NextGen: Phones Are “Everyware”
By Woody Evans -- Library Journal, 7/15/2006
For such cute little info-toys, cell phones cause much hand-wringing in libraries these days. They ring so often, and often so loudly, I'm actually getting bored of 50 Cent's “In Da Club” ring tone. Worse, the din gets even louder when their users actually take calls.
To deal with this nuisance, many librarians have chosen to institute a simple ban. No cell phones in the library. At one time, it seemed like a no-brainer to ban these phones to keep our sanctuary of quiet study, well, quiet. But this gets tricky as “phones” have also become wee computers, day planners, notepads, and prosthetic brains. Ultimately, how do we draw a principled line between phones and computers?
The next question
Web browsers are now widely available on phones and increasingly inexpensive to use. Text messaging is already starting to rear its head as a way to bring reference service to Generation Y. It seems questionable to ban, say, a Blackberry, a device largely understood to be a sort of cell phone, but still allow a laptop. Is skyping or VoIP permissible because it's done on a big-old regular laptop computer?
All this is to say that it may be useful to reframe the question altogether. Perhaps it's simply better to hold the line at a loud-behavior-ban rather than try to decide which gizmos to veto. Instead of wrinkling our brows about how to control the rude noises and attitudes that orbit phone use, maybe librarians instead ought to focus on how to co-opt the phones for increased delivery of library services. It's important, because the march of technology is only picking up its pace.
The next wave
Cue Semacode—a nifty little application that attaches a URL to a sort of 2-D barcode. You can generate the barcodes on the Semacode site, print them out on sticky labels, and pop them onto any surface you like. The upshot: these barcodes are readable by the cameras on cell phones. Once loaded, they take the user to the designated URL. That means, for example, that library users can snag digital images of 2-D barcodes off printed labels stuck to shelving units, magazine racks, special events displays, and, yes, even books and go directly to rich online content, tailored to the specific needs of a class, club, or reading group. There's nothing extra to buy, just a free software download for the phone, because the cell phone's camera is the scanner.
Semacode is just one example of how the next generation of librarians can appropriate the rising tide of cell phones for use as a platform for content delivery. Imagine a patron cracking open a well-used volume of Emily Dickinson criticism to find a new scannable sticker on the inside cover that links her to relevant open access journal articles, a Dickinson wiki, a message board forum, a live chat feature, and librarian-selected Dickinson subject guides for authoritative online resources. Thanks to the applications on the phone, it's all in one place and it's all in the individual's hand.
Getting personal
Let's face facts—ubiquitous computing is on its way. From RFID to cell phones, from blogjects to spimes, the world of information management is about to get very personal. If librarians take their place on these cell phone devices right beside the likes of 50 Cent, Shakira, and Kenny Chesney, then we will have positioned ourselves as the essential guides to a world of increasingly confusing media content, ever at our patrons' sides, ever in our patrons' pockets. Right where we should want to be!
Embrace the future
Cell phones, or whatever they mutate into, won't be disappearing any time soon. And if we do this right, libraries will become more relevant by embracing this change and elbowing into this new medium. With our expertise, librarians will wow the youth and aged alike by tailoring services to fit seam-to-seam with this revolution. You can look to “Library ELF” for an example of how this will begin—patrons using text messaging for holds and overdue alerts.How much better it will be, then, to make cell phones and related tools work for the library, rather than making librarians rush around like the zealous shushers of yestercentury, trying to keep this new tool off of our turf. Let's shift this conversation. Though I suspect we'll be shushing our users for a long time to come, the conversation should not be about whether to outlaw cell phone devices but how best to put the library into and onto these phones. After all, banning the cell phone will one day seem as silly as trying to ban the laptop.
| Author Information |
| Woody Evans is Public Services Librarian, Tarrant County College, Forth Worth TX. To submit a NextGen column, please send it, at approximately 900 words, to Rebecca Miller at miller@reedbusiness.com |
