Duane Hicks
Have you ever found yourself wondering if the best-seller you were looking at in the bookstore also might be available at the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre?
How about that movie your friend recommended to you over coffee?
What if you could find out the answers to those questions ASAP? Well, there’s an app for that.
Owners of smartphones such as iPhone and Android now can download the BookMyne 3.0 application from your preferred app store for free and use it on-the-go to locate books, e-books, audio, video, and other materials available from the local library.
This week is Ontario Public Library Week, and library CEO Alicia Subnaik Kilgour said the new app perfectly fits the theme, “Libraries Connect.”
“This is one way for patrons to connect with the library on-the-go on their mobile device,” she noted.
SirsiDynix’s BookMyne 3.0 allows library users to instantly search the catalogue of the library, as well as those of participating libraries elsewhere, to find what they’re looking for.
Those with library accounts also can place a “hold” on materials so they can drop by the library and pick them up later, or be put on a waiting list for materials that currently are out (the library will notify you when it is available).
Subnaik Kilgour noted she was showing a patron how the app works last week when a movie she had been on a waiting list for was returned.
Librarian Bonnie Shute checked in the movie, and Subnaik Kilgour’s smartphone immediately notified her the movie was available.
“If you have a mobile device, it’s kind of nice,” she remarked. “In the BookMyne app, in the ‘My Account,’ you can actually see what you have on hold and when it comes up.
“It’s very convenient and it’s a way for patrons to stay connected online on-the-go with the library,” added Subnaik Kilgour.
She noted it can help people who are busy save time. For example, you might be out and about shopping in town, and then you get home and have a phone message waiting for you saying your book is in.
If you had the BookMyne app, you would have been notified on your mobile device that your book was ready for you at the library and be able to stop by and pick it up before you went all the way home.
BookMyne 3.0 also allows users to:
•use your mobile device to take a photo of a bar code on a book at a store or a friend’s house, and then check the availability of that title at the library here;
•get recommendations on books you might like according to categories, like Booker Prize and Pulitzer winners or CLA Young Adult Canadian Book Award nominees, and check to see if those titles are at the local library (recommendations also are available through social media sources, like Goodreads);
•check the New York Times best-seller list to see what’s hot, and check to see if the local library has those titles; and
•manage a virtual bookshelf for e-books.
The app also is a one-stop means to find out the library’s hours and, if you’re new to town, its location.
But those without smartphones, or who still prefer the personal touch, need not fear as local library staff will continue to help you face-to-face.
