Reasons for Recycling   By: Green Life Staff   *article from Green Life (http://agreenliving.net) – Start A Green Living Now!     According to estimates, every American produces an average of 7.5 pounds of trash on a daily basis.  This number may seem little but when you add it up, said waste will amount to one ton of trash a year!  Now, multiply that with the US population and you will quickly realize why we need to recycle our wastes lest we find ourselves on a sinking boat of trash.  With that being said, here are ten more reason to recycle now. It Makes For Good Economy Recycling makes good economic sense in many ways.  Many states profit from recycling revenues, often running in the billions of dollars, which can then be poured into making the economy stronger.  It does not hurt either that our country exports its recycled products to other nations.  Also, many companies rely on recycled materials to produce new products. It Creates Jobs The recycling industry is on a roll.  As such, it requires manpower that means more jobs even in these recessionary times.  In fact, the industry earns more than $236 billion annually, employs more than 1 million workers and continues to do so. It Reduces Waste This is a no-brainer as recycling is intended to lessen the wastes in our landfills.  And you should know by now of the negative impact of landfills on the environment in the form of toxic leaks into the soil, which breeds a host of other societal problems. It Is Eco-Friendly Another no-brainer as recycling does utilizes fewer natural resources and requires less energy, not to mention lessening the burden on the landfills and other trash areas of the nation. It Saves Energy Instead of using virgin materials that require greater energy expenditures to transform into their final forms, recycling old materials utilizes only about half of the energy.  Take the case of recycling aluminum, which saves on 90 percent of costs necessary to make aluminum from scratch. It Lessens the Burden on the Land Take the example of a company that contacted local contractors to use their stockpiled mountains of glass to use as substitutes for sand and gravel in building roads and highways.  You can just imagine the space said stockpile will take in the landfills. It Mitigates Global Warming Each wasted material that we recycle means fewer amounts of greenhouse gases being emitted into the air, thus, mitigating the effects of global warming.  We are now experiencing its effects but we can still do something about it. It Reduces Water Pollution and Use There are many ways with which this is possible.  One, transforming recycled materials into new products often requires less water.  Two, toxic leaks from landfills are lessened with fewer trash in them.  We all end up with healthier, cleaner, and clearer water. It Protects Wildlife Because there is lesser need to harvest the forests of its riches - trees, that is - the habitats of many wild animals are spared.  As such, we are protecting the wildlife. It Creates New Demand for Recycled Products Thanks to the ripple effect, the process of making and buying recycled products create a new demand for them.  And the good cycle of recycling starts again and again to the benefit of society and of the environment. Keep in mind that every little paper, tin can and other junk that you recycle benefits not just you and your immediate surroundings but the national economy and international community as well.   Back to Top   Would you like to receive SubFinder product information?   Complete the request form and a CRS Representative will be in contact with you soon! CRS Advanced Technology is the leading provider of employee absence management and substitute placement solutions serving over 1.5 million throughout the United States and Canada. Our flagship product, SubFinder, completely automates employee absence reporting, substitute placement, data management, and payroll tasks. If you would like further information about SubFinder, please contact us at 800.782.3463.  Sincerely,  The CRS Advanced Technology Team