Book Lovers in U.S. Getting More Savvy at Using Their Mobile Devices to Check Out Books from Their Local Library
Sunnyvale, CA (PRWEB) March 31, 2014 -- Boopsie’s BookLook Mobile™ allows library mobile app patrons to perform an ISBN search of any book to see if the item is available through their local library for free, using an embedded barcode scanner within their local library's free mobile app.
Using smartphones while shopping is steadily growing in popularity. Marketing Land and Survey Monkey performed a survey in late-2013 and found that 66% of respondents reported that they use their smartphones in stores, mostly to compare prices or to look for other offers or deals. The Google Shopper Marketing Council reported that while 90% of smartphone shoppers use their phone for pre-shopping activities (like finding locations, hours or price comparisons), only 84% actually use their phone to shop while actually in store.
Boopsie’s BookLook Mobile™ takes advantage of that trend to help drive library circulation. When library app users are out shopping, they can use their library app on their smartphone or tablet to scan a book’s barcode. Users simply select the BookLook channel of the app, which launches the camera feature on the device, and hold the device over the barcode. For devices that don’t have a camera, or the camera does not function well, users can also manually type in the barcode. Library App users will see the app utilize the scanned barcode to perform a search of their library’s catalog. The integration actually uses the ISBN (not the UPC/barcode) and compares it to information available in the WorldCat database; Boopsie's technology then uses that information to query the library’s catalog. After an item is successfully found, the patrons can easily place a hold on the book, right from the app. There is also an additional option to provide patrons with the ability to suggest-a-purchase at this point if the book is not available at their library.
“Boopsie's apps provide a great way for book shoppers to find the book they want in a store, and then have it waiting at their local library for free. And if the book is available electronically, all they have to do is download it directly to their mobile phone," says Boopsie CEO, Tony Medrano. “The process is as easy as taking a photo of a book’s barcode, and it one of the most highly used features in the thousands of apps we make for Libraries."
Recently Bryan Murray, Director of Account Management, hosted an informational webinar on BookLook Mobile for current library customers. The webinar, which is available to be viewed on our website, reviewed what BookLook Mobile is, how it works, current customer statistics and provided customers with a demo of how the integration works.
About Boopsie
Boopsie, Inc. was founded in Silicon Valley in 2006. We are the industry-leading mobile platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provider for over 2,500 library locations worldwide. Boopsie’s custom-branded native mobile apps for libraries are affordable, easy to deploy and maintain, and enable libraries of all types and sizes to quickly acquire new users and increase circulation. Boopsie’s library-branded mobile apps are fully hosted and maintained by our customer service organization. We build native mobile apps for libraries on Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8, Windows Mobile, Windows 8, Kindle Fire, and BlackBerry platforms. Boopsie enables 24/7 remote library access via the user’s device of choice. Visit our website for more information about Boopsie’s mobile apps for libraries.
Tony Medrano, Boopsie for Libraries, http://www.boopsie.com/, +1 650-241-3300, [email protected]
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