Library patrons can now visit their library via their iPhone or Android device; Axiell and BridgeIT’s new application is now live and enabling users to gain direct access to their library 24/7. Known as Axiell – My Library, the software is available to customers of all libraries using the Axiell Arena 24-hour virtual library portal from Axiell, the technology and business solutions specialist for public libraries and archives.
Axiell – My Library is free for library patrons to download to smartphones and use to search for music, films and books via the library catalogue.
Boris Zetterlund, strategy manager at Axiell, comments, “Both libraries and their patrons can now make full use of communication via smartphones. First Axiell developed Axiell Arena, the virtual library for the PC, now we have expanded the application so that patrons can search the library’s catalogue via iPhone and Android. Axiell is the first supplier in the world to offer a mobile solution for accessing library information on both smartphone types.”
In the UK, libraries such as Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire, Luton Libraries, and LibrariesWest, have chosen Axiell Arena so that, in addition to standard library functions, their customers will be able to use a wide range of Web/Library 2.0 social networking facilities to connect with other users with similar interests, actively contribute with tags, reviews and ratings and join discussion forums. The libraries can then choose whether to add Axiell – My Library to the service.
The drive towards online access to libraries is reflected in the recent UK Modernisation Review of Public Libraries which reports that “people are using mobile devices to access information and entertainment ” and that “consumption of digital information has been transforming the library’s role as an information provider over the last ten years ”.
Jim Burton, managing director of Axiell UK, adds, “Researchers Gartner predict that mobile devices will overtake desktop PCs for internet traffic by 2013 and with this in mind we already have a version of Axiell – My Library for Symbian and Windows Mobile in development.”
The first libraries in the world to use Axiell – My Library are Denmark’s Gladsaxe Libraries whose patrons can now use their smartphones to check on return dates for items, browse the catalogue and instantly reserve items as soon as they hear about new and exciting books, films or music. Users can also delete unwanted reservations and check on any fines due. Catalogue detail shows book details such as author, title, edition, publisher, language and cover image. Favourites can be stored in the cell phone’s memory and reviewed off-line.
Chief of development for Gladsaxe Libraries, Esben Fjord, explains, “This new application makes life easier for library users. For example, you hear about a good book, which you would like to read. Now you can take your smartphone from your pocket and reserve it immediately, whether you are in a garden or on a bus. It’s about giving users the opportunity to act immediately and giving them the choice as to whether to access our services via a computer, mobile or in person.”
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Notes to Editors
Axiell – My Library has been developed by Axiell in cooperation with Denmark’s Gladsaxe Libraries and Danish mobile software development specialist, BridgeIT. BridgeIT has particular expertise in the field of mobile solutions, with emphasis on development for several mobile platforms simultaneously. Gladsaxe Libraries is situated in a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark with 64,102 inhabitants. The library had 586,013 visitors in 2008 and issued 1,228,117 loans in that year.
A new survey by international consulting company Gartner shows that, by 2013, the mobile telephone will be our preferred method of connection to the Internet.
O2 alone had 5 million smartphone users in the UK, including 2 million iPhone owners, in 2009 when the company’s client base grew 19 per cent. (The Times, 27 February 2010, Nic Fildes. Britain’s biggest just got bigger because everybody wants a smarter mobile phone.)
Axiell UK
Axiell UK provides library software solutions to one third of local authorities in the UK, while over 350 customers use Calm, the system of choice for Archives, Museums and Records Offices. The company is a leading business solutions supplier to libraries, archives, museums and records centres.
Axiell UK offers its customers both software and hardware and a full range of implementation, facilities management and integration services, and the company continues to be a pioneer in software development for libraries.
Axiell is a member of Axiell Library Group AB.
http://www.axiell.co.uk/
Axiell Library Group AB
Axiell Library Group is the world’s fifth largest company in the sector, supplying IT systems and services dedicated solely to libraries and archives as a target group and with its focus on library development.
Axiell develops technically advanced and innovative solutions for libraries and archives in close cooperation with its customers. More than 1000 library organisations with thousands of branches in the Nordic countries and in the UK use Axiell’s library management systems and Axiell Arena, the tool for the virtual library. The system for archives and museums, CALM, is used by over 350 archives and museums in Europe.
Axiell Library Group is a group company with five subsidiaries in Sweden, Denmark and Finland as well as the UK.
www.axiell.com
Press Contact
Catherine Dhanjal, TheAnswer Ltd
Tel: 01883 650434 or 0794 166 9925
Email: [email protected]
Press Contact
Lise Søderberg, Nordic Communication and Marketing Manager,
tel + 45 3338 2520 or +45 2125 1426
E-mail: [email protected]
For interviews with spokespeople listed below, contact Lise or Catherine.
– Jim Burton, Managing Director, Axiell UK
– Boris Zetterlund, Strategy Manager, Axiell Library Group
– Esben Fjord, Development Manager, Gladsaxe Libraries
TA601 11 May 2010
i The modernisation review of public libraries: A policy statement, pg 41. Published March 2010. http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/consultation_responses/modernisation_review_public_libraries.pdf
ii ibid, pg 38
iii http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=120590
