Tag Archives: Mobile Apps

Tech Sharecase, 22 May 2015

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Stephen Francoeur

Today was nearly an all-Google discussion.

Google Cardboard

Today we had two fully assembled virtual reality kits to use to try out various Google Cardboard apps. We found the images weren’t always in stereo and the kits themselves a bit flimsy. Some of the apps we tried out:

We also found some libraries that have purchased Google Cardboard headsets for various purposes:

Google Photospheres

The Google Camera app does a nice job of making photospheres:

Google+ Page for the Library

We took a look at the Google+ page for the library and the reviews that visitors have left.

Google Tone

We learned about a new experimental extension for the Google Chrome browser called Google Tone that lets you share a URL in your browser with nearby computers using an audible tone broadcast from your computer’s speaker.

Digital Measures

We talked about the strengths and weaknesses of Digital Measures.

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Tech Sharecase – 13 September 2013

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Stephen Francoeur

Today’s event featured a wide-ranging discussion of mobile apps that students and faculty might want to use (if they’re not already) to help them with saving, reading, annotating, and sharing documents. We talked about the following apps:

Evernote

  • free vs. premium ($45/yr)
  • sharing notebooks or individual notes
  • notes can have files as attachments (PDFs, Word, Excel, etc.)
  • make audio notes
  • text in images you add will be OCRed if you have the premium version
  • add a note by emailing it (Evernote gives you a special email address for that)
  • add the clipper bookmarklet to your browser to easily add text on a web page to the body of a note

FastEver

  • works with your Evernote account
  • offers speedier and simplified interface to add new notes to Evernote

PlainText

  • simplified note taking app
  • notes can be backed up in your Dropbox account

Dropbox

  • free vs. paid accounts
  • useful for storing  files but doesn’t have as many ways to organize at Evernote
  • sharing files or folders with others
  • integrated into lots of other apps

Kindle

  • can use for reading PDFs
  • send files to your account via unique Kindle email address you’re assigned
  • saves your highlighting and annotations (but these can’t be exported or printed)

CloudReaders

  • another app for reading and organzing PDFs
  • can also handle video files (MOV, 3GP, etc.)

iAnnotate

  • rich set of tools for reading and marking up PDFs
  • connect to your Dropbox account for file storage

CamScanner

  • use your phone’s camera to make scans of documents that are saved as PDFs
  • saved PDFs can be annotated, shared, and OCRed

Zandy

  • View and edit your collection of saved references in Zotero

GoodReader

  • PDF reader

Google Drive

  • file storage and editing
  • our library scanners are set up so that students can send scanned documents to their Google Drive accounts (they can check to see if the transmission of the document from scanner to their account by logging into the Google Drive app if they have it installed on their phone)
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Tech Sharecase, 24 May 2013

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Stephen Francoeur

BrowZine

We looked at the demo video for BrowZine, an iPad/iPhone app that lets you browse the table of contents for journals your library has full text access to (more details at vendor website). We looked at the app that had already been installed on an iPad and configured to connect to Baruch’s journal collections. We talked about the increase use of iPads by faculty, the lack of an Android app for BrowZine, and, if we do get a subscription to the service, that it would be nice to load this app on the iPads the library lends.

Harvard Business Review and EBSCO

We talked a bit about the new additional limitations that Harvard Business Review is placing on its content in EBSCO.

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3D Maps of National University of Singapore Libraries

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Stephen Francoeur

The libraries at the National University of Singapore have an interesting web app and iOS app that offer an interactive and immersive 3D view of the floors of the library. Navigation via mouse on the web app or the touchscreen on an iPad or iPhone is a bit awkward, but this is really notable effort all the same.

Web app screenshot

NUS Libraries web app

 

iPad app screenshot

NUS Libraries iPad app

h/t Aaron Tay

 

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Mobile Apps for Information Professionals

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Ryan Phillips

A recent article from the Business Information Review features mobile applications of interest to information professionals and researchers. Many of the apps mentioned are being used by librarians here, but there are few that were new to me.

Hoovers has two apps providing access to basic Hoover’s company information. They can be found here: http://www.hoovers.com/marketing/100003463-1.html The Hoover’s apps are only available for iPhones so as an Android user I can’t vouch for the content of these applications.

Also highlighted in the article is the federal government’s application portal: Apps.usa.gov. This great resource currently provides access to 250+ applications from many government offices, agencies, etc., covering a wide range of information topics.

Read more:

Brown, Scott. “Mobile Apps: Which Ones Really Matter to the Information Professional?” 29.4 (2012): 231–237. http://bir.sagepub.com/content/29/4/231 

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