Archive for the ‘library anywhere’ Category

Monday, March 26th, 2012

Custom Branded Library Apps

Branded apps are now available from Library Anywhere: get the power of Library Anywhere along with custom colors and branded apps downloadable under your library’s name in the app stores!

Branded apps have the same base functionality as Library Anywhere (including catalog integration, account functions, OverDrive integration, a custom homepage, and barcode scanning). But they’re also a complete white label solution—the app is yours alone, with no references to Library Anywhere or other libraries. Branded apps give you the ability to set a custom background color, have a custom app icon, a custom app launching screen—and most importantly, they are downloadable under your library’s name in the Apple and Android app stores.

Check out Tulare County’s iPhone app, now available on iTunes (and soon available on Android phones as well).

Learn more
Contact us for more information or to upgrade your existing Library Anywhere to a branded app.

Email me (abby@librarything.com) with any questions about this or any of the LibraryThing for Libraries OPAC enhancements. To subscribe, contact Peder Christensen at Bowker—toll-free at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

To learn more about the ways in which LibraryThing for Libraries products can enhance your catalog, sign up for a webinar. Webinars are held each Tuesday at either 10am or 2pm Eastern.

Labels: app, branded apps, library anywhere, ltfl

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

LibraryThing at Computers in Libraries

Tim and I are headed to DC this week for Computers in Libraries. We’ll be at booth #323, so stop by!

We’ll be showing off our new custom branded Library Anywhere mobile apps, our newest addition to the LTFL enhancements, Stack Map, AND a sneak peek at a brand new feature, BookPsychic.

Stop by to see any and everything!

Also remember, we do webinars every Tuesday to show off both Library Anywhere and all the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements for your library catalog (tags, similar books, other editions, series, awards, shelf browse, reviews, and Lexile measures)! Click here to register. On the Browse Meetings page, search for LibraryThing to see a listing of all upcoming webinars.

Labels: BookPsychic, branded apps, CIL, CIL2012, library anywhere, librarything for libraries, ltfl

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

At PLA in Philly, sneak peek at new features!

In Philadelphia for PLA? Stop by the LibraryThing booth! Kate and Tim are camped at booth number 2312

We have some new improvements and features for both Library Anywhere and LibraryThing for Libraries to show off.

SNEAK PEEK at BookPsychic
BookPsychic is personalized recommendations for your patrons. The more they rate, the better their recommendations become! The more they discover, the more your collection circulates. BookPsychic will be available early Q2 2012.

Click image above to view PDF handout

New for Library Anywhere: Branded apps
Get the power of Library Anywhere along with custom colors and branded apps downloadable under your library’s name in the app stores! Branded apps are a complete white label mobile solution—the app is yours alone, with no references to Library Anywhere or other libraries. Branded apps are available now—contact us for more information or to upgrade your existing Library Anywhere to a branded app!

Click image above to view PDF handout

Read about Library Anywhere and the rest of our LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements, including our newest addition—Stack Map, on the Library Thing for Libraries homepage.

Stop by the booth at PLA to learn more, or email me (abby@librarything.com) at any time!

Learn more
Email me (abby@librarything.com) with any questions about this any of the LibraryThing for Libraries OPAC enhancements, or our mobile product, Library Anywhere! To subscribe, contact Peder Christensen at Bowker—toll-free at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

Labels: app, BookPsychic, branded apps, library anywhere, librarything for libraries, ltfl, PLA, PLA12

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

One-Click Access to OverDrive in Library Anywhere

We’re pleased to announce that Library Anywhere, our mobile product, now has one-click access to OverDrive!

  • You can add a search OverDrive button to your Library Anywhere homepage. This doesn’t take you out to OverDrive mobile as a regular external link would, but runs the search within Library Anywhere—giving you search results and book detail pages.

It will pass you into OverDrive when you reach the point where you need to enter your account information to download the book, request it, etc.

  • You can also include a “do this search on OverDrive” link on the catalog’s search results page in Library Anywhere—so if you search “the help” in your regular catalog in Library Anywhere, it will ask you if you want to try that same search on OverDrive.
The screenshots above show:
1. Searching “the help” on Portland Public Library’s regular catalog. See the button that suggests preforming the search on OverDrive?
2. The same search done on the OverDrive catalog. Note that the search summary screen tells you which formats are available and number of available copies.
3. The full page for The Help in OverDrive, with links to place a hold, etc.

Want to see it live? Try a search on one of the following Library Anywhere libraries:

The goal is to tie the OverDrive catalog together with the regular OPAC in a more seamless way. This is a FREE upgrade, available to any Library Anywhere subscriber. As is always the case, any eBooks that already have records in your regular catalog already have working links out to the digital content—this is an addition to that.

