This blog post is the my reply
Library communications with their patrons
- Reminder notices of due books, holds, forth coming events, and new ideas like when the library gets a new book that may interest a patron, eg by the same author or a Bookwhack like match , based on their previous loans are all possible communications.
- Then there are the methods of communication, SMS (cost per message?), email (free), automatic phone calls (cost per message?) are all valid methods assuming you have the technology and can cover costs.
- Library patrons log into Library web sites to check for services, loans, search for books, etc. A lot of businesses are building mobile versions of their sites, eg Yellow Mobile or iphone applications versions. Also see Commonwealth Bank Mobile for a video of the comm bank mobile version. Libraries will need to move in this direction to keep in touch with mobiles users. Mobiles sites need to be tailored for the smaller screens, and are usually simplified in some way (although a lot of work goes into making sites simple and easy to navigate)
- Mobile marketing, you seem to be suggesting push technology for sending out SMS messages to nearby phones, this could also use bluetooth. You may need to watch patrons concerns about invasion of privacy.
- User consent to these communications methods needs to be considered, you should consider redrafting the terms and conditions that a patron agrees to when joining the library to cover as many of these up front, since this is a much easier way of getting consent, once initially.
- Twitter is very big and libraries could be doing a lot more with this channel. It is a great way send out messages on day to day things, new books, things happening at the library. A lot of this content is viewed on Mobiles and is a way to keep the library at the front of peoples mind. It can also be used to direct message people as a type of email.
Attracting patrons/publicity
- There are a number of Mobile and location aware applications that could be used to attract patrons, you have mentioned one of the latest foursquare, there are also mobile versions of twitter and facebook. Twitter and facebook are useful for keeping in touch with your patrons, but sites/apps like foursquare bring location into the picture, and this is where you interact with patrons while in or around the library. Foursquare has two ideas I think you would be interested in, when a person is in your library, they can "Check in", this records them being at the library at a certain time/day. If they check in enough times they can become the mayor of the library. Only one person may be the mayor at any one time. The mayor can change. You may wish to put up a poster or advertise that if a person shows they are the mayor of your library, then you provide them with some small reward, maybe an increased loan period or such. Each time a person checks in to the library, they get more chance of being mayor, so it is more likely people will return to the library. The other idea is basically advertising, but targeting people who are very close. When someone checks in to a business nearby by the library, foursquare has special offers, ie an ad, for nearby businesses or services. You could set up a special offer when someone checks in nearby, this may just show the hours and location, or again may have some special offer. I assume this advertising has a cost involved.
- Foursquare is a bit like a game, in that it rewards a user for playing, ie a user get badges for certain achievements. This idea could be copied by a library in building their own mobile web sites or application designed to rewards and attract users. Something like children's book week, the application keeps track of each book a patron borrows, reads, maybe a user can check in when they are reading and alert their friends. They can earn badges etc. A user can share their current book or rewards with twitter and facebook.
Distribution
- You mention DL (downloading I assume) a lot, I assume downloads will fall into the following categories, books, audio and video.
- Electronic Books - There are a number of readers in the market place, Kindle, Nook ereader, iPad (soon to be released) and even the iPhone. They usually have some kind on online market or purchase method associated, eg Amazon - Kindle, Barnes and Noble - Nook. You will find the market place idea very common and for a good reason, it makes it very easy for a user to locate and purchase items. Working out how to loan out electronic books as a library is worth investigating. You should look at the Nook web site It says you can loan an electronic book out to a friend. If it is legal for a library to do this then I assume a library would have a number of nook accounts and buy electronic books that then can be loaned. The nook ebooks can also be viewed on Mobile phones:
"you can read your eBooks across a wide range of devices in addition to your nook. To do this, simply download the free Barnes & Noble eReader app on your iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry smartphone, PC or Mac computer"
For electronic books to become popular, library patrons would most likely have to own their own electronic reader. This is the best way to find and obtain books. If they can afford to buy an electronic reader then are they most likely they can also afford or be able to source their own free ebooks from the web. Maybe the library could help patrons find free ebooks or even collect copies of the free books and link to there from the library search pages for easy retrieval by patrons. - Audio - I assume talking books, music, podcasts and lessons/training material make up the bulk of this category. There is an established distribution channel in place now, iTunes store, this is geared to user pays per item. It is very popular because it is easy to use, has a great range and delivers instant results. This service is web based, maybe one day there will be an equivalent Library store full of free audio that each library service can subscribe to and provide for its patrons. The library search results could link to the Library store download link. This service is targeted at mobile music and phones.
- Video - Movies, lessons/training material. iTunes covers video as well. Also there are the many video sites, youtube etc, plus illegal downloading. These are established web sites, I don't the library will find success in these fields.
- You mention an idea of a kiosk in a library, these have been around for many years in other industries, and are usually a very expensive piece of hardware unless they are basically a computer with a tamper proof interface. But then if it is a computer, why can't patrons download straight to their device over the web, why make them come to the library? Being able to download any time, any place on a mobile device is its strong point.
- Downloading applications to mobile phones are again done most often using application market places/stores, eg iTunes app store, Android marketplace, etc. iTunes is by far the most successful. So the easiest way to distribute your applications is to submit them to a few of these markets places/stores. These stores already allow users to download e-book readers to mobile devices. A quick search of iTunes app store listed the following "Kindle for iPhone (free)", "eReader (free)", but geared to purchase books. These app stores are a great way to distribute content, the library may just need to build or locate an e-book reader for its patrons.
Future Mobile applications
Helping a patron find a book on a shelf- Letting a patron complete a book search using their mobile phone, using a mobile version of the library search, could tell a patron if there is a book on shelf.
- But how many patrons have trouble actually finding a book on the shelf? This idea maybe a bit of a gimmick but it should get a few nerds into the library to give it a try at least! Look up Augmented reality This is a concept that is appearing in more and more mobile applications. It requires 3 things.
1. The phone needs to know where it is located, this is usually achieved by using the on board GPS, inside a library, this could be a problem, so you will need to mark on the floor where a person needs to stand and feed this location into the application.
2. The phones needs to know which direction a phone is facing, this is achieved by an on board compass, and
3. There needs to be some information to overlay or augment the real view as seen by the phone (usually by its camera viewer), in this example, the location of a book. The scenario goes like this:
A patron searches for a book on their phone.
The book is available at the library and is on the shelf (if shelved correctly)
The patron stands on the mark on the floor, then clicks one button on their phone, "Guide me"
The person faces the book shelves holding their phone up, when they are facing in the right direction, the phone displays how far they need to walk to find the book.
You can see existing application working now, eg AroundMe locates restaurants, ATMs, etc and it uses augmented reality when in landscape mode.
Google Latitude is a location service provided by Google, I have not investigated how it work yet.
Also there are new mobile platforms, eg Android is taking off in America and is gaining more ground in Australia. This will be boosted when the HTC Desire is launched next month. This platform has a lot of work ahead of it to catch the iPhone but is more open and so will attract more developers. There is also a new Microsoft mobile operating system Mobile 7 just been announced.
I suggest you buy yourself an iPhone 3GS or Android if you want to get up to date with the latest phone applications. There are thousands of free applications in the apps stores.
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