Location‐Aware Services and QR Codes for Libraries

Citation

Calvert, P. (2012), "Location‐Aware Services and QR Codes for Libraries", The Electronic Library, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 873-874. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471211282181

Users of web‐based services such as Foursquare, Facebook Places, or Gowalla will already be aware of what location‐aware social networking sites can do. For those that do, Murphy has given some great ideas on how to develop library services using this new technology. For those that do not, this book is a good place to learn more. The book guides the reader through the implementation process to the point that a library could use a location‐based application of its choosing to create new services for customers. This alone would make the book a worthwhile purchase for library managers, but the author then offers us more.

Murphy seems to bubble with ideas for using new location‐aware technology. Learning something from retail, where Foursquare and similar services are now part of the marketing campaigns of many restaurants, cafes and bars, he suggests ways that libraries can do something similar, though clearly there need to be different rewards on offer for the customers (and there is only so often that waiving overdue fines will work). One way in which location‐aware networking differs to many other technologies is the way it can inter‐operate with other Web‐based services. You do not just use Foursquare, the author would say, you use it with Facebook Deals, for example, adding a little complexity to how we use these types of networking tools.

This book does not only deal with location‐aware networking tools, but also with QR codes and with near‐field communications, and Murphy has more great ideas for making use of these technologies in libraries. QR codes are already part of the publicity materials of some libraries where you can see them on posters, brochures and the like, giving the opportunity for a one‐click jump to the organisation's preferred website. Murphy says that more can be done – adding them to e‐mail signatures, and posting them to other services such as Instagram, Flick'r and the like, creating multi‐directional links that will eventually bring people to your library. One issue that follows on from this would be that each and every networking tool used by the library (e.g. Instgram) will need its own marketing campaign.

In this small book you will also find ideas about using augmented reality (impressive when done well, but not a trivial exercise) and service such as Google Wallet that allow customers to make micro‐payments. Indeed, there is so much here that you will wish the book was longer, or that Murphy would write a few more books.