Fueling Usage through Mobile Phone Apps

NEWS, mobile • Comments (0)

Jan 15

Anyone following the plethora of news announcements released in time for ALA Midwinter is aware that mobile is currently one of the hottest area of activity in the library environment. All the more reason then to view this video (from Ohio television news station, NBC4) that shows Mike Teets, Vice President, OCLC Enterprise Architecture, demonstrating the recent iPhone application from RedLaser, that supports usage of local library collections. It's fueled through WorldCat data. (OCLC's formal news release about the application may be viewed at: http://www.oclc.org/us/en/news/releases/2010/20101.htm ).

In their formal press release, Mike Teets is quoted as saying "Mobile devices are fast becoming the medium of choice for access to information for many people." OCLC is creating multiple apps to satisfy the needs of users in a variety of settings by satisfying queries at the point of need. In a subsequent email exchange that I had with Teets, he shared with me that "a single purpose, single platform app is not likely to be successful in meeting member library needs." OCLC recognizes the user's need to work across multiple environments, specifically:

• platform specific apps (Red Laser, more coming),
• multi-platform apps (Boopsie partner http://worldcat.org/m, Netlibrary ebooks on Nook and Sony readers),
• mobile web applications, i.e. not downloaded app (nothing yet, concepts brewing),
• mobile friendly standard web access (improving http://worldcat.org for direct access from phone browsers)
• Text based mobile devices (SMS access to QuestionPoint)

This varied approach offers benefit to both users and the libraries that serve them.

OCLC is a member organization of NFAIS.