I was having a play with barcode apps recently. Mainly I wanted a QR code reader, but then started playing with shopping type apps.
However, one app that particularly interested me was Zbar – and that’s because it’s not a shopping app but a barcode app – it let’s you create your own search links, create saved lists and email these as a saved list. This was interesting because despite not being as pretty as the others (it showed the barcode, not the product), the customisation and ability to email scanned barcodes as a .csv file offered great potential.
And that’s whare it sat for a while… potentially interesting & kind of fun, but I was still thinking in terms of shopping. Then, when road tripping for Christmas the thought occurred that if searching within Mandurah Libraries you could almost be assured a 100% hit rate. Scanning the product barcode on an item takes you directly to the full catalogue record of the item – Summaries (from the catalogue record, but also links to Google Books, LibraryThing), Author Links, Subject Links, Series Links, LibraryThing enhancements like tags, similar titles etc. So if you find an item on the shelf you’ve already read – scan and find what else we hold by that Author. Find the 2nd or 3rd volume of a series on the shelf – scan and find out if we have the first….. All without having to type anything in.
Putting this in writing makes it seem a bit naff – you could just go the to OPAC’s like we’ve always done. But I suppose that’s the point, you don’t have to. You can do it all at the shelf where you are so you don’t need to keep going backwards and forwards to the catalogue. You could also do it from home or when out and about - we don't always have a pen or paper handy, but we almost always have our mobiles...
We are always looking for ways of engaging our customers – maybe something like this is a good start, even if it might be a bit naff?
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Augmented Reality
I've been aware of the term "Augmented Reality" for a while - but have always related it to gaming and things like "Second Life" and have never directly associated it with mobile apps or libraries.
But after coming across Arron Tay's article on Augmented Reality I'm actually quite excited.
As a librarian in a public library I'm rather attached to the book in paper format. I can use and appreciate electronic formats but I'm attached to the tactile experience of relaxational reading with a paper based book. Even with non fiction or study texts I find working with paper based medium more conductive to my thought process than working with ebook formats.
With all the talk lately in library circles regarding the rise of the ebook and the decline in circulation of traditional formats I was starting to worry that there would, for traditional formats be a lack of new development.
Shelf checking is the bane of a librarians existence - It's time consuming, fiddly and monotonous. But if the books are not filed correctly customers or staff cannot easily locate items, which can be both frustrating and embarrassing. When items cannot be found it adds to our workloads - looking for, writing off, Inter-Library Loaning or purchasing a new copy to satisfy the initial customer query.
Alot of people think RFID will help with this. And maybe in ideal cases it will, but given the offline/report based output of many RFID solutions and (in our case at least) issues with Call Number construction I have my doubts as to how effective it will be. An improvement yes, but the answer we expected ? likely not.....
Which brings us back to Augmented Reality
Seems great to me. An interactive, real time shelving guide.
From this great example and Arron's quick exploration it isn't hard to image a future where you can call up all of the same enhanced content (Syndetics, LibraryThing, etc)via your mobile phone or tablet while wandering the library shelves.
But after coming across Arron Tay's article on Augmented Reality I'm actually quite excited.
As a librarian in a public library I'm rather attached to the book in paper format. I can use and appreciate electronic formats but I'm attached to the tactile experience of relaxational reading with a paper based book. Even with non fiction or study texts I find working with paper based medium more conductive to my thought process than working with ebook formats.
With all the talk lately in library circles regarding the rise of the ebook and the decline in circulation of traditional formats I was starting to worry that there would, for traditional formats be a lack of new development.
Shelf checking is the bane of a librarians existence - It's time consuming, fiddly and monotonous. But if the books are not filed correctly customers or staff cannot easily locate items, which can be both frustrating and embarrassing. When items cannot be found it adds to our workloads - looking for, writing off, Inter-Library Loaning or purchasing a new copy to satisfy the initial customer query.
Alot of people think RFID will help with this. And maybe in ideal cases it will, but given the offline/report based output of many RFID solutions and (in our case at least) issues with Call Number construction I have my doubts as to how effective it will be. An improvement yes, but the answer we expected ? likely not.....
Which brings us back to Augmented Reality
Seems great to me. An interactive, real time shelving guide.
From this great example and Arron's quick exploration it isn't hard to image a future where you can call up all of the same enhanced content (Syndetics, LibraryThing, etc)via your mobile phone or tablet while wandering the library shelves.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Course Wrap up
The course has been fun - but also stressful trying to make time to complete it.
Blogs & Wikki's, RSS Agregators, Tagging, Delishious, LibraryThing and Podcasting stike me as the most applicable for developing our library services.
