23 Mobile Things - Thing 12 : Books

Thing 12 “…explore apps that allow you to find books in general and give you access to free ebooks and audiobooks.”

I've had a LibraryThing account for a long time. I tend to use it heavily for awhile, then not so much. Right now I'm in the not so much mode. They don't have an app although they state on their website "We’re developing a full-fledged Librarything app. Until then, we have a simple mobile website." No timeline as to when this statement was posted or when the app might happen. Mobile site I guess is better than nothing but when I pulled up the site on my iPhone it did not automatically redirect to the mobile site. 

Even after I logged on it still didn't redirect to the mobile site. And I don't see an easy, quick link on the main page to go mobile. jd-Points

Since we're dealing mobile and apps here I'll forego further discussion on LibraryThing at this time.

goodreads I learned about after I'd already had time and books invested in LibraryThing so I wasn't sure I'd want to switch or ditch. And did I really have a reason for both? I'd say no. But now I thought I was more open to checking it out-- friends seem to like it and it does have an app so that makes it easy for quick reference on the go. I started off with the website and found that I could import my books from LibraryThing along with the majority of my other book related information. jd+Points. 

The app-- The main app screen has 2 screens worth of options. 

  

Right off the bat I spot the "Scan" option. This will come in handy. I scanned in the barcode of a title that I know I don't have in my library. And here's what it pulled up:

   

Brief info plus more details after selecting the title. From the 1st screen there's the option to "Shelve" it to my library. jd+Points for scanning ability.

Back to the main screen options and there is "Challenge". A way to challenge either yourself or to join in a reading challenge. At times I do tend to get stuck in a rut so a little butt-kicking might be a good thing. 

eBooks is another option. It tells me I've not downloaded any from goodreads so I select the option to see what's available. Here's a shot:

The results are the "Most Downloaded". I didn't go into any details but I'm guessing it offers a way to get the books whether for free or to buy. 

Recommendations are a big thing to me. I'm very often at a loss as to what I want to read next-- even though I have a title list of 200+ "to reads". I often ask others or search out "reads like" options to find my next read. It's usually a matter of wanting something different or not sure what topic I'm interested in at the moment. I need that just right suggestion at the right time. Picky I'd guess you say. 

I ck'd out the goodreads "Recommended" option. Here it offered genres from which to select.

I then select "next" and was asked to rate books in order to receive personalized recommendations. 

I worked through this recommendation process for awhile. If I rated a book (1-5 stars) it then would bring up another 3-5 similar selections to then possibly rate or ignore. This could take awhile. Especially if I need to go through each genre? I assumed so & chose not to finish right now. I'll go back another time when I can spare some time to waste. Note: I do like the "Want to Read" button option right there because there were quite a few titles that sounded good right away. jd+Points 

Lastly I looked at "My Books". At 1st glance I was a bit disappointed because all of my 289 titles were lumped into the "read" category. So that means that it did not transfer forward related details such as "to read", "read", "owned" etc. I guess I should have expected as much but I had hopes. More work to do to get things organized and to have "My Books" be truly informational and usable for me. Now will I do this by memory? Or will I need to have LibraryThing open in one tab with GoodReads open in another tab? 

Here's a shot of "My Books" (read) sorted by the "Author" option. Looks like the sort is in reverse/descending order? 

So a few glitches and some work to do but overall I think the goodreads app has promise for my needs. 

Other eBook apps
I do not have a Nook or a Kindle but I do have the free apps for both on my iPhone and my iPad. I tend not to use the Nook apps-- in fact now that I think of it I might have deleted them awhile back? There's just something about Nook that I don't like-- I think it's the singular, proprietary exclusivity of it-- it doesn't like to share. I have a few Kindle eBooks but I'll admit I'm really not much of an eReader. I'm not quite sure why because I'm a tech-lover but I still prefer to hold a book in my hands. Maybe it stems back to those grad school years reading countless journal articles that did me in? I'd download them and read via my iPad-- which I loved for reading those vs. print. The logic just isn't there.

Free eBooks
There seem to be many options for free eBooks. Here are a few popular ones:
Amazon (for Kindle)
Barnes & Noble (for Nook)
Project Gutenberg (epub & Kindle)
BookBub ("works with all major eBook retailers and devices")
plus as a librarian I'd be amiss not to put in a plug for libraries! Many public and academic libraries have eBooks in their collections-- all for free with your library card-- check it out today! 

23 Mobile Things - Thing 11 : Library & Reference (mobile app that is)

Thing 11 "Does your library or a library in your area have its own app? Apps where you can check your account, search the library catalog, ask a librarian, find library events, and much more?"

It had been awhile since I'd checked out our resources so I looked at them now to see how mobile we are or aren't. Not too bad I'd say.  For our main databases we're 2 out of 3:

EBSCO goes directly to it's mobile version. This is nice -- no need to download an app or go elsewhere. Plus the interface looks clean & simple. jd+Points

JSTOR auto-fits to my iPhone screen and it also popped up the option to download their app. This way I can choose which I'd like to use. Nice because if I'm there just once or not often I might not want the app. But if I'm going to be searching more often via mobile then maybe the app would be a good idea to have. jd+Points

ProQuest I guess you could say auto-fits to my screen but yet it's very small so this will take lots of finger-thumb re-sizing -- 1st off to search & then to work through the results. Not the best yet I see no mobile option or app available. Not mobile friendly.  jd-Points.

Our catalog, MPlus, does have a mobile option and I have this as a link option on our library page. But if you do happen to select our regular catalog link when you're on a mobile device it does redirect automatically to the mobile version. jd+Points

Another often used resource for us is AskMN (a 24/7 librarian chat). I gave this the mobile test and I was sorry to see that it does not re-direct or offer an app. It does auto-fit but then its the whole fingers & thumbs re-sizing thing. I think I'll inquire with them as to any future considerations they may have for becoming mobile-friendly. I just sent off an email! UPDATE: I've already heard back (before this was even published) the reply was an estimated guess of maybe a year-- it's in the hands of the underlying QuestionPoint software. 

