Law Librarian Creates LibreOffice, gscan2PDF How-to Videos for 100 Linux Tutorials Campaign

Library technician John Kerr was one of the first Linux community members to add his how-to videos to the 100 Linux Tutorials Video Campaign this year.  The brief screencasts showcase software that he uses everyday in his job at the county court house library for the Wellington Law Association in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

The tutorials include “How to Use LibreOffice to Create Labels (and) Book Cards with Ubuntu Linux” and “How to Use gscan2PDF for Libraries.” By creating and sharing his videos, thousands of Linux users across the globe have watched and learned from his experience with these programs. 

The Linux Foundation late last year kicked off the video campaign to collect 100 Linux tutorials in order to help create a knowledge base for Linux users. We’re now 25 percent of the way to our goal and counting.

“It is fun. But more than that, making the tutorials is my way of giving back to the FLOSS community,” Kerr said via email.

Kerr started using Linux five years ago when he got the urge to tinker with computers and software. But he didn’t want to be in danger of breaking copyright or EULA so he turned to open source software.

“Linux allowed me to tinker to my heart’s content,” he said.

Since then he’s discovered many useful free programs that help him with his work, including LibreOffice, gscan2PDF and a free bibliographic add-on to Firefox called Zotero. The program is intended to help scholars research and write papers, though he uses it at the law library to catalogue books, case law, websites and more, and to organize research.

Other favorite programs include Gedit, Sigil to create e-books, and BlueGriffon, his choice for HTML. And recently he’s taken Linux beyond his work to help record services at the church he attends using Audacity.

To those just getting started with Linux, Kerr recommends reading magazines such as Linux Pro and Ubuntu User, which have live DVDs along with helpful articles. Joining an online Linux user is also a great place to get your technical questions answered and to meet interesting people. And, of course, watching video tutorials!

“I have met some great people through my involvement with Linux,” Kerr said, “and I thank the members of the Kitchener Waterloo Linux Users Group and Marcel Gagne’s WFTL-LUG for their help and friendship.”

Do you have experience with Linux? Share your knowledge with the community by uploading or embedding a video tutorial to videos.Linux.com and help us meet our goal of gathering 100 videos. See the full details at the 100 Linux Tutorials Video Campaign web page.