Students can see the history of the building they are going to or check to see if computers in D.H. Hill Library are open, all from a smart phone or iPod Touch.
The Digital Library Initiatives (DLI), in collaboration with OIT recently launched WolfWalk, an iPhone application which enables users to explore the University campus history using a location-aware interface for mobile devices.
WolfWalk is a historical guide to the University campus created for mobile devices. WolfWalk makes it easy for users to pull-up information and historical photos about specific sites on campus, such as Memorial Tower and the Brickyard, while touring the campus on foot.
It went live this summer and has been received well. According to Tito Sierra, associate head for digital library development, it has already seen over 1100 downloads since its launch on July 1.
“The iPhone application has received 10 ratings on the App Store, averaging 5 out of 5 stars,” Sierra said.
It currently features 90 Campus sites and just under 600 photographs, a majority of which were drawn from the NCSU Libraries University Archives Collection. Sierra says that the digital library initiatives office is looking forward to enhancing the look and appeal of the application in the future, along with adding new themes.
“For WolfWalk, we are exploring some new ways for people to browse the historical photographs featured in WolfWalk, specifically by time period and theme,” Sierra said.
Sierra said the library has received many requests to expand the coverage of sites covered in WolfWalk, and no complaints with the interface have surfaced yet.
Digital library initiatives offices worked closely with the OIT in developing this App.
“We collaborated closely with OIT staff to deploy the WolfWalk app to the App Store. OIT staff administrates the campus license, and were instrumental in helping us get the app launched,” Sierra said.
Along with this, another project the library is pushing forward is the mobile website for the University libraries. It was launched in October 2009 and has seen regular updates since, with plans to add more services in the near future.
”This is a mobile-optimized website to a suite of library services including catalog/article search, library hours, computer availability, webcam access, and more. With this product we tried to make it easy for users to access essential library information across a range of mobile devices,” Sierra said.
The mobile website works on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm Pre, and any other mobile device that has a web browser.
The site automatically detects the user’s device type and provides a format that works best for that device.”
Going by the viewer metrics so far, the mobile website seems to be doing well, and is being received well with users across different platforms, according to Sierra.
“So far this semester we have been averaging around 100 unique visits per day, and about 500 pageviews per day. We expect these metrics to increase over time as more people begin to access the Internet from their smart phones,” Sierra said.
Sierra said that 4 new services were added this summer.
“The NCSU Libraries Mobile project has evolved over time, and will continue to in the near future. Four services were added this summer: Find Articles, GroupFinder, Room Reservations and Reserves,” Sierra said. “We have a Mobile Applications group in the Libraries that is evaluating ideas for expanding mobile library services in the future, not limited to the mobile website.”