And lastly, I'm sad to report, is our library webpage and overall college website. We are not mobile-friendly. But not for lack of my requesting & asking. I've just been up against a CIO and Marketing Director (our website lords) who don't see the need for spending time and money on this. In some ways I do understand -- after all there is the concept of Responsive Web Design (RWD) that should take care of everybody's needs by being flexible without having to code multiple versions. (read this Smashing Magazine article from 1/11 for more info). But this might still be a bit in the future. And in the meantime, our users are mobile now-- so they need & want this capability now. So do I.

Build Your Own App options? Back in March, 2013 I attended the Library Technology Conference at Macalester College, St. Paul. One session was The Mobile Revolution with presenters Aimee Clark & Susan Pratt of the Milford Memorial Library (Iowa). These gals gave many great tips for taking libraries into the mobile frontier-- especially awesome for a small public library in a town with a population of less than 3,000. Part of their presentation covered inexpensive or free ways to make our library websites/webpages mobile-- they covered Mobile, AppsGeyser, and Infinite Monkeys. I have often considered trying one of their options for our library website but I work at a small place so I can't afford to step on the toes of the website lords-- well not beyond assuming either of them will ever read this post. 

23 Mobile Things -- Thing 8 Round 2, the Return to Social Media Management

Thing 8 was on Social Media Management (SSM) tools. Yes, I posted on this already but since that post I've come up with a new need so I went back and I thought I'd share my experience here.

I now have a FB group that I am in charge of for a short term (2 months). I need to post daily plus other times occasionally. The daily posts should be at a consistent time each day for the others to follow along. The content is already established yet it's better if each piece is shared daily, not all at once or even in chunks. I'm a fairly reliable, organized person so I could try to manage doing that on my own each day but I'm also a tech person who loves to have technology work for me-- after all, isn't that why we have technology? To help make our lives easier? 

So how about one of those SMM tools to help me out? How about scheduled posting options? I'm not the 1st on this frontier to do this so this should have been an easy step, yes? Wrong. 

I wanted a platform that I could use via PC for the majority of the work (copying & pasting in the content) yet also an app so that I could keep tabs on things on the go. First up was HootSuite since I already have an account & they're a big name playing in SMM. I set everything up, it was easy, and all looked good. I scheduled one post into the future for my test just to make sure everything worked before I spent a lot of time adding in other posts. At the appointed time with HootSuite up in one browser window and my FB group up in another I watched and waited for the magic to happen. Magic, yes? No. Fizzle was more like it. I shared my frustration via Twitter:

I didn't have enough characters left in my tweet but the hashtag could have been #fail -- or a few other choice words. jd-Points. I wasn't sure what went wrong -- I'm still not sure -- but I didn't have time to waste and thought possibly it was a HootSuite to FB group issue. So like many in a "want it now" mentality I was ready to move on. 

I messaged my friend, Linda, who has always been a great tech/app resource (retired Librarian who was in on the main floor of 1st two MN "Thing" program offerings). She said she's used Buffer -- which had been mentioned on the Thing 8 page. I like knowing somebody who's had experience with a tool -- especially when I've been experiencing tech fails. jd+Points for recommendations

I checked Buffer out & I was pleased that it met my requirements (web & app versions plus scheduling to FB groups) so I setup an account. I connected all, setup my test post, and all went well. I added in my content for my next 10 posts (amount allowed for a free acct). So fingers crossed that the rest goes well. Oh and the app-- I can easily see my scheduled posts plus make any adjustments if/as needed. jd+Points

23 Mobile Things -- Thing 7 : Content Saving & Sharing

For Thing 7: "We all save things we find on the web--ideas, essays, pictures, blogs, news sites, whatever strikes our fancy. The traditional way to save things is with bookmarks in a browser--or many bookmarks in multiple browsers. This is great if you only use your desktop or laptop, but many people now have multiple devices with different browsers and probably different bookmarks on each. How do you find all those great sites when you are on any of your devices?"

Pinterest

I've had a Pinterest account for awhile that I setup via PC. I didn't dive right into Pinterest for two reasons -- One, I'm already heavily-vested in too many other social networks that I didn't feel I needed or could handle more "fun things" bombarding me. And two, after trying it for awhile I wasn't too pleased with it. For example: I'd saved "aka pinned" a item and then I went back just a day or two later to that pin and the content was gone. The pin still showed on my board -- picture and all -- but the linked information was no longer available. Yes, I know this happens all the time and it can happen via any bookmarking system. I guess in my naivety I thought maybe Pinterest had come up with a way of actually capturing/archiving the content for future viewing -- not so. So I use it for ideas & that's about it. jd-Points

Bitly
For years I've already used TinyURL but they don't have an app. So I thought about Bitly, their app, and how I might be able to use this for our Library. 

Using Bitly I could save & share our oh-so long library links in a shortened form. Some links are long because they either go through our proxy or they display the full folder hierarchy address. Shortening is awesome because it eliminates the possibility of link address breakage. jd+Points

Here's a snip of some of the links I shortened via our iPad using the iPhone app (no iPad version app at this time but this worked just fine):

Another Bitly option is to "Bundle" shortened links. So I took some of our most used links -- like several of our most used databases -- and I bundled them together to provide one link to multiple resources.

This snip shows our "databases" bundle:

Sharing a bundle? Here's a snip showing the options for how easy it is to share: 

Yes, this has provided me with some good ideas for easily sharing our Library links. jd+Points