23 Mobile Things - Thing #11 - Library and Reference

I wanted to take a look at a specific library's app for this thing.  None of the listed ones were in my region, so I chose the one from Buckham Memorial Library as I worked there in the past.  It was fun to take a look at what their app offered.  I obviously could not get into the parts that required a library card number to check on my account or request items.  The rest of the site had information I expected ... the same sorts of things that libraries make sure to put on their websites.  I was a little surprised that the events list didn't go further into the future with specific programs, but I know how challenging it can be to finalize all of those last details for summer programming. 

One cool feature that I didn't expect was their "BookLook" - which allows you to scan a barcode and see if that title is in the collection.  It will even let you suggest the title for purchase if they don't already own it.  I could visualize many of the patrons from my library using something like this as they wandered around Barnes and Noble to put in requests for items that look interesting. 

Overall, this was a great example of what an app can look like for a single library (rather than a group of connected libraries) - cheers to the Faribault crew for putting it together.

23 Mobile Things - Thing #10 - Sharing Photos

I decided to try Instagram for this thing ... mostly because I know more people who are using Instagram than Snapchat.  Considering all of the fuss I've heard about this app, I was prepared to be impressed.  However, I may have raised my expectations a bit too high because I found myself thinking "is that it?" when I was working with this app.  The filters and editing gadgets were interesting but not something I would really want to use on most of my photos.  It was easy to send a photo directly to another Instagram user, but many steps to send it to anyone who doesn't have an Instagram account.  Of the people I know who have Instagram accounts, most seem to be posting all of their photos directly to Facebook (so following their account gives you the same photos in two spots).  If I used my camera phone more, I might enjoy this app ... but generally, if I want a nice picture to share with someone, I'll reach for one of my cameras to take the shot and send it via email or Facebook.

Amelia waits for the next adoring patron

Here's a photo with some of the Instagram tricks applied that I took of our library's pet turtle.

23 Mobile Things - Thing #9 - Taking and Editing Photos

I enjoy photography, so I decided to try two of these apps that I didn't have any experience with.  The first was ColorSplurge.  I experimented with several of the photos that I had on my device; this is the one that I liked the best after I had finished ... I can see some fun ways to use this to make graphics for posters, etc at the library.  And, it was just fun to play with for personal use.

The second app I tried was Photo Editor by Aviary.  I had a lot of fun with this one as well - and, again, can see uses for it in the library to add some graphic pizzazz to our handouts.  However, when I tried to email one of the photos that I had played with, it took a lot of trial and error to make it actually send (had to go out and find it in my email app drafts folder).  So, great on the photos ... could be easier on the sharing (didn't try using the post to any of the social media listed).

23 Mobile Things - Thing #8 - Social Media Management Tools

I use both Facebook and Twitter on mobile devices.  Twitter is something that I don't check often.  Facebook is something that I use frequently on devices and my regular computer - both personally and to add to our library's page.  While the periodic updates don't bother me much on the computer, I find that they affect my use of mobile apps much more - if I don't like the update, I use that app less until the next "look" is released.

For this thing I decided to open a LinkedIn account.  I have gotten LinkedIn requests for a while, so I thought now would be a good time to try.  After some exploration and the addition of several people to my network, I can see where this would be a wonderful tool for certain industries.  The suggestion of tiered "who you may know" contacts is more accurate than Facebook's suggested friends.  I was also surprised that there were people suggested who I knew personally but had no connections with me yet through LinkedIn.  However, I am still unsure how much real use I will get out of this app ... generally, if I am looking (as part of work) for someone with expertise in a certain area, I use email or phone to contact people directly. 

23 Mobile Things - Thing #7 - Content Saving and Sharing

I have been avoiding Pinterest because it seemed like one of the electronic holes that you can fall down and look up to realize that you have spent the last four hours on the internet and really have nothing to show for the time.  However, I know many people who absolutely love it, so I decided to give it a try.

Some things that I like:

• being able to copy pins from other people
• you can categorize your boards however you like
• you can make some of your boards private (nice for those of us who work in public service)
• nice to save visuals of some things - especially things you might want to copy

Some things I don't like:

• needing a picture to pin an article (I know, it's a visual place but some of us are text people) - I tried to pin a news article with an accompanying YouTube video, and it wouldn't let me because there was not a header photo
• linking it to my Facebook account meant that I was automatically following a whole bunch of people - many of whom I didn't want to follow and I had to go through and take them off so I didn't see their pins
• what you see when it opens seems pretty random - I did realize that it was the most recent pins from people that I was following (see point above)
• didn't find a way to group boards or subdivide boards you had already started - maybe this is there and I haven't found it yet

Some things I found quirky:

• I think almost every account that I looked at had at least one board about food and many had one on travel possibilities
• some of the items I repinned from another user seemed to only have the photo and not an accompanying link (like photo of a recipe, but no link to the actual recipe).  It don't know if this was due to the original pin or the recipe being removed from a site or something I was doing wrong.

I will probably continue to use Pinterest, but I have mixed feelings about it.  I can see the usefulness of keeping an electronic version of a clippings file for ideas on future projects.  However, it makes me feel a little like I'm e-hoarding a whole bunch of information that I may never use ... what's the point and would my time be better spent just looking for ideas when I need them? I think I will stay away from categories like "inspiring quotes", "cute animals", and "beautiful photos" as a result.  Pinterest seems to be something that I would be more successful in using for work (for example, photos of the display another library did that we could try) rather than personally.  Which is interesting - because most people (at least those profiles I looked at) looked like they were using it personally not professionally.

