mobile

Give Away some Ebooks

by David Lee King on March 7, 2011

A couple weeks ago, I saw a pretty cool idea at the Denver International Airport, and thought it could be adapted to libraries.

1st Bank had some large advertisements up in the airport, giving away free ebooks (see the pic in this post – this was one of two signs I saw). All you needed was a smartphone with a QR Code reader – aim and read the code, and you were directed to download a free ebook (there was also a button to open a new banking account).

Pretty ingenious, if you ask me. Just guessing here, but I’m pretty sure the only books I saw were “free” out-of-print classics. For most people – people who are stuck at the airport with nothing much to do – what a cool idea! Give em a book (even if it’s freely available online), and brand it as your business.

How can this work for a library?

Why not copy this idea? Use a QR Code, put up a sign at the mall or the grocery store, and offer a “free” ebook (maybe something legally free from Project Gutenberg). Send the user to a mobile webpage, branded as your library – with a link to the ebook, and some info about your other cool services.

In essence, it looks like the library is giving away a free ebook – that works with multiple ereaders! Even those pesky Amazon Kindles that don’t play well with libraries.

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Topeka’s Mobile App

by David Lee King on February 15, 2011

Topeka has it’s first mobile library app – brought to you via the fine folks at Boopsie!

In the pic on the left, you can see the icon as it displays on my iPhone. It’s the one that’s titled “Topek….brary.” Apparently, “Topeka Library” doesn’t fit underneath the icon on an iPhone. “Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library” certainly wouldn’t fit! Oh well – not completely unheard of – I’ve seen a couple other app icon titles that do that, too.

So go ahead, download it, and play with it. There’s an iPhone, Android, and Blackberry app. Or, pretty much any phone with browser capabilities can go to tscpl.boopsie.com and you’ll either be directed to download the appropriate app or you’ll be dumped into the web version of the app.

Either way, pretty cool stuff for us!

Here’s what we’re doing with it. Check out the screenshot at the right (larger version here) – it’s the main page of the app. When creating the main functionality of the mobile app, our thinking went like this: when would someone use our mobile phone app, and what would they want to do with it?

We decided they’d be in line at the grocery store, or picking up their child from school. Or they’d be wherever, but have maybe a couple of minutes to quickly check on something. In those scenarios, how might they want to interact with the library?

Here’s what we came up with:

  • Library Catalog: search for something, put it on hold
  • My Account: see what’s due and renew it, etc
  • Ask a Librarian: ask a question – links provided for phone, text messaging, and email questions
  • Locations & Hours: links to addresses and maps for our main building, our bookmobile stops, and our book drop locations
  • Connect with us: links to our Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Flickr accounts
  • What’s missing? We wanted to know what our patrons wanted this app to do that wasn’t there yet, so we provided an easy way for them to tell us – it’s a simple form that sends an email to me.

What do our customers want to do that we’re not yet providing?

  • paying fines from their phones
  • checking out our calendar of events
  • checking out movies from our Mediabank DVD dispenser (it’s a separate catalog)

Otherwise, everyone that we’ve heard from has liked the app – we’re getting comments like “so cool! I already think we have the best library and then u show us just another reason to love @topekalibrary.”

Not bad at all!

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My Favorite Apps

by David Lee King on August 31, 2010

AppsWhich apps have I been using enough that I want them on my main iPhone screen? Here’s a rundown (right now, I have two more screens of apps that I don’t use nearly as much, but are pretty handy once in awhile … like a flashlight or the calculator app):

  • Messages – default text messaging app.
  • Calendar – self-explanatory, and used a lot!
  • Clock – I set lots of alarms to remind myself to do stuff (like picking up a child from dance practice). I also use the alarm clock feature when I’m traveling.
  • Camera – self-explanatory. Does video too.
  • Evernote – I use this for random note-taking, jotting down quick ideas, that type of thing. I also keep some lists here (ie., lists of books I want to read)
  • RTM (Remember the Milk) – It’s a to-do list that works well with the Getting Things Done method.
  • reQall – Very cool app that I just discovered. It’s replacing the Jott service I’ve been using, and doing a nice job of it, too. Basically, you can record a 30-second voice memo, and it turns it into text and emails that text to you. You can do a lot more with it … that’s for another post
  • Photography – These are all different cameras, photograph editors, or effects that I’ve been playing with:

