23 mobile things: thing 11

I'm skipping things 9 and 10 for now, because my iPod doesn't have a camera. I can do them with my library's iPad later.

Thing 11 is library apps. I already had Hennepin County Library's mobile app and Overdrive media console on my iPod, but had never done anything with them. So I took a look. hclibmobile is pretty nice. I can check my account, look up library locations and hours, and events and classes. I can access online customer service. I can search the catalog and place holds, with separate tabs for new titles and downloadables. It includes BookLook, which is very cool: scan or type in an item's ISBN barcode, and it will show if the library owns the item. There are links to HCL's facebook and twitter pages. And there are links to locations, and events and classes, for libraries in the Twin Cities metro area that are not part of the Hennepin County system. So it has all the basic functions, plus some nice extra features.

I still haven't done much with Overdrive. I like the fact that I can download ebooks or mp3 audiobooks to my iPod, but I have not done so as yet. I have successfully added Hennepin County Library to my list of libraries (it is my entire list, since as a Hennepin County resident I don't think I'm eligible to use any other system's downloadables), so when I want to search for titles it automatically connects me to the catalog. I have also poked around in the settings and help topics to get a handle on how the whole process works.