Librarians writing app reviews
I’ve got an article in American Libraries encouraging librarians to write app reviews. Take a look at Writing App Reviews and learn why librarians are a great fit for becoming app experts for their community.
Why everyone who evaluates mobile apps should read Apple’s iOS Human Interface Guidelines
In my online course, Apps for Librarians and Educators, one of the assignments is to read some of Apple’s iOS Human Interface Guidelines.
These guidelines are for app developers, but it’s also very useful and eye-opening for app users to become familiar with them — especially if you are an information professional or educator who helps others with mobile apps and writes reviews of them.
These are the sections I ask my students to read: (more…)
Getting over your resistance to using a password manager
Do you still use the same password on multiple sites? Or perhaps you keep a list of all your passwords on paper, or in a file on your computer?
If so, I’d like to suggest that it’s time to finally give a password manager a try. No system is completely foolproof, but using an app like 1Password is much more secure than re-using passwords you can remember. If a site gets hacked and you’ve used the same password that you use on other sites, it’s very likely that your password will be tried everywhere — on sites that you care about, such as bank accounts, shopping sites, and more.
Here are some reasons to use it: (more…)
Organize your life with mobile apps: online course
I’m in the midst of creating a new online course called Organize Your Life with Mobile Apps. If you’ve ever lost important information or forgot to bring it with you, this will help.
Have you been too busy to find and set up the best apps for organizing your life?
I’ve met many people who tell me they are too busy to set up and use any new apps. They use email, web browsers, Facebook, and a few games on their iPhone or Android smartphone — but not productivity apps. If this sounds like you, this course will help. (more…)
Available now: Selecting and Evaluating the Best Mobile Apps for Library Services
My latest book, Selecting and Evaluating the Best Mobile Apps for Library Services, is now available from ALA TechSource as one of their Library Technology Reports (vol. 50, no. 8)
Last summer ALA approached me about writing this for their series.
Instead of being a guidebook to over 100 of the best apps like my other book, Apps for Librarians: Using the Best Mobile Technology to Educate and Engage, this one focuses on what you need to know to evaluate mobile apps for educational use.
It includes:
- An overview of app literacy: mobile operating systems, mobile ecosystems, core apps, natural user interfaces, device capabilities, accessibility, and jailbreaking.
- A detailed app evaluation checklist that supplements traditional review criteria for print resources.
- Review sources for keeping up with the newest apps.
- Summaries of iOS features that support accessibility.
- Ideas for library instruction and event-programming with apps.
You can purchase it here.
Want a sample? The publisher offers a free copy of the first chapter (see PDF download link).
See my other titles on the books page of my site.