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Description
With the convergence of traditional computers and Mobile telephony, the new smart devices capable of running customized applications have been on the rise. By the end of 2011, it was estimated that there are close to 100 million active smart phone users in the US alone. An increasing number of people use their smart phones to connect with friends, conduct e-commerce transactions, browse the Internet, etc. There is an urgent need for every service provider, including libraries, to embrace this new mode of information dissemination. Due to a variety of reasons, people prefer to use their mobile smart phone to get information about their library, browse the catalog listings, check a book's availability status, its location, etc. This thesis is an attempt to provide a mobile application solution for the San Diego State University's electronic library resources. The aim of this thesis was to create an Android application for the SDSU Library that has all the features that a user would often use when he/she visits the library website. It is a one-stop solution for retrieving all the library related information, news, events, floor-by-floor maps, etc. Catalog search and research/course/subject guides are two of the application's primary features. The application allows a user to search in the library's catalog (Books & Media) based on the entered keywords. These search results are gathered not just from the SDSU Main Campus Library, but also from the Imperial Valley Campus Library location. Bibliographic information of any particular book/e-book, along with its status (location, call number and availability) is provided for each of the search results. The application uses the WorldCat Search API in the back-end to retrieve these results. With the library departmental information, staff details, and the ability to save the user's selected search results, this application makes all the SDSU library related information available at one's fingertips.
