Heya,

Lots of good suggestions from everybody in the thread so far. Great resources. So, I am in the camp that's generally opposed to libraries going the native app route - unless they already have a solid mobile-first responsive website and blah blah blah. First thing's first.

I am going to self-plug, here, so--er--sorry. 

A few years ago I gave a talk on future friendly web design that was a direct response to the call to spin-up library apps - mostly for libraries with limited resources to spin-up library apps. It's a little dated, but you can find it here: http://talks.ns4lib.com/future-friendly/. The big tl;dr is a slide on Designing Ethically, which sez:

* Developing for specific platforms targets only the handful that own the device.
* Developing for enough platforms to be inclusive is costly.
* Designing for specific screens--for instance, a desktop website and a mobile website--will inevitably miss the mark.
* It is a disservice if a library pursues a web strategy that inevitably caters to less than the majority of its patrons
* It is wasteful if a library pursues a web strategy that requires substantial retrofitting or a redesign more than once a year.
* Seek ubiquity

Years later, Brian Pichman, Amanda Goodman, and I talk about web vs. native on the #libux podcast here: http://libux.co/005-web-vs-native-brian-pichman/

Michael


-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Rochkind
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2014 3:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Library app basics

It's perhaps a little bit outdated by now, since things change so fast, but there is a Code4Lib Journal article on one library's approach a few years ago, which you may find useful.

http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5014

And, actually, googling for that one, I found several other ones too on library app mobile development, which I haven't actually read myself yet:

http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/7336
http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/2055
http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/2947

On 10/7/14 2:51 PM, Will Martin wrote:
> My boss has directed me to start looking into producing a phone app 
> for the library, or better yet finding a way to integrate with the 
> existing campus-wide app.  Could I pick the list's brains?
>
> 1) Is there some tolerably decent cross-platform app language, or am I 
> going to be learning 3 different languages for iOS, Android, and 
> Windows phone?  I've dabbled in all kinds of things, but my 
> bread-and-butter work has been PHP on a LAMP stack.  Apps aren't 
> written in that, so new language time.
>
> 2) The library's selection of mobile devices consists of 2 iPads and a 
> Galaxy tablet.  We don't have phones for testing.  My personal phone 
> is a 12-year-old flip phone which doesn't run apps.  Can I get by with 
> emulators?  What are some good ones?  The budget for the project is 
> zero, so I don't think dedicated testing devices are in the cards 
> unless I upgrade my own phone, which I probably ought to anyway.
>
> 3) What are some best practices for library app design?  We were 
> thinking the key functionality would be personal account management 
> (what have I got checked out, renew my stuff, etc), hours, lab 
> availability, search the catalog, and ask a librarian.  Anything 
> missing?  Too much stuff?
>
> Will Martin
>
> Web Services Librarian
> Chester Fritz Library
>
> P.S.  I sent this a couple days ago and wondered why it hadn't shown 
> up
> -- only to realize I accidently sent it to [log in to unmask] rather 
> than the actual list serv address.  Whoops, embarrassing!
>
>