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Smart phone apps librarians might want to know about

By Wynne Nafus Sayer, Information Officer/ Webmaster

I just got an Android phone and I’m in love. This is my first smart phone, and aside from installing my social networking apps (Facebook and Twitter), my shopping tools (Woot and the Barcode Scanner), and the endless world of games, I thought I’d peruse the massive market on anything relating to books and libraries.

So, let’s look at ebook readers
Most ebook readers will have customizable font, font size and color schemes. You just need to shop around and see what fits you best. How many books are available for that particular reader? Does it bookmark or remember where you last left off in a book?

A couple friends of mine love their Kindle Reading Apps. It does look pretty nice — has a sepia color scheme available, so that’s GOT to be easy on the eyes.

However, the one I chose was the Borders eReader App. The first book I downloaded was Bram Stoker’s Dracula (free) — hey, why not go for an original vamp novel? But the first ebook purchase was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I chose this one because the paper copy also has photos interspersed throughout the book and I wanted to see how that would come across in ebook format. I was pleasantly pleased. The other feature that I like is the fact that with my Borders membership, I can simply go online with my computer, purchase a book and it seamlessly appears on my phone, and vice versa. There are no download limits and “my” books are always there on my bookshelf.

But what other apps are out there?
Most of the following applications are listed as free. However they may either have components that have a price (such as purchasing a book) or have an upgrade available to a “paid” application, which usually means no ads and more features.

Aldiko Book Reader: Read and download thousands of books right on your Android Phone, browse, import your own epub books, customizable reading (font type/color/margin) bookmarks, search.

Audiobooks Traveling Classics: Listen to over 2,800 classic audiobooks totally free; stream or download books.

Book Catalogue: A simple book catalogue application to store a list of your books. Books can be added either manually, by ISBN, or by barcode.

Dewey: A simple reference tool for the Dewey Decimal System and easy to use off-line app.

MyBookDroid: An Android application for book lovers; enables you to maintain a virtual bookshelf by manually entering titles, ISBN numbers, or use with your Barcode Scanner. Now, if the mobile sites for Shelfari or LibraryThing worked like this…

WorldCat Mobile: Search for books, music, movies, games and more available at libraries.

How do you know which app to download?
Here are two review sites to start with: Android Apps (obviously, for android users) and appolicious (for Apple product users).

But when in doubt, do a simple Internet search for that particular app. Read the reviews that people post, but take most of those with a grain of salt. Look for comments that directly refer to your phone. I also tend to look at the creators of the app. For example, if a Yahoo! Mail application was actually created by any party other than Yahoo!, I’m more cautious in downloading it.

For this list, I tried to pick out applications that had good ratings, positive comments and a high-number of downloads.

But what if I don’t want a smart phone?
Another friend of mine recently bought an iTouch (an iPhone but without the phone). Her goal was to get into ebooks because she wanted to conserve her shelf space, didn’t want to pay for a smart phone, felt that the Nook and the Kindle were too big for what she wanted, and she wanted the option of color so that she could download some children’s books. I advised her to consider the iTouch because it seemed to fit her needs, plus it has so much more. So far, she's ecstatic. In fact, if I hadn’t purchased my smart phone, this was the route I was considering.

More resources in the news

The Librarian's Crystal Ball
Futures Thinking For Academic Librarians: Higher Education in 2025 with comments and a link to the new ACRL study

How secure are your passwords?
Put your passwords to the test at this site. Will it take five hours or 252 years to crack your password?

Manuals Online
Locate hard-to-find user manuals for all of those gadgets you rely on. Also pairs self-help and product information with a community of product owners.

electronic resources, ebooks, health, internet, smart phone, technology, trends, websites

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