I attended LITA's Mobile Computing Interest Group meeting at ALA Annual Conference and heard two presentations about library projects with mobile technologies.
Anne Burke presented on North Carolina State University's use of iPod Touches for a scavenger hunt to orient new students to the library, its staff, and resources. The creative, relatively inexpensive project makes a game of orientation, with group interaction and casual competition. The success of the program is evident in survey results as well as photographs of participating students, which you can view the slides on Mobile Computing Interest Group ALA Connect page.
Aimee Fifarek and Ann Porter of Scottsdale Library (AZ) spoke about their development of Gimme, a mobile app for readers' advisory, targeting an 18-24 year-old demographic. Funded by an $18,000 LSTA /Arizona State Library grant, the project creatively uses APIs from Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook, facilitating staff-developed content and interaction, and hooked into their Sierra catalog interface. Aimee and Ann's slides are on Prezi.
What mobile projects are underway at your library?
In the next couple weeks, we have two webinars on mobile.
- Meredith Farkas will present the workshop How to Enhance Library Instruction with Mobile Devices on Wednesday, July 11, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. The fee is $55 or $110 for groups of three or more.
- In collaboration with WebJunction, Andromeda Yelton will present the free webinar Bridging the Digital Divide with Mobile Services on Wednesday, July 25, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.