Blog Feed: Mobile Reference in Libraries

Getting More Patron Usage from your Text a Librarian Service | Best Practices from Mosio’s Text a Librarian

Published on 2012-05-15 13:14:35

The video below is a recorded session discussing how we’re seeing libraries increase patron usage. Below is a transcript of the notes taken during the recording. > read more

Text Messaging for Libraries – Mosio’s Alerts and Announcements Feature Guide

Published on 2012-05-11 14:58:58

Text Messaging Alerts and Announcements – Stay in touch with more patrons on their mobile phones! Mosio’s Text a Librarian is the only mobile carrier certified text messaging solution built specifically for libraries, giving libraries the reliability and flexibility they need to stay top of mind for more patrons on the go. This quick instructional [...] > read more

Library Thought Leaders Q&A: Buffy Hamilton (The Unquiet Librarian)

Published on 2012-04-27 11:55:29

Today’s library thought leader is Buffy Hamilton (aka The Unquiet Librarian), high school librarian and teacher at The Unquiet Library in Canton, Georgia. For this series we are gathering thoughts and opinions about Patron Relationship Management (aka PRM) in libraries. What does PRM mean to you? Is it different in a high school library setting? If so, how? [...] > read more

Library Thought Leaders Q&A: Courtney Young (Penn State Greater Allegheny)

Published on 2012-03-28 11:06:09

Today’s library thought leader is Courtney Young, Head Librarian and Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Penn State Greater Allegheny. Hi Courtney, thanks so much for your time, here we go…What does the idea of Patron Relationship Management in libraries mean to you? For me, Patron Relationship Management means a supportive collaboration. That includes getting [...] > read more

Integrated Library Systems – All library software providers using text messaging need to do it the right way

Published on 2012-03-26 15:47:39

Everyone is texting and it is not likely to be going away any time soon. That means libraries looking to communicate with patrons on their mobile phones need to rely on the best and most reliable ways for deploying mobile technologies. There is a lot of hype around mobile apps and we love them too, [...] > read more

Library Thought Leaders Q&A: Trent Garcia (San Francisco Public Library)

Published on 2012-03-09 10:38:32

Today’s library thought leader is Trent Garcia, eResources Specialist at the San Francisco Public Library. Hello Trent, let’s jump right into it. What does does the idea of Patron Relationship Management (PRM) in libraries mean to you? It makes me think of the parallels between Libraries and private industry, such as, building relationships with patrons/customers [...] > read more

Text a Librarian Marketing – New Business Card Template

Published on 2012-02-16 17:52:43

Hello! We just had a customer ask for an updated business card template to market their Text a Librarian service, so we wanted to share it here. As always, there are a handful of digital assets and templates in the patron marketing materials section of your account, but here’s a business card template. It uses [...] > read more

Library Thought Leaders Q&A: Aaron Tay

Published on 2012-02-16 12:05:10

Today’s Library Thought Leader is Aaron Tay, Reference Librarian with the National University of Singapore. As you know, the theme of this Q&A series is “Patron Relationship Management” or PRM. What areas of PRM are you seeing where libraries can benefit the most? To me Patron Relationship Management refers to tracking, managing of customer/patron needs [...] > read more

10 Digit Texting Number Spam

Published on 2012-02-15 17:30:48

I absolutely HATE text message spam. It puts a bad mark on an industry that, for the most part, has companies who work hard to abide by the requirements created by the mobile carriers, the CTIA (International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry) and the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association). Plus, I get about 1 spam [...] > read more

Library Thought Leaders Q&A: Alison Miller

Published on 2012-01-26 17:00:37

Today’s Library Thought Leader is Alison Miller, Manager of the ipl2 Reference Services at Drexel University and the WISE Coordinator for Syracuse University. As you know, the theme of this Q&A series is “Patron Relationship Management” or PRM. What areas of PRM are you seeing where libraries can benefit the most? There is no one [...] > read more

160 characters is a lot more info than you’d think (Mosio lets you send 320 or more, just in case)

Published on 2012-01-20 09:41:42

We get asked how much information can be shared via text message. Not surprisingly, many people don’t think it is much, even considering the average mobile user manages to share a lot of info with friends, family and co-workers texting from their mobile phones. In 1984 when SMS (Text Messaging) was invented, Friedhelm Hillebrand decided [...] > read more

Library Thought Leaders Q&A: Lisa Carlucci Thomas

Published on 2012-01-12 12:57:06

Today’s Library Thought Leader is Lisa Carlucci Thomas, Director of design think do. We have been exploring the idea of “Patron Relationship Management” (PRM) and it is the theme of this Q&A series. What areas of PRM are you seeing where libraries can benefit the most? What roles can mobile technologies play? Libraries employ a [...] > read more

The ubiquity imperative and the economics of attention – The competition for patron engagement

Published on 2011-12-15 12:05:11

“How many people with short attention spans does it take to screw in a light bulb-wanna go on a bike ride?” An article from Ryan Lawler on GigaOm the other day, the ubiquity imperative and the economics of attention shines a bright light on the importance of ubiquity among content companies clamoring for the attention [...] > read more

How Text Messaging Is Changing The World [Infographic]

Published on 2011-11-29 19:22:25

Text messaging is awesome. So are infographics. An infographic about the power of text messaging? Super sweet. This infographic from MBA Online showcases some powerful stats about text messaging as a communication medium. A few of our favorites: * Texting is the #1 most data service in the world. * 193,430 text messages are sent [...] > read more

New Text a Librarian Feature – Automatic Bit.ly Generator

Published on 2011-11-10 14:28:19

Text a Librarian’s Bit.ly Linke Auto-Generator: More Links With Less Characters We have a handful of new features coming up over the next month, but wanted to quickly let you know about our Bit.ly generator, suggested by our customers as a “great to have” feature. Bit.ly is a handy URL shortening technology that makes it [...] > read more

“Text a Librarian? I didn’t know you could do that.”