    • CameraBag – has some neat filters, like 1962 (looks like an old photo, Fisheye, etc.
    • Darkroom Pro – alternate camera I was playing with, until …
    • Camera+ – I discovered this one! They were kicked out of the iTunes app store for awhile – not sure if they’re back yet. But it’s a great camera app – better than the default one, plus it has some great filters built-in. The only reason I haven’t replaced it with the default app is video (as in, it takes none).
    • CameraPlus – not sure why I still have this here … must play with it again, then probably delete.
    • PS Express – as in Adobe Photoshop Express. Great little app with some handy editing features.
    • Flickr – a flickr browser.
    • TiltShiftGen – makes those funky tiltshift “miniature” style photos. It’s fun!
    • Photos – default iPhone photo browser.
    • Qik Video Pro – this one’s been a disappointment. I bought it because it has some fun video filters (like black & white, frost, etc.). But guess what? It doesn’t do the 16X9 HD video that my iPhone 4 can do (even though the iTunes app store description says “works with iPhone 4!”). So that’s no fun! Otherwise … the app posts live video to Qik, and sends to other places like Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.
  • Bibles – a couple different Bibles I use:
    • AcroBible – the NIV version. A classic.
    • Bible (YouVersion) – I use the Bible part of this app, primarily … but it’s really more of a social network with a Bible in it. You can friend people, see any notes they create, set up virtual Bible studies, hook your calendar up with a variety of Bible reading plans, etc. The app comes from lifechurch.tv – a church that makes apps and social networks!
  • TWC – as in The Weather Channel. Hey – I live in Tornado Alley!
  • Wikipanion – a Wikipedia app. I bet I use this app almost every day…
  • Reeder – a Google Reader app. Also used almost every day.
  • Location Stuff – I’ve been experimenting with location-based services, so…
    • Foursquare – you can be the mayor…
    • Gowalla – another cool tool.
    • Brightkite – a third service I play with.
    • Loopt – the first location-based service on the iPhone.
    • check.in – web-based app that lets you checkin to multiple places at once. Right now, I have it hooked into Foursquare, Gowalla, and Brightkite. It’s very beta, so doesn’t always work.
    • Mayorama – lets you see how many checkins you need to be mayor (Foursquare only). Sorta fun playing with this… 31 more checkins until I’m mayor of Lake Shawnee!
    • Whrrl – another location service.
  • Shazam – cool music service. If I hear a song, I can hold it up, press “Tag Now” and find out who it is, and most of the time, it works great. Unfortunately, I’m often listening to weird college radio or a christian station … neither of which are mainstream. So I sometimes get an “unrecognized” out of it.
  • Facebook – self explanatory.
  • Twitter – self explanatory.
  • And of course, my phone/mail/safari/ipod apps that show on every page.

So, that’s what I’m using. What do you have on YOUR smartphone’s main app page? What can’t you live without?

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iPads in Libraries

by David Lee King on June 17, 2010

See the Youtube version in HD

Going to ALA 2010 in Washington, D. C.? If so, please consider participating in the BIGWIG Showcase! What is the BIGWIG Showcase? It’s a fun, highly interactive way to learn about a lot of topics at once! Here’s a list of the topics for this year’s Showcase:

  • Libraries MUST Have A New Electronic Content Access and Distribution Infrastructure  (Michael Porter)
  • User Research on a Shoestring (Erin White and Susan Teague-Rector)
  • Information Overload & Personal Information Management (Bohyun Kim)
  • iPad and Tablet computers (David Lee King)
  • Teaching with Twitter (Ellen Filgo)
  • Qrcodes & Mobile Knowledge Networks (Bonnie Rosalen and Kelly Sattler)

And yes – I’m doing one … my presentation is on the Apple iPad and the new breed of tablet PCs that are coming out in the next couple of years. I show off the iPad and provide some examples of how to use one in a library setting.

What do YOU need to do? Two simple things:

  1. Watch the video, and leave a comment if you want to
  2. Attend the Showcase! I’ll talk briefly about the iPad, possibly even show one off … then we’ll chat – answer questions, debate the merits of the iPad, etc… and then you’ll be able to rotate off and talk to the other amazing presenters (listed above).

Simple stuff, huh? Make SURE to attend the BIGWIG Showcase – Monday, June 28, 2010 from 10:30am to Noon at the Renaissance Washington Grand BR South/Central. See you there!

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CIL2010: Developing & Designing for Mobile

by David Lee King on April 15, 2010

Speaker – Jeff Wisniewski, Web Services Librarian, University of Pittsburgh

Notes from this session …

mobile will surpass desktop web access in the next couple years

if you can write html, css, and javascripting … you can write for the mobile web.

me – mobile apps are great …. but we even moreso need to be building for the mobile web.

context is important:

  • not interested in your lending policy
  • want to satisfy immediate info needs
  • usually we’re in busy places, doing multiple things when we are accessing mobile web

Mobile usability – oxymoron (not sure I agree …)

- minimize the need to input text when you can.

remember you’re designing fro a small screen and will have speed and latency issues.

Two important points to remember:

  • don’t make me think!
  • don’t make me type!

content – ask your users what they would find useful

Cake and icing:

cake – directions, hours, contact info, ask a question, etc.

icing – (do these if you can, later on, etc) – catalog search, article search…

be selective – everything is on a need to know basis

repurpose existing content – podcasts, video, alerts, rss type stuff

content we buy:

some have mobile friendly sites already, like EBSCO, PubMed, westlaw, etc.

Catalog: look for accessible version if possible – it will probably be mobile friendly

me – mobile – make sure our site and services work on a 3g network – m.tscpl.org

m.home – make a new mobile homepage:

single column

single lines

flattened hierarchy

short titles

simple standard html and css

include a mobile dtd type

ignore handheld css stylesheets. most new mobile browsers ignore handheld stylesheet statement

media query – the link media thing – tells browser to use this stylesheet if screen is smaller than a certain size

include action links like a href tel:phone# stuff – sms: – same thing – this allows people to click and call or click and text, rather than having to type

optimizing for mobile:

combine dependent files, minify your javascript and css, tell google  – register mobile site with them.

Google small business center – register library website with google local

use validation services

drupal has a mobile template

usability testing – do paper tests

analytics – google analytics has mobile tracking, or you can filter by user agents

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