Learning 2.0 Discovery 15

Like the villain from a horror movie who hasn't been slaughtered the requisite number of times to stay dead, Learning 2.0 returns to menace us with... thoughts on the relevance of mobile telephones to libraries.

Specifically, the exercise asks the Learning 2.0ers to add to their blog a single service a library could provide using mobile telephones.

The obvious one is notices via SMS. Not, perhaps, overdue notices. Somehow nagging about overdue books via SMS seems just a little clingy to me... just a little "I won't be ignored, Michael..." But I can definitely see the utility of texting reservation notices. People are busier than ever, so the immediacy of text allows them to find a way to fit picking up their reservations into their day.

But eschewing the obvious, I suggest a nice service for libraries to provide utilizing mobile telephones would be a "who writes like" app (or even a boring old webpage optimized for mobiles) allowing someone to tap in the name of their favourite author and be presented with a reservable list of authors held in the library's collection who'll also likely tickle their fancy.

Failing that... an app which monitors its owner's voice for volume and duration, and above a certain level emits a loud, "Shhhh!"