by Nicole Hennig | Dec 26, 2014
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.
by Nicole Hennig | Nov 16, 2014
Touch Press makes several wonderful interactive book apps. One of my favorites is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Here’s a demo video I made about the app.
by Nicole Hennig | Sep 29, 2014
Photo by Flickr user “janitors.”
How many times have you heard people say, “I’m a Mac person,” or “I’m a Windows person?” That’s pretty common with desktop computing. We’ve all experienced the pain of switching platforms — certain programs only work on one or the other, conversions sometimes get messed up, and all those tasks you’ve learned to do automatically become hard when you first switch from Windows to Mac or vice-versa.
Well the good news is that it’s getting easier in the mobile world. (more…)
by Nicole Hennig | Sep 23, 2014
When I was head of user experience at the MIT Libraries, my team and I interviewed undergrad and graduate students about their academic workflows as part of a study of how new technologies were changing how students did their work. One of the problems we heard about often was something I’d like to call “fragmentation frustration.”
With notes in so many formats (handwritten, typewritten, photos, scraps of paper, printed PDFs with notes scribbled on them), students were finding it difficult to keep track of everything and later find something they knew they had. (more…)
by Nicole Hennig | Sep 9, 2014
Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know that my book: Apps for Librarians – Using the Best Mobile Technology to Educate, Create, and Engage is going to be available next week.
Libraries Unlimited has set the publication date at September 14.
It will be available in paperback for $45, and there will also be an ebook version (I don’t know the price and release date for that yet).
If you have any doubts about the importance of app-literacy for librarians, see my post, “Why the move to mobile is an opportunity for librarians.”
Please help spread the word. Thanks!
by Nicole Hennig | Sep 2, 2014
Apple’s iOS has many
useful accessibility features.
(Image by meadowsaffron on Flickr).
When I think of an iPad or iPhone, with its totally smooth screen and beautiful visuals, it’s hard to imagine it working well for a blind person. That’s what I thought until I came across this story:
How the Blind Are Reinventing the iPhone.
It tells the story of using the built-in VoiceOver feature of iOS (it’s a screen-reader), along with an app called Sendero GPS Lookaround for finding your way around town. Apps like these are being created by the blind, for the blind, and improving their lives in interesting ways.
From the article:
“For its fans and advocates in the visually-impaired community, the iPhone has turned out to be one of the most revolutionary developments since the invention of Braille. That the iPhone and its world of apps have transformed the lives of its visually impaired users may seem counter-intuitive — but their impact is striking.”
(more…)
