MOBILE LEARNING TOOL TUTORIAL: COUNTYCAT MOBILE SERVICES For my mobile learning tool tutorial, I focused on the CountyCat

mobile app and Shoutbomb text message notification service available to Milwaukee County library users. I was drawn to this topic after noticing that as Milwaukee Public library staff, weve often been passive in our approach to letting patrons know about our mobile services. For example, at my branch location, weve simply placed out small CountyCat mobile cards in front of the reference desk area which frequently are ignored. I saw a need to develop an instructional video tutorial that accomplishes two main learning objectives: to describe the steps to download or sign up for mobile features and to explain the advantages of using these features and how they can improve the users overall library experience. As stated by Pendell and Bowman (2012), mobile websites are swiftly becoming a new access point for library services and resources (p. 45), and I think its worthwhile to take the time to instruct library users on these new services. Moreover, statistics show that there is an increasing amount of mobile users. In citing the Pew Research Center, Pendell and Bowman mention that 52 percent of Americans aged 18-29 own smartphones while 42 percent of this population uses a smartphone as their primary online access point (p. 47). This statistic demonstrates the importance of highlighting mobile library services to both our current users and potential new users alike. In designing my tutorial, I decided to emphasize the catalog services of CountyCat Mobile, as this is one of the primary functions of the app. According to librarian Samuel Liston (2009) who wrote about library catalogs and what he calls the mobile revolution, the most essential catalog functions for patrons are to find out 1) if the library owns the book in question, [and] 2) if the library has a copy currently available (p. 8). Furthermore, according to a Library Journal survey taken in January 2012, the top expectation of mobile app library users was to search the library catalog, as indicated by 60.2% of app-capable smartphone users (Rapp, p. 27).

MOBILE LEARNING TOOL TUTORIAL: COUNTYCAT MOBILE SERVICES Therefore, one of my top goals for the tutorial was to demonstrate a successful library catalog search, and to also show the viewers how to find info on locations and hours. As for the text messaging notification service, I wanted to stress that this service was not web-dependent, as not all mobile users have unlimited web content on their phones. While the text messaging service isnt quite as robust as the mobile app, it offers users great benefits such as the ability to find out if a hold item has arrived, if an item is overdue and/or needs renewing, and the ISBN book lookup service, among other services. As for practical uses of this tutorial, I could envision it being offered as a link on the CountyCat website (countycat.mcfls.org) in the section that describes mobile services. I also think that staff members could watch it as a part of their ongoing training so they feel more comfortable promoting the mobile services to patrons. In my own experience, I have found that face-to-face referrals to patrons on library services tend to work better than simply passively promoting an item in the form of signs or flyers. I would love to see more library staff mentioning this service to any smartphone user that they encounter, and I think its necessary that they first feel comfortable with the features themselves. Finally, as for assessing the tutorial, I think that it would be helpful to receive patron feedback in the form of a short survey that asks for descriptive comments from the users, and also poses quantifiable questions on whether the user has downloaded and/or signed up for these mobile services. In doing this, I would hope to gain useful data that would demonstrate what could be improved about the video while also receiving some hard numbers regarding whether the video assisted users in the process of accessing these mobile services. https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/pamason/public/relay/CountyCat_Mobile_-_Flash_(Large)__20131105_03.52.22PM.html

MOBILE LEARNING TOOL TUTORIAL: COUNTYCAT MOBILE SERVICES Reference List Liston, S. (2009). OPACs and the Mobile Revolution. (Cover story). Computers In Libraries, 29(5), 6-47. Pendell, K. D., & Bowman, M. S. (2012). Usability Study of a Library's Mobile Website: An Example from Portland State University. Information Technology & Libraries, 31(2), 4562. Rapp, D. (2012). Apps: What Do Patrons Want?. Library Journal, 137(2), 27.