Bridging the Gap with Boopsie: How a Mobile App Can Help Keep yourStudents Connected

Kathleen Baril, Ohio Northern UniversityJennifer Donley, Ohio Northern UniversityBrent Etzel, Cedarville University

Cedarville University and Ohio Northern University

Cedarville:• 3,386 students.• College of Arts and Sciences, College of Professions (includes Business and

Engineering), College of Health Professions (includes Pharmacy and Nursing).• Library app in use beginning March 2011.

Ohio Northern University:• 3,577 students.• College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business Administration, Engineering

College, Pharmacy College and Law School (has its own library). • Library app in use beginning May 2011.

Why create an app?• Some 88% of U.S. adults own a cell phone of some kind

as of April 2012, and more than half of these cell owners (55%) use their phone to go online.

• 17% of cell phone owners do most of their online browsing on their phone, rather than a computer or other device.

• Nearly half of all 18-29 year olds (45%) who use the internet on their cell phones do most of their online browsing on their mobile device.

Smith, Aaron. “Cell Internet Use 2012.”Pew Internet and American Life Project. Pew Research Center, 26 Jun 2012. Web. 16 Aug 2012.

Apps are another way to provide information

Recipes News Weather

So why not just design a mobile version of the website?

• “When a library looks at its mobile strategy, it doesn’t take long to realize that mobile apps are everywhere.” --Rapp, David. (2012, February 7). Apps: What Do Patrons Want? The Digital Shift, Retrieved from http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/02/mobile/the-state-of-mobile-in-libraries-2012/

• “Apps get good visibility with consumers because they are distributed through the phone manufacturer’s app store.” --Hird, Jake. (2011, July 28). The fight gets technical: mobile apps vs. mobile sites. Econsultancy, Retrieved from http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7832-the-fight-gets-technical-mobile-apps-vs-mobile-sites

• Apps are cool. Simply posting a QR code for the app around the library notifies the students that we have a library product to offer them.

Library Apps:Design the app yourself

vs. using an outside vendor

• With limited personnel, we felt more comfortable using a vendor to develop and maintain our app.

• Time costs money as well, so developing our own app would have taken time away from other projects.

• When we looked at existing apps, we saw that most were developed by Boopsie.

Cedarville – Usability Study

• Goal: determine features before app design• Interface usability survey conducted in December 2010• 10 students, 2 faculty/staff asked to rank usefulness of various features:

• Catalog•Library Information•My library account•Ask a Librarian•Hours•Other

Cedarville – Usability Study• Respondents asked to rank options (1-6) in order of

what they would most likely use:• Library catalog (1.58 mean score)• My library account (2.42)• Ask A Librarian (3.17)• Library information (3.50)• Library hours (3.58)

• “Other” options submitted included:• Search databases• Media resources information• Interlibrary loan request form

Cedarville – Marketing Plan

• Promotions begin in February 2011.• Banner ad for library website/university website.• Balloons, table signs, five-foot poster in library.• Advertisement at university chapels.• Announcements via e-mail, Facebook, and library e-

newsletter.• Launch on March 14, 2011.

Cedarville – Marketing Plan

Cedarville: CULib2Go AppFeatures:• Search the Catalog• My account• Library information• Ask a Librarian• Research Tools• Facebook

Cedarville: CULib2Go App

Search the catalog My Account Library Information

Cedarville: CULib2Go App

Ask a Librarian Research Tools

Cedarville: CULib2Go App

• 100-140 Users per month• 2000-4300 queries per month• Most popular features: CU catalog, My Account,

Research Tools• Least popular features: Facebook link, “Ask a

Librarian”• Usage stats aiding in a revision of the app

ONU – App Development• An in-house product was considered, but it was decided that

this would be too time intensive to develop and update.• In 2010, our library looked for developers who were able to

create an app that included library information, hours, the catalog, and research databases. Boopsie was able to provide all of these features for us.

• Next, we decided on the specific menu items to include.• We then supplied the graphics for the icons and the data for

our library.• Our library also supplied the initial output of the catalog

records.• Updates are now done through Google Docs and periodic

FTPing of all the records from the library catalog.

ONU – Marketing Our App

We designed frisbees with the app’s information and handed them out at the school’s Welcome Fest.

Brochures with app information and a QR Code.

Icon from the library’s website

that also appeared on the school’s

main page.

ONU – Qualitative Study• Solicited participants using the undergraduate

listserv and offered a gift card as incentive. • Interviewed 10 students ranging from freshman to

seniors, and representing four different colleges.• Mobile usage and library usage data gathered for

background at the beginning of the interview.• Students then completed five tasks using the mobile

app on the library’s iPad.• Afterward, qualitative feedback was gathered from

the students about their experience using the app.

ONU – Qualitative Study

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Droid In

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HTC Rhyme (Dro

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IphoneIpad

Ipod Nook

Samsung Reality

Sprint In

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1 1 1

3

2

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Mobile Devices Used

ONU - Qualitative StudyCommunication and Gaming Apps most popular.

ONU – Qualitative Study

Have you used the library’s mobile app? Did you know it existed before you saw our email?

ONU – Qualitative Study

Five tasks to complete using the app.

• Find the library’s hours.• Find someone to contact about research help.• Find a book in the library catalog.• Find an article on plagiarism using the database

Academic Search Complete• Find a research guide that would help you if writing

a paper on education.

ONU – Find Library’s Hours

ONU – Ask a Reference Question

Some confusion between using Ask a Librarian

and Contacts.

ONU – Using the library catalog

Some confusion due to the layout. Everyone wanted to enter text where it says “Enter”, instead of in the white box, and this is a Boopsie layout feature.

ONU – Databases

ONU – Databases

ONU – DatabasesGoes to the device’s web browser, EBSCOnet

mobile, and away from the mobile app.

ONU – Research Guides

ONU – What would you use the app for?

Check hours; 3

Check Library

account; 2

Databases/Periodical articles, 2

Look up contact in-formation, 1Renew books; 2

Research paper or report; 1

Search li-brary cata-log/ check availability of materi-

als; 6

ONU – Library Website

Catalog

Databases

OhioLINK

Hours

New acquisitions list

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Links used most often on library website, based on surveyed student responses.

Advantages of library appEasy to use and no major difficulties for first time users.Convenient, since you take your phone with you everywhere, but not necessarily your laptop.Faster to use than library website because of simplicity and directness.

Drawbacks of the library app

Hard to do in-depth research on a small screen.Back button became Holdings when searching in the Library Catalog. Home button unclear for navigation.

Statistics AnalysisLibrary App Users (by month)

Aug-11 Sep-11 Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-120

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

CedarvilleOhio Northern

Statistics AnalysisLibrary App Queries (by month)

Aug-11 Sep-11 Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-120

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

CedarvilleOhio Northern

Where do we go from here?

Cedarville University’s Mobile App ONU’s Mobile Website ONU’s Mobile App

Questions?