Published on 2011-09-13 15:40:08

We always wear our Text a Librarian T-Shirts (especially because we just got them in new colors). To work, on the weekends, whenever. Other than my “You Don’t Like Clowns?” tee from Headline Shirts, my Text a Librarian shirt starts the most conversations of any I wear. People always smile, some understand it immediately, some [...] > read more

ALA Annual – Thank You New Orleans!

Published on 2011-07-01 18:52:18

We are finally back into the swing of things after an incredible conference. We’ve been going to annual and midwinter for the past two years, but took a break from exhibiting to focus on meeting personally with clients and partners, deciding to > read more

Experiential Marketing Ideas for Libraries (Guest Post by Andrew Loos from Attack! Marketing)

Published on 2011-05-27 08:33:14

We saw quite a bit of buzz (positive and negative) about Seth Godin’s blog post The Future of Libraries, some saying he gets it and others saying he misses the point, again (we’re big Bobbi Newman fans here). An interesting post about the > read more

Should your library implement a Foursquare strategy? Only 17% of mobile users check in.

Published on 2011-05-05 09:09:19

We’re all susceptible to hype, especially those of us in the mobile technologies industry. Hype is fun, it’s great getting excited about things. There has been a huge buzz building in the library space over the past year or so regarding F > read more

Text a Librarian Video Tours and Tutorials

Published on 2011-04-06 08:01:11

Videos showing demos of a product or service are the best! We now have video tours / tutorials of Mosio’s Text a Librarian available on the Text a Librarian website. They were made as a way of showing how the service works for those unfamiliar > read more

More Information About QR Codes – Are You Getting the Message?

Published on 2011-03-24 20:02:49

The hype surrounding QR codes is T–H–I–C–K! In libraries and even more so in marketing and advertising. It makes sense that everyone is excited about them. QR codes fairly easy to create, time making them is the only cost and > read more

Reasons to Use Mosio for SMS Text Message Reference at Your Library

Published on 2011-03-02 07:09:33

This is a re-formatted version of our presentation that can be viewed on Slideshare, providing you with some basic information as to why more librarians choose Mosio to equip their libraries to communicate with patrons on the go. The full presentatio > read more

New TaL Feature: Holiday Auto Responders

Published on 2010-11-23 07:24:50

Holiday Auto Responders…you can use them for anything, not just holidays! In preparation for the upcoming holidays, the Mosio development team has been hard at work improving the Text a Librarian experience. Today we’d like to introduce > read more

Library Mobile Apps: Developing an iPhone app is more expensive than most people think.

Published on 2010-10-21 08:32:46

Reposted for Libraries from Mosio’s Company Blog A colleague sent me a stack overflow thread today entitled “How much does it cost to develop iPhone applications?” It’s worth taking a look at, most interesting is an answer su > read more

Mosio CEO Interview on UNTETHER.tv Discussing Text Messaging in the Mobile Workforce and Text a Librarian

Published on 2010-10-14 14:11:44

I was interviewed by Rob Woodbridge @RobWoodbridge last week on UTETHER.tv (conversations with mobile industry rock stars). In the interview we discuss how Jay Sachdev and I got into the mobile business, our flagship product “Text a Librarian&# > read more

Client Testimonial: Mosio’s Mobile Text Messaging Services for Events and Conferences

Published on 2010-10-01 08:04:36

We absolutely love when clients are happy with our service. It might sound a bit cliche, but it’s true. We love happy clients because they make our job so much easier. With a few of us as parents or parents-to-be, we’re proud to have the > read more

Shiny New Things: Beware of Early Adoption When Implementing Technologies at Your Library

Published on 2010-08-24 03:36:41

This post is from an entry I did a few months back for Attack!, a guerrilla and event marketing services agency I co-founded and where I served as President before co-founding Mosio, but the fundamental ideas are the same: new technologies and gadget > read more

Patron Relationship Management (PRM) – Mosio’s Future in Libraries

Published on 2010-06-16 14:15:45

As we gear up for another ALA Annual the company has had some interesting discussions on new announcements and our directions in the world of library software. A couple of weeks ago I had a great meeting/conversation with one of our partners and the > read more

SMS from Red Phones!?

Published on 2010-04-16 16:15:31

I was intrigued by the news that both President Obama and Russian President Medvedev would prefer to communicate with each other via texting and email.  It seems as if Obama’s much-discussed addiction to his Blackberry before moving into the W > read more

Mosio and Text a Librarian’s Post to Facebook Function: Now Live!

Published on 2010-04-13 08:47:42

In February we launched a “Post to Twitter” function within the Mosio mobile messaging platform and Mosio’s Text a Librarian. We wrote a blog post about why this was good for libraries: user generated marketing. I’ve pasted th > read more

Mosio and Text a Librarian on the iPad

Published on 2010-04-12 08:03:48

Back in January I wrote a blog post titled “The iPad, Tablets and E-Readers in Libraries: Game Changers or are they just Another Mobile Technology?” My decision was that I was uncertain, but suspected they were just another mobile technol > read more

Answer Text Message Questions With QuestionPoint

Published on 2010-03-17 07:02:24

Today Mosio’s Text a Librarian goes live with OCLC’s QuestionPoint.  Libraries who are customers of both can choose to have text message questions show up and be answered in QuestionPoint. Librarians who are staffing QuestionPoint will b > read more