QR Codes

[Martha Buckbee]

We have used both bit.ly and goo.gl to generate our QR codes.  Both provide 
usage analytics which is helpful.  Both are solid tools that we expect to be here 
for the long term.

We primarily use bit.ly because we first create a shorten URL that we 
customize to include our acronym then create the QR code.  We provide both 
the shortened URL and the QR code to accommodate as many users as 
possible. 

We use these codes for bibliography handouts at major lectures, to direct users 
to additional online materials to expand exhibits and to get users to our online 
class signup form.

Martha Buckbee
Emerging Library Technologies Specialist
UT Southwestern Medical Center Library


On Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:24:00 -0700, Liz Hubert <liz_hubert at YAHOO.COM> 
wrote:

>I'm so gratified by all of the helpful answers to this question! I also consider 
myself a�QR code�evangelist. I could talk for ages about them (and have, 
I've spoken at several conferences) but I think there's two reasons they 
haven't taken off in the United States. The first, as someone else mentioned, is 
education. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen someone take a 
picture of a code with the camera on their phones. People just don't 
understand how it works. The second reason is that people who create the QR 
codes are often pointing their users to stuff online that does nothing at all to 
help their users. QR codes should take the user to something that is 
immediately relevant and useful, otherwise what's the point? My friend Leah 
talks about seeing a QR code on the menu at a restaurant. When she used the 
code, it took her to the online version of the menu. I think we've probably all 
seen something like this, and I think we can all agree that it's a waste of time. 
Our library is currently primarily using QR codes on shelf talkers. The shelf talker 
(on the shelf under, say, James Patterson) has a picture of the librarian who 
likes that author, a list of a few readalikes, and a link and QR code to an online 
booklist that has more readalikes.�

>At any rate, several of the first posters asked what the problems with the 
code generators were. There were two separate issues. With Kaywa, my codes 
all completely stopped working. When I used a reader on my phone (or other 
phones, we tried a number of them) I got a generic error message. I don't 
recall what the message was as it's been probably a year, but things seemed 
to be dead ending at Kaywa-they never made it as far as the URL at all. I 
switched over to�myqr.co�and haven't had a problem for at least six to eight 
months. Now we're having trouble signing in. When we can sign in, the creator 
can't seem to come up with a code about half the time. The codes are still 
working on my phone, but they're taking up to a minute to load, which is 
unacceptable. We are already in the process of redoing our shelf talkers and 
codes since we've just switched to Polaris and need to link everything to the 
new catalog, so this is a good time to switch from myqr.co.�

>I love the idea of using bitly for a QR code creator-for some reason, I had no 
idea that they also did QR codes. Has anyone used them? I would assume 
they're probably pretty reliable since bitly has been around a while.

>Thanks again to everyone for so much help!

============================

To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib

Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/

2012-04-17