Library OPACs & Mobile-Friendly Features
Posted August 10, 2008 
Comments(5)
Comments(5) Besides actual mobile versions of websites, there are also ways to improve interaction through mobile-friendly features. One way is to allow users to text or email a book’s information from the library catalog to their mobile phone. Not only does this create a better user experience, it also cuts down on unnecessary printing of catalog record pages.
Morris Library at Southern Illinois University
Plymouth State University Library Catalog (Scriblio)
See also – my flickr set of Library OPACs & Mobile-Friendly Features
RSS
[...] Library OPACs & Mobile-Friendly Features [...]
Simmons added the “send via text” functionality after an OPAC facelift my last semester of library school. That was the best thing ever!
There’s versions of these on the Iowa City Public Library and Bryn Mawr catalogs, and there’s code to implement it inside an III catalog.
http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2008/08/26/add-sms-to-your-iii-catalog.html
has the writeup
Slightly off topic but if you have a blog then its extremely simple to make it mobile. simply head over to http://www.mippin.com/mobilizer and type in your blog url. It takes just a few seconds and you’ll see a great looking blog turned mobile using some of the most cutting-edge mobile internet technology in the world today.
Plus once you’ve mobilized (or made mobile friendly) your blog, you can customise it with your colours, branding and so on. And then theres the option to generate revenue through advertising. This is because the Mippin Mobilized blog then becomes part of a much wider Mippin community of content, people, news, video, directory listings, blogs, shopping, and much, much more…all within the mobile site http://mippin.com which mobile users navigate to on their mobile browsers.
Give it a go. Mu mum’s a more traditional, non-digital librarian and even she’s using it!
of course, most can usually text to a message to a cell through email by using something like [phonenumber]@vtext.com, for instance. So any catalog that has an “email this” function can also be used to send the info. to one’s phone.