[Web4lib] Boopsie Anyone?

[Block, Carson]

Our Boopsie implementation should go live within the next few weeks.  We're very excited, but we're also not going to call it done when the App is out...

We've been studying mobile all year -- and are convinced that not only do we need to get library services in everyone's hot little hands :0) but also respect the choice users make on what they want to tote around with them, whether it's a smartphone, a tablet, or something in-between (or completely different).

The concept of choice looms large for me -- with so much movement in the device market, committing to one mobile platform or another, no matter how ultra-cool it is (are you listening, Apple?) sends the wrong message to users who love their choice of a different, equally ultra-cool platform like Android, RIM, and many more.  For instance, our ILS vendor had a great iPhone app, but nothing for other popular platforms. 

Choice also applies to another aspect -- I love Apps because they *limit* choice in a very powerful way.  With an App, it's (ideally) really clear what it does - very friendly to users of all levels of technological comfort. Just what you need, just when you need it!

We picked Boopsie for a couple of reasons -- first is that that they had the only App approach that we could find that runs cross-platform.  It is also fast, and since it's hosted it can offer a quick and customized search performance of the ILS.  Interestingly, though, Boopsie recently reported that most folks are not using the App to search for materials, but for other informational access.  We're looking forward to seeing how our patrons use the App and we can refine it as we go to serve them better.  What else?  We liked the way other implementations looked, and how they performed on our smattering of devices (including iPhone, iPad and Android).

After Boopsie is launched we will focus on mobile web development (remember the whole choice thing I was ranting about?).  To us, it's not one or the other.

There are a lot of great approaches out there for mobile -- LibraryThing's Library Anywhere is getting off the ground, and folks with development talent in-house are creating some great stuff in the browser realm.   We had to outsource - we have internal talent who would love to play with this field (and I think would do a great job) but our dance card is stacked with some big demands/projects in the coming year, and our users just won't wait.

Yikes! This response was much longer than I intended - I'm just fascinated by this topic.  Good luck!

Carson

Carson Block
IT Director
Poudre River Public Library District
201 Peterson St.
Fort Collins, CO 80524
ph: (970) 221-6662
fx: (970) 221-6398
http://www.poudrelibraries.org/


-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Antoinette Turner
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2010 2:40 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] Boopsie Anyone?

Hello,

I was wondering if any of you have used Boopsie to create mobile apps for your library.  If not, are you considering creating a mobile app for your library in the future?  If yes, what was your experience like with Boopsie?

Antoinette Turner
UT Southwestern Medical Library
antoinette.turner at utsouthwestern.edu

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