Building Mobile Library Applications

A complete guide to the process of planning, developing, and launching mobile library applications.

A complete guide to the process of planning, developing, and launching mobile library applications.

How can your library—and your patrons—benefit from mobile apps? This guidebook offers a solid foundation in "app-literacy," supplying librarians with the knowledge to review and recommend apps, offer workshops, and become the app expert for their communities. Smartphones and other mobile devices that support downloadable applications—universally referred to as "apps"—can be used to foster productivity, conduct research, or read and study. Additionally, savvy librarians can better serve their communities by gaining expertise in mobile technologies and being qualified to make app recommendations to patrons. This book introduces you to the apps that can help you save time and increase your own productivity as well as serve as a curator and reviewer of apps and resident expert to benefit your patrons. Apps for Librarians: Using the Best Mobile Technology to Educate, Create, and Engage will save you from wading through and learning about the millions of apps available today and direct you to the very best apps in areas important to education, the workplace, and professional development. Organized by function—reading, writing, reference, multi-media, and productivity—apps are profiled with the following information: title, developer, price, platforms, general description, examples of use, and key features that make it worthwhile for learning and creative work.

This is an essential practical guide for all information professionals who want to get to grips with or improve their use of mobile services. Packed with easy to implement ideas, practical examples and international case studies, this provides you with the ultimate toolkit, exploring ideas as simple as renewals and reminders to the more complex such as access to e-books and virtual worlds. Jargon-free coverage of the background and context to mobile delivery will enable you to fully understand the challenges and embrace the opportunities, getting to grips with critical issues such as what sort of services users really want. Key topics covered include: • context including market penetration, range and functionality of devices • texting • apps vs. mobile websites • mobile information literacy vs. other information literacies • mobiles in teaching • linking the physical and virtual worlds via mobile devices • E-books for mobiles • the future of mobile delivery. Readership: This is an essential practical guide for all information professionals who want to get to grips with or improve their use of mobile services. It would also be invaluable for museum staff facing the same challenges. Library and information students and academics will find it a useful introduction to the topic.

With the rapidly increasing use of smartphones and tablets in the library to access information; as well as the growing role of social media, blogging, and e-learning instruction, the identity of libraries themselves are being transformed. Every function of the library, such as customer service, can be improved with technology. Why reinvent the wheel? Instead, you can now implement or expand services while knowing how other libraries have met their user needs.

Interest in m-library services has grown exponentially in the last five years, as libraries are recognizing the potential of ubiquitous and increasingly sophisticated mobile devices. Building on the highly regarded M-Libraries: libraries on the move to provide virtual access, this new book brings together research and case studies from all corners of the globe on the development and delivery of library services and content to mobile devices. Based on the proceedings of the Second International M-Libraries Conference held in Vancouver, this new collection of contributions from authorities in the field serves to demonstrate the ingenuity and creativity of developers and service providers in this area, ranging from the innovative application of basic mobile phone technology to provide information services in remote parts of the globe lacking internet access, to the development of new tools and technologies which harness the full functionality of popular mobile phones. Key topics include: enhancing library access through the use of mobile technology the university library digital reading room mobile access for workplace and language training the role of an agent supplying content on mobile devices cyberlearning and reference services via mobile devices podcasting as an outreach tool service models for information therapy services delivered to mobiles bibliographic ontology and e-books health literacy and healthy action in the connected age a collaborative approach to support flexible, blended and technology-enhanced learning The collection demonstrates the emergence of an evidence base for m-libraries, with a number of contributions presenting the results of user surveys and studies of user behaviour. Readership: This highly topical book should be read by information professionals in all sectors, and by policy makers, researchers, developers, publishers and suppliers. It will also be of great interest to library and information studies students and newcomers to the profession.

Written for information professionals and librarians trying to implement and manage Web 2.0 in their physical and online collections, Building Library 3.0 pays careful attention to the implementation of social web applications, mobile computing, and RFID and QR Code technology. The book details both how to make these technologies work for libraries and also explores why libraries must gain ground in the important new territories of Web 2.0. The changing relationships between information seekers, the information being sought, and the professional information gatekeepers is of great importance in this change, and this book explains both the use of the technology to reach information seeking communities, and the profound ways in which such relationships will change the nature of librarianship. A primer for Library 2.0, and concrete steps available to libraries seeking to catch up to their web-savvy patrons Detailed and critical examinations of social networking sites, and their potential for libraries outreach Studies the actions librarians can take right now to prepare for the ‘border-bleeding’ between physical and virtual collections

This concise guide will help you choose and implement the techniques and best practices used by today's forward-thinking libraries to create the best possible patron experiences.