Social Networking will be important as a means of communication and being "where are customers are", but I can't seem to work up the appropiate enthousiam - perhaps because I don't currently use social media regularily, so when I do I have to wade through alot of junk to find the things I got on their for. Basically, I think it will be easy to get wrong - too few posts or too many, but will be great if we get it right.
I think it's great that all of our staff are getting to do the course as it gives us an even playing field to discuss, plan and involve everyone in the next stage of development - a true online presence.
Blogs & Wikki's, RSS Agregators, Tagging, Delishious, LibraryThing and Podcasting stike me as the most applicable for developing our library services.
Social Networking will be important as a means of communication and being "where are customers are", but I can't seem to work up the appropiate enthousiam - perhaps because I don't currently use social media regularily, so when I do I have to wade through alot of junk to find the things I got on their for. Basically, I think it will be easy to get wrong - too few posts or too many, but will be great if we get it right.
I think it's great that all of our staff are getting to do the course as it gives us an even playing field to discuss, plan and involve everyone in the next stage of development - a true online presence.
Geocaching
I have mixed thoughts about geocaching. On the one hand I can't work up any enthousiam for it, but on the other I can see how we could use it - perhaps it just feels like the straw that broke the camels back.....
In a library context, I can envision scenarios where we could use geocaching in conjuntion with library events such as National Year of Reading and even Author talks etc to give these an added dimension. We also get a lot of travellers using the library for wireless and public PC access. If travellors are accross the whole geocashing experience this could be a "fun" way to engage with them.
Chicargo's finding history throughout the city did strike a cord however. Seems like there is great potential to utilise this in our Museums learning programs - or once again to engage visitors to the region to learn about the history of Mandurah.
The thought occurs that QR barcodes could be used for similar purposes or in conjunction......
In a library context, I can envision scenarios where we could use geocaching in conjuntion with library events such as National Year of Reading and even Author talks etc to give these an added dimension. We also get a lot of travellers using the library for wireless and public PC access. If travellors are accross the whole geocashing experience this could be a "fun" way to engage with them.
Chicargo's finding history throughout the city did strike a cord however. Seems like there is great potential to utilise this in our Museums learning programs - or once again to engage visitors to the region to learn about the history of Mandurah.
The thought occurs that QR barcodes could be used for similar purposes or in conjunction......
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Podcasting
I personally have mixed feelings about podcasts. I have dozens of podcasts at home that I've never got around to listening to.
Work-wise, I think we should be looking at podcasting/vodcasting all of our events - think advertising darling !!
At the very least we should be looking at podcasting our "Writers in the Library" talks. This would hopefully be a good way of generating interest and hopefully getting more people to physically attend. Our museum’s audio histories would be a good source of material to post.
Personally I’d love to download Tripple J’s new music podcasts – but they would be one more thing that I would get a chance to listen to....
Work-wise, I think we should be looking at podcasting/vodcasting all of our events - think advertising darling !!
At the very least we should be looking at podcasting our "Writers in the Library" talks. This would hopefully be a good way of generating interest and hopefully getting more people to physically attend. Our museum’s audio histories would be a good source of material to post.
Personally I’d love to download Tripple J’s new music podcasts – but they would be one more thing that I would get a chance to listen to....
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Online Video
I think online video has great potential in libraries as training tools for both staff and public. Handouts and procedures are often either too simplistic or too hard to comprehend easily.
Watching short clips lets you take the information in easily and can be supported by the handouts or procedures. I’m not sure about quality. Is it better to have something up as long as it gets your point across? So many things that we see look so professional I would be embarrassed to put anything up that I produced as it wouldn’t look very good…..
How could we use it in libraries?
The 3 obvious option are to
1. promote services by creating short introductions/training clips
2. promote books via book trailers
3. promote our events by posting past ones.
eg:
Watching short clips lets you take the information in easily and can be supported by the handouts or procedures. I’m not sure about quality. Is it better to have something up as long as it gets your point across? So many things that we see look so professional I would be embarrassed to put anything up that I produced as it wouldn’t look very good…..
How could we use it in libraries?
The 3 obvious option are to
1. promote services by creating short introductions/training clips
2. promote books via book trailers
3. promote our events by posting past ones.
eg:
I now have a Twitter account http://twitter.com/#!/brucie995 and have posted my first tweet and also sent my first retweet!
I think I will have to come back and edit this post after I've had a play for a couple of days. Not too sure yet what to make of Twitter. My only experience so far is when I've followed some posts online to with regards to conferences that I've not been able to attend. Have generally found those posts hard to follow as for me they were "out of context" and full of abbreviations.
I think I will have to come back and edit this post after I've had a play for a couple of days. Not too sure yet what to make of Twitter. My only experience so far is when I've followed some posts online to with regards to conferences that I've not been able to attend. Have generally found those posts hard to follow as for me they were "out of context" and full of abbreviations.
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