WA State Library puts a librarian in your pocket!

I was skimming the news this morning and this article popped out at me from August 5th. I think this is a great example of how librarians are embracing change and adapting their services to client demands to stay relevant.

"The Washington State Library today launched new mobile apps for its existing Ask-WA online reference service -- giving iPhone and Android users the ability to ask questions of actual research librarians, in real time, 24 hours a day from their phones. Having just downloaded and tried the app, we can verify that it works."

I love this idea and it definitely elevates the significance of a reference librarian since there is no automated system (as far as I am aware) that can accurately answer these types of questions.

The full article is available at: App puts librarian in your pocket

Is anyone in SLA looking to provide any type of smart phone applicatioN?  Let us know!

Comments

[Ahniwa Ferrari]

Thanks for the mention! I coordinate Ask-WA, and I'm definitely excited to push our reference services out to our users in ways that are useful to them. I think apps are one way to do that, but I'm always looking for other ideas too.

Thanks, again, and feel free to get in touch if you want any more info about the service, or the apps.

Cheers,

Ahniwa