University Library Mobile apps – quick survey March 2011
Timothy Collinson, University of Portsmouth, timothy.collinson@port.ac.uk
March 2011
Method
Query posted on lis-link (LIS-LINK@jiscmail.ac.uk)
Query posted to ~190 Twitter followers (not all librarians, but many)
Search on Apple’s iTunes store for ‘university library’ (Warwick the only hit!)
Search on Google for ‘mobile library app site:ac.uk’ (first 10 pages of hits examined)
Explicitly Library apps
University of Bedfordshire
http://www.bowkerinfo.com/offers/LibraryAnywhere/ &
http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/libraryservices/whoweare/apps
Web and Publications officer at the University has developed an Android App in house using Google
App inventor. This can be found here with information, a download link and a minute long video
promoting the service: http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/android
Facility to search Library Catalogue using third party barcode scanners:
http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/libraryservices/whoweare/apps/barcode
Finally, just purchased Library Anywhere from Library Thing which has been skinned and linked to
our services:
http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/libraryservices/whoweare/apps
Cambridge Libraries
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/toolbox/camlib.html
University of Portsmouth
Student built android app: https://market.android.com/details?id=org.mobilesilat.UoPLibrary
We have one replicating our Referencing@Portsmouth webpages (http://referencing.port.ac.uk/)
for Apple iOS but not yet released.
University of Warwick
Apple http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/libraryapp-university-of-warwick/id423779720
University Apps (which have a library element)
Huddersfield University (library component)
http://www2.hud.ac.uk/about/visiting/uoh_mobile_application.php
This is the link to the University of Huddersfield App on our webpages
http://www2.hud.ac.uk/cls/it/students/uoh_mobile_app.php
and here it is in iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/huddersfielduniapp/id407350493?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
It's still in the developmental stage at the moment.
University of Leeds (unofficial and includes Library component)
https://market.android.com/details?id=net.status.lvp.leedsgo&feature=search_result
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) has an i-Phone app version of it's MyMMU Portal - this
app is connected to student's library records and allows them to check when their books are due,
check on their reservations, fines etc. Details can be found here:
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/mymmu-mobile/about/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id391326798?mt=8
the product of our Learning and Research Technologies dept, but they are working on
Android/Blackberry compatible versions at the moment.
Roehampton
http://studentzone.roehampton.ac.uk/itservices/campusm/campusm.html
Sheffield University
CampusM “includes info on the library and a very very basic catalogue search”
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/cics/campusm
Sheffield Hallam (library element)
http://elearningatshu.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/our-mobile-app-shugo-is-now-available/
St Andrews
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/itsupport/mobile/msaint/
Stirling
https://m.stir.ac.uk/about/
We recently launched in beta a mobile web app called mStir. This incorporates some of the features
that students wanted to access via a smart phone such as the library catalogue, availability of free
PCs/Printers, plus our podcasting software of lectures (Listen Again). It can be seen here
http://m.stir.ac.uk . It detects which phone you are using and presents you with a different version,
so if you use a PC or an old phone you will get a text only version, but if you use a iphone/android
phone, you will be presented with a much more involved GUI. Let me know if you require any more
details. The software is all coded in house using a frame work called WebOSP.
Sussex
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/services/informationandsupport/helpdesk/sussexmobile
UCL
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/students/mobile/ucl-go
Westminster
http://www.westminster.ac.uk/home/students/app
University of Worcester
Looking at CampusM as well (and kindly provided URL: http://ombiel.com/campusm.html)
Directed to URL, but wasn’t able to find Library app
(but often a library section in more general university app)
Uni of Bristol: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/library
Liverpool John Moores
http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/
possibly referring to: Uni app: http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/mobileapp/ which allows access to Library
account amongst other things.
LSE Mobile
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id366637697?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D6 – library bit in development
University of Oxford: http://m.ox.ac.uk/desktop/
and yes, I know I asked for UK, but had these pointers sent as
well!
National University of Ireland, Maynooth: http://www.nuim.ie/
We have app store and android versions of our app available. The easiest way to find them is to
search in both places for Maynooth.
They are both basic and free. They are basic as it was intended as a start but also because in the first
instance just getting approval from Apple can be time consuming the first time. Finally of course we
had a very limited budget.
The app's functionality includes library opening times, a catalogue search, news and contact. While
this would address the most popular uses of our web site, one learning experience is that users of
smartphones have high expectations.
The formal launch of the app will take place in April. It will be one of a number of mobile services we
will be offering all of which are at beta stage.
The others are mobile e- resources, use of qr codes and SMS integration into the catalogue.
North Carolina State University http://www.ncsu.edu/ where I found:
http://admissions.ncsu.edu/blogs/uncategorized/nc-state-campus-tours-there%E2%80%99s-an-appfor-that/ and
http://news.lib.ncsu.edu/2010/08/11/nc-state-time-machine-now-available-as-iphone-app/
Nifty mobile video element from Purdue (USA):
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/studio/
Useful reading:
http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/images/7/76/Mobile_Web_Apps.pdf
There were several papers at ILI 2010 which talked about Library apps. e.g. Esben Fjord from
Gladsaxe Public Libraries :
http://www.internet-librarian.com/2010/speakers.php?speaker=EsbenFjord
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue65/ili-2010-rpt/#b103
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue65/ili-2010-rpt/#b202
Briefing from OSS-Watch - may have useful background info:
http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/appstores.xml?style=printable