Selecting And Evaluating The Best Mobile Apps For Library Service

With the move toward defining the role of librarians as facilitators of knowledge creation, now is a great time to bring apps into digital literacy training and other library services. No longer just for media consumption, mobile apps are proving to be excellent tools for content creation.

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.

The current digital age is impacting the contents and delivery of instructional service in many ways. Instructional sessions not only describe various features of a resource, but these sessions also bring issues like the ethical use of information, copyrights, and the value of open knowledge to light. Librarians are required to help users to learn use these tools. Changing the Scope of Library Instruction in the Digital Age provides emerging information on data visualization tools, creating effective instructions, and instructional design in library sciences. While highlighting the challenges of effectively training new and seasoned librarians in these various aspects of data technology and teaching methods, readers will learn the importance of giving librarians the tools they need to complete their new responsibilities. This book is an important resource for entry level and seasoned librarians, researchers, and instructional design specialists seeking current research on up to date library instruction in the modern technology age.

Over 52 million tablet devices were sold during the fourth quarter of 2012 and sales are predicted to continue to increase in years to come. These lightweight mobile computing devices are quickly becoming an integral part of patrons’ everyday lives. Libraries are responding by incorporating them into their programs and services. Using Tablets and App in Libraries outlines how libraries can support this new BYOD (bring your own device) culture including offering app events and instruction, installing mounted tablets within the library, offering tablet lending programs, initiating tablet training programs for staff, and ways to evaluate and use quality apps. Discover how you can implement a successful tablet program in your library. Through this comprehensive guide, readers will learn: How to integrate the potential of tablet technology into existing library programs and staff workflows How to Host a Staff Training Technology Petting Zoo How to provide tablet support and training for your patrons How to use tablets in your story time and other children’s programming How to circulate tablets in your library How to use tablets to promote library services How to use tablets in your physical spaces to provide and gather information

Today’s educators stand at the crossroads of globalization and technology. The world is rapidly shrinking. The workplace is being transformed before our very eyes. Technology is forever changing the way we perceive reality and the way we do business. Educators are required to equip students for a workplace that has yet to emerge. The skill sets of today’s job market are often obsolete before students can enter the workplace. Now is the time for educators to rise to the challenges of our modern world. By embracing the vision of yesterday’s practitioners and joining hands with tomorrow’s practitioners, educators can transform our world and equip their students for the upward mobility and career flexibility required in tomorrow’s workplace.

Information systems are central to libraries, and managing information systems is critical to serving library communities. Both a textbook for LIS courses and a handbook for practitioners, this volume thoroughly addresses modern libraries' challenges of integrating information technology. Written by Joseph R. Matthews and Carson Block, both experts on library information systems, this book describes the evolution of library information systems, their enabling technologies, and today's dynamic IT marketplace. It explains specific technologies and related topics, including standards and standards organizations, telecommunications and networks, integrated library systems, electronic resource management systems, repositories, authentication and link verification, electronic resources, and nextgen library systems. Readers will also learn the latest about information systems management, covering technology planning, basic technology axioms, the impact of technology on library services, system selection and implementation, system usability, and general technology management. The final section considers current trends and future developments in LIS, including those related to mobile devices and apps as well as the growth of digital libraries.

The acceleration of technological change demands that today's information professionals and educators not only be constantly acquiring new knowledge and skills, but also that they cultivate the ability to make sound judgments on which technologies to embrace. Today's librarians and information specialists know it's imperative that they keep up with new technologies. But not all technologies are equally important, either within the library setting or to library patrons. So how does one decide which ones to pursue and integrate into services? In the uphill battle to stay current with new and emerging technologies, deciding which ones to pursue and integrate into services is a major challenge. A secondary problem is simply finding the time to consider the question. Readers of Keeping Up with Emerging Technologies will learn all of the best practices and skills to keep up with new technologies and to analyze the ability of specific technologies to meet recognized user needs—all in this single source. You'll learn the best ways to gather information about new technologies and user needs, to evaluate and analyze information, to curate technology information for others, to set up experiments and evaluate the results, and to present your findings to persuade decision-makers. Written by the former head of user experience at MIT's library system, this guidebook serves information professionals, educators, education technology specialists, and anyone with "emerging technology" or "innovation" in their job titles. It will also be useful for library administrators and those who manage these positions as well as for students seeking a technology-oriented or curriculum-design career path in libraries.

Families share stories with each other and veterans reconnect with their comrades, while teens edit music videos and then upload them to the web: all this and more can happen in the digital media lab (DML), a gathering of equipment with which people create digital content or convert content that is in analog formats. Enabling community members to create digital content was identified by The Edge Initiative, a national coalition of leading library and local government organizations, as a library technology benchmark. Surveying academic and public libraries in a variety of settings and sharing a range of approaches to creating DMLs, this issue of Library Technology Reports points the way towards meeting that benchmark, showing Funding sources and amounts for 16 DML projects in a range of librariesLinks to sample policies and liability formsInformation on hardware, software, and websites for sound production, videography, graphic design, and animationHow to design a DML, addressing considerations such as power, noise prevention, ventilation, lighting, furniture, and moreConfiguration and equipment lists for 8 DMLs, ranging from portable to large librariesIn-depth profiles of 5 digital media labs compiled from an 11-question survey