If you’re interested in adding OverDrive to your existing Library Anywhere subscription, just email abby@librarything.com


About Library Anywhere
Library Anywhere is the mobile catalog and homepage for over 200 libraries and library systems worldwide. Browse for libraries using Library Anywhere by simply clicking the … menu within Library Anywhere and choose “Select a Library”. Read more about Library Anywhere here.

To order Library Anywhere, or get a free trial, call 877 340-2400, or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com. You can also email questions to Abby@librarything.com.

Learn more: Attend a webinar
We do weekly webinars to show off both Library Anywhere and all the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements for your library catalog (tags, similar books, other editions, series, awards, shelf browse, reviews, and Lexile measures)!

Webinars are scheduled for every Tuesday at either 10am or 2pm EST. Sign up for one today and I’ll tell you everything you ever wanted to know, and more, I promise. Click here to register. On the Browse Meetings page, search for LibraryThing to see a listing of all upcoming webinars.

Labels: ebooks, library anywhere, OverDrive

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

200 Libraries on Library Anywhere

iPhone version

We’re pleased to announce that in the year since we launched, over 200 libraries now use Library Anywhere as their mobile catalog and homepage. Library Anywhere takes an existing OPAC and makes it mobile—you can also create a custom homepage with Library Anywhere (add hours, events, contact info and more)—making it your entire mobile library website.

Library Anywhere is flexible, and works with a wide variety of systems—which means we’re used by a wide range of libraries—from small public libraries and school libraries to large universities and huge consortia of public libraries. A few examples (of many):

New Features
We’ve released a number of pretty substantial updates recently—version 1.4 of Library Anywhere is now live in the iTunes app store, and in the Android market. Some of the new features include:

Barcode scanning
Our new barcode scanning feature is available in both the iPhone (and iPad, iPod Touch, etc.) and Android apps. It lets you quickly scan the ISBN on a book and see if your library has a copy. Read the more about barcode scanning here.

Multilingual capability
Library Anywhere now includes the ability for any library to translate or edit any of the strings of English text into whatever language they like.

Libraries can also choose to have multiple languages and link between them—one in Spanish, one in English, for example. Read more about multilingual support in Library Anywhere here.

Built-in web browser
The Version 1.3 update of Library Anywhere added a built-in web browser. This means that when you click external links in Library Anywhere (that go to ebook records, mobile databases, etc.), they no longer completely leave Library Anywhere, but launch a browser within Library Anywhere. That makes it simple to just close and go back to the page you were on before.

Saved Searches/Booklists
We’ve added the ability to include booklists on your Library Anywhere homepage.

If you can make booklists in your OPAC (new items, staff picks, etc.) then you can feed those same lists into Library Anywhere. Just choose the ‘action’ type Direct catalog URL, and put the URL to the OPAC list in there, as in the image below:

Screen rotation
We’ve enabled screen rotation for iOS, so when you’re on your iPhone or iPad, you can now move your phone to switch between portrait and landscape mode.

Incredible statistics
We recently added a comprehensive statistics section to Library Anywhere, keeping track of traffic, users, native app vs. mobile web use, and more. Read more in this blog post, which also includes a screencast.

More coming
We have a number of additional updates coming down the pipeline, so stay tuned.


About Library Anywhere
Library Anywhere is the mobile catalog and homepage for over 200 libraries and library systems worldwide. See all the libraries using Library Anywhere by simply clicking the … menu within Library Anywhere and choose “Select a Library”. Read more about Library Anywhere here.

To order Library Anywhere, or get a free trial, call 877 340-2400, or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com. You can also email questions to Abby@librarything.com.

Learn more: Attend a webinar
We do weekly webinars to show off both Library Anywhere and all the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements for your library catalog (tags, similar books, other editions, series, awards, shelf browse, reviews, and Lexile measures)!

Webinars are scheduled for every Tuesday afternoon at 2pm EST. Sign up for one today and I’ll tell you everything you ever wanted to know, and more, I promise.

Click here to register. On the WebEx registration page, under Attend a Meeting click “Browse Meetings” and then “Monthly” to register for scheduled webinars.

Labels: app, iphone app, library anywhere, librarything for libraries, mobile, mobile catalog, mobile web

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Barcode scanning in Library Anywhere

We’ve just added a great new feature to Library Anywhere—barcode scanning.

Our new barcode scanning feature is available in both the iPhone (and iPod Touch, iPad, other iOS products) and Android apps for Library Anywhere. It lets you quickly scan the ISBN on a book and see if your Library Anywhere library has a copy.

