Mobile Apps: Use it or Lose it

There is no doubt that smartphones are becoming the hottest devices today. Now many people (including me J) prefer to own a smartphone rather than an ordinary mobile phone. It is because smartphones can connect to the internet through the carrier’s data network. This means that you are able to access the web, check/send emails or read news on your smartphone screen anytime. Smartphones also provide some other features such as GPS navigator, MP3 Player, digital camera, touchscreen and video recording. Moreover, smartphones are designed to be small in size so you can carry them around with you wherever you go. This is cool, right? But Wait! Another great thing about smartphones is the applications – software programs -  which allow you to download and install new features to your phone and allow you to personalize your phone the way you like it.

There are an enormous amount of smartphone apps that can assist, educate and entertain the smartphone users. Those apps are easy to download, free, fun and convenient. In the future, more people will use smartphones to browse the information. That is certainly going to have some impact on the library services. For Librarians, it is a challenge to improve library services in this digital environment.

According to the Mobile Planet Report from Google, 44% of New Zealanders own a smartphone and 46% of them use their smartphones to access the internet daily. These numbers from the report are telling us that our library users use smartphones out there. Thus, we as librarians need to consider new approaches and to adjust new technology to meet the need of smartphone users.

I have heard that some New Zealand libraries – namely the Nelson public library and the Open Polytechnic library - are subscribing library mobile apps like Library Anywhere, which allow library users to search the catalogue, view records, and find nearby libraries via their smartphones. I think this app helps to promote library service on smart phones in order to support smartphone users. Other library mobile apps like KeyRing and CardStar allow smartphone users to load their library card onto their phone. The users can use their smartphone as a library card. I haven’t seen this apps introduced in New Zealand yet. These apps might be great options for those who always forget their library cards.

However, we need to be prepared to deal with these changes. The most important thing is to understand the needs of users and adapt to meet them in a flexible way. Recently, I read this article The State of Mobile in Libraries 2012 which explores what library users want library apps to do for them.

As we can see from the survey, the expectations of smartphone users are higher than people who haven’t got a smartphone. Thus we need to continue to develop strategic plans for the future. We should work to ensure that we find a proper balance between traditional formats and new technologies to fulfil the needs of all users.

Sources:

http://www.iab.org.nz/resources/item/report-our-mobile-planet-new-zealand

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/02/mobile//the-state-of-mobile-in-libraries-2012