23 Things - Thing #6 - Creating and Editing Documents

I am typing up the beginning of this post in Cloud On on my iPad.  Thus far, it seems to be working really well. I am having trouble adjusting to typing a large amount of text on my iPad, but that’s mostly lack of practice. One of things not mentioned in the 23Things site is that this app does seem to require you to have a cloud-based account to share your documents through. If you already have a Google account, this will not be a problem for you.

The top menu row seems to have all of the most-used commands from Microsoft Office. There is an option to print wirelessly if you have a compatible printer. Some of the commands do seem to require that you purchase the upgrade. This doesn’t seem to affect any sort of basic use – more of the stylistic features like WordArt. The upgrade commands are marked on the pull down menus.

I really like this app. I can see myself using it a lot to type up something basic when I think of it but am not near (or don’t want to turn on) a computer.

From here out, I composed the text on the computer. The basic text transferred beautifully into a new word document from the cloud.  I am actually very surprised that this program is available (even without some of the features) as a free app.  I have looked at reviews of products that could do this type of work before and many of them cost $10 (expensive for an app) or more.  I never purchased one because I was unsure how well they would work; now I'm glad that I waited because this is great!

23 Mobile Things - Thing #5 - Notetaking

I tried Dragon Dictation since it is based on a software program that my siblings and I have discussed purchasing for my parents.  Using the app was a mixed success.  I had expected that some words would not translate correctly from speech to writing; I was correct.  It was actually a bit funny to see some unexpected words pop up (obviously no context recognition software built in).  However, it was obvious that the developers only planned for this to be used in short bursts.  I tried reading in a fairly long list that I wanted in my “notes” app, and it would stop recording abruptly as the processing memory was full (about 4 lines worth of text).  Moving little bits over to the other apps where I wanted them was time-consuming.  Then, I tried going out of the app to check my email without doing anything with the text I had recorded from speech.  It had all disappeared when I returned to Dragon.  I guess that translates into record short bursts and move them immediately to any other app where you want them saved.  I can see some uses for this app, but it isn’t as flexible as I had hoped.  

And, based on the experiences with the app, I am guessing that the computer software version would be frustrating for my parents to use.  We were looking for something that might replace mouse and typing for them, but going back to edit misspoken words would probably be more frustrating for them than trying to type them from scratch.

23 Mobile Things - Thing #4 - Keeping Up

Zite sounded more interesting to me but when I read the reviews, I saw it had recently been purchased by Flipboard … so, I tried Flipboard.  I was surprised to find that I liked it … a lot!  I had a great time putting articles into files for later, and I think that this might be one of my new favorite time wasters.  I can see adding items in as I come across them (like those interesting shared articles my Facebook friends post) and then viewing them when I have a few minutes of down time will keep me busy (and feeling more productive) in the future.  Also, it was nice that their daily recommendations included a mix of topics; I also liked exploring some of the recommended magazines – both created by professionals and the mixes put together by other users.  I think that I may cut down on the number of Twitter accounts that I follow if they are also available with Flipboard - some of the Twitter accounts seem to mostly post links to articles and I would rather have them available in this sort of a format than on Twitter (where I only want to see a photo or a quick comment).

23 Mobile Things - Thing #3 - Utilities

I already had a QR reader and a WiFi finder app on my devices.  I use both occasionally.  I would caution people using WiFi finder (the same one listed in the 23 things site) to not rely totally on it for finding hotspots … of the 4 locations listed in downtown Ely, 2 have gone out of business (new businesses at each location – one still offers wifi but the other doesn’t), one (the library is located incorrectly on the map even though the address is correct, the last is correct.  I know of at least three more locations that offer WiFi in the area but are not listed with the app.

I tried the Google search app as something new.  I wasn’t very impressed.  You can use voice commands like Siri but the results take you through more steps.  A general google search is fine using this app but the other pieces of the app that I explored as easily accessible to me using other apps that I am more familiar with.  Perhaps if I used gmail as a primary email account rather than a secondary option, this app would be more useful to me.

23 Mobile Things - Thing #2 - Mobile Device Tips

I haven't posted on any of the 23 mobile things yet, but I've been adding the apps to my devices here and there over the last month or so.  As the program ending date draws closer, I realized that I need to start posting about some of the things that I have already completed.  I ended up going through this particular "thing" at least three times because I kept forgetting what I wanted to say about my experiences when I wrote up the blog post, so here it goes ...

This was a helpful thing – I finally took the time to learn about some things that my devices could do, but I hadn’t figured out to use.  The big surprise was when I learned to shut off open apps in my iPad – wow, didn’t realize that things stayed open pretty much until you turn them off.  I can only imagine how confusing that would be on a device like a laptop where you can see all of the windows, and I wonder how much battery loss those open apps might have been contributing to.

I finally learned a little about AirDrop – which I have now shut off on both of my Apple devices because I want to make battery power last as long as possible and that isn’t something that I think I will use much.  Another interesting, but unsuited for my daily needs, thing I explored was Siri.  I don’t use devices when I drive, so needing to look at the screen is not a hassle for me.  Plus, I must not enunciate clearly enough to suit the OS as I often had to repeat questions several times.  And, the immediate jump to the web when a question was not understood in the context I meant was very disconcerting.  I did find a few things that we easier to do with Siri – adding relationships in contacts was one – so I think I may use this on occasion if just to find out how to do things … Siri did give clear directions on how to do things using the device rather than my normal approach of trial and error.

The one simple thing that I learned to do (I knew it could be done but had never spent the time to figure out how) was how to set the music playlists on a timer.  A very useful way to track time, and, though simple, this might be the item I end up using the most from this thing.