Search more than one edition
The Library Anywhere book scanner is unique in that it searches not just for the exact ISBN you give it, but for any other editions of that title that might be in the library. So you can scan a paperback book with the “now an HBO show!” cover, and Library Anywhere will find the hardcover edition of the same title, if that’s what the library has.

Extend your search
It also doesn’t limit you to just one library—if no editions of the book are found in the first library you search, it will then give you a prompt to do the exact same search in other Library Anywhere libraries near you, or find the book at an online bookstore.

Scan QR codes
The barcode scanner also can scan QR codes, so libraries using our QR code feature (more about QR codes and Library Anywhere) can scan a code in their OPAC to bring up the record in Library Anywhere.

Available for every library
This isn’t an “optimum package” feature. Libraries don’t pay more to turn it on. We don’t play like that.

About Library Anywhere
Library Anywhere is the mobile catalog and homepage for almost 200 libraries and library systems worldwide. See all the libraries using Library Anywhere by simply clicking the … menu within Library Anywhere and choose “Select a Library.” Read more about Library Anywhere here.

To order Library Anywhere, or get a free trial, call 877 340-2400, or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com. You can also email questions to Abby@librarything.com.

Labels: barcode scanning, library anywhere, mobile, mobile catalog, mobile web, QR code, scanning

Friday, October 28th, 2011

Library Anywhere goes Multilingual

Library Anywhere now includes the ability for any library to translate or edit any of the English text into whatever language they like.

Libraries can even choose to have multiple languages and link between them—one in Spanish and another in English, for example.

You can also use this for simple fixes, like changing the default text in the Search box from “Search” to “Search catalog” or even “Search catalogue”.

Directions on how to get started translating or editing your Library Anywhere are here.

Learn more
Email me (abby@librarything.com) with any questions about any Library Anywhere, or how to enable translation for your account. To subscribe, contact Peder Christensen at Bowker—toll-free at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

Labels: languages, library anywhere, mobile, mobile catalog, mobile web, translation

Friday, October 7th, 2011

New: Statistics for Library Anywhere

We’ve just added a comprehensive “Statistics” section for our revolutionary Mobile OPAC, Library Anywhere (web page, handout, screencast).

The goal is help libraries understand how Library Anywhere is being used. It shows you charts and tables of traffic, users, native app. vs. mobile web use, and the phones people are using.

Screenshots.

Screencast. I made a 4:30-second screencast about the new section here. You can also see it on YouTube.

Webinars. We hold webinars for people interested in Library Anywhere every Tuesday afternoon at 2pm Eastern US time. Sign up for one today and we’ll tell you everything you ever wanted to know.

To sign up for the next one, click to register. On the WebEx registration page, under Attend a Meeting click “Browse Meetings” and then “Monthly” to register for scheduled webinars.

Labels: library anywhere, mobile, mobile catalog, mobile web

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Library Anywhere screencast / LTFL weekly webinars

Screencast
I’ve just made a screencast of Library Anywhere, our mobile product for libraries. What it does, how it works, even a glimpse at the administrative backend! Click the image below to watch.

Webinars—LibraryThing for Libraries and Library Anywhere
We’ve also started doing weekly webinars to demo both Library Anywhere and all the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements for your library catalog (tags, similar books, other editions, series, awards, shelf browse, reviews, and Lexile measures)!

They’re scheduled for every Tuesday afternoon at 2pm EST. Sign up for one today and I’ll tell you everything you ever wanted to know, and more, I promise.

Click here to register. On the WebEx registration page, under Attend a Meeting click “Browse Meetings” and then “Monthly” to register for scheduled webinars.

Labels: library anywhere, librarything for libraries, screencasts, webinars

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

Series and Awards in Library Anywhere

We’ve recently integrated our newest LibraryThing for Libraries OPAC enhancement—Series and Awards—into Library Anywhere. This means that if your library is subscribing to Series and Awards and Library Anywhere, you’ll now see it not only in your web catalog, but also in Library Anywhere!

For example: scan this QR code with your phone to jump to the record for The Hunger Games in Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library’s Library Anywhere catalog.

Scroll down the page to find series and awards data. You’ll see on that bib page any awards the book has won, and any series it’s part of. Click the award or series title, and you’ll then see all the books belonging to it (as in the screenshots below).

Series and Awards join the other LTFL enhancements already integrated into Library Anywhere for LTFL subscribers—reviews, tags, similar books, and other editions.

Email me (abby@librarything.com) with any questions about any of the LibraryThing for Libraries OPAC enhancements, or Library Anywhere! To subscribe, contact Peder Christensen at Bowker—toll-free at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

Labels: awards, library anywhere, librarything for libraries, series