As
we all know, mobile technology such as smartphones is altering and extending
the way we communicate with society and the world around us today. Where ever we go today, you are guaranteed to
see people using their smartphones in one way or another. They definitely keep
us connected with family, friends, and co-workers and why not our librarians/libraries?
Smartphones provide another form of communication for libraries. It’s so important to keep libraries relevant
and stay current with technology treads and support what users demand and by
delivering library services on a smartphone is a good example.
This is
convenient not only for the library's members, but for the library itself. The
adoption of mobile technology has certainly altered the traditional
relationships between libraries and their users. Libraries that have been optimizing their
websites for use on a smartphone provide a two way communication between users
and the library. Smartphones are another mechanism that allows catalogue
searching, account access, notifications though email, locations, hours open, a
way to stay current with news from a library website, chat, text/SMS to
downloading e-books.
We know today that the
technical capabilities of smartphones have advanced to the point where mobile
web browser developers now strive to make it possible to view regular websites
by zooming into a page and scrolling around. In saying this, it’s important that libraries do all they can to insure
that the uses of these devices are given a consistent user experience, because users want the same experience from their library
applications wherever they are and on whatever device they are using at a particular
time.
In one of my readings, I even saw
where some libraries are supporting apps, which allow a smartphone to store the
bar-code data for a library card. In essence, the smartphone become the library
card. When you think of how far technology has brought libraries into the
future, it’s amazing!
