23 Mobile Things. Thing 13. Presentations

After reading through the descriptions of the four presentation apps I chose Haiku Deck to download onto my iPad. The YALSAblog App of the week: Haiku Deck on YouTube was very helpful. This app was easy to use and I had a lot of fun creating a presentation. While typing content into pre-made slides the font size automatically adjusts depending on the number of words that are used and there are five free themes to select from. Another invaluable aspect of this app is that it searches for Creative Commons images based on selected words and tapping on the CC of the image will provide licensing information.

23 Mobile Things. Thing 12. Books, Books, & More Books

I chose iStoryBooks for my iPad and downloaded the app. I then downloaded a Gambian folk tale and followed the story with narration. There were also some interesting nonfiction titles including a book on Sea animals. It is nice to know about this app as a source for free ebooks in addition to the ebooks I can download from my library using 3M and Overdrive apps.

23 Mobile Things. Thing 11. Library & Reference

I first tried my library's app on my iPhone and liked it so much I downloaded it onto my iPad. I like to use the BookLook feature on my iPhone to search for materials by ISBN when I am out and about to see if my library has an available copy. This can be quickly done by using the scanner and centering the red line on the ISBN/UPC barcode. If you have difficulty with this you can always type in the ISBN number in the search box. I am looking forward to using the eBook & Audiobooks feature to download an Audiobook onto my iPhone using either the Overdrive or OneClickdigital app.

23 Mobile Things. Thing 10. Sharing Photos

I chose Instagram to download onto my iPad since it is so popular and I would like to learn how it works. After signing up for an account and spending some time using this app I really don't see myself using it to share photos at this time. I tried searching by user for Minnesota Zoo and Minnesota State Fair and found some interesting photos. A search by #goldenretriever contained 1,498,445 posts! 

23 Mobile Things. Thing 9. Taking & Editing Photos

I enjoy taking photos with my iPhone, so was intrigued by Color Splurge and how it could be used to enhance photos. I decided to pay homage to Beauty and the Beast by taking photos of my Hello Kitty ornament from Japan and Troll figurine from Norway. I found the tutorial helpful and kept the original color scheme for Hello Kitty and eventually decided on a color scheme for Troll. When I looked at the time it became evident that Color Splurge, Hello Kitty and Troll needed to go into "Time out." I am looking forward to being able to return to this app so I can have some more fun playing with my photos' colors!  

23 Mobile Things. Thing 8. Social Media Management Tools

For this thing I have selected Facebook to download onto my iPad. Thought I would use this as an opportunity to see how my library system's site interfaces with Facebook. It was nice to see that under Recent Posts a local author was excited to see that her book was on order and that upcoming programs and events were being promoted. I searched for items in the catalog even though my personal preference is to go directly to our library site to search the catalog and manage my account. However I do think it is important to use Facebook from time to time to monitor how well it is working. Navigating my catalog searches with more than one page in Facebook resulted in the error message "There was a problem communicating with the library server. Please try again." I will follow up on this with co-workers to see if it was a temporary issue or if it is an ongoing issue.

23 Mobile Things. Thing 7. Content saving & Sharing

I have heard many positive comments about Pinterest so it was nice to be able to sign up for an account and learn how to store content in the cloud using this app on my iPad. I am impressed with how easy it is to find information on various subjects since users with similar interests have already researched and pinned some very useful and sometimes entertaining information. While searching for library related content I came across a board "Library spaces : library shelving and storage ideas" which  included a pin that lead to "The 15 best places to be if you love books." Would love to visit all of the places on this list starting with Shakespeare and Company in Paris and the International Library of Children's Literature in Japan. A general search on Best fiction resulted in an interesting mix of books, best fictional libraries and a 100 Best ever teen novels list pinned from NPR.org. 

23 Mobile Things. Thing 6. Creating and editing documents.

For this thing I chose SignNow and decided to use my iPhone. As I reviewed SignNow's site I noticed that this app had received a 4+ rating and Deron Williams had used it to sign his $98 million NBA contract! I found the tutorials helpful and it was a very quick process to sign up for an account.

After logging into my account I tapped + to add my document. I opened the email with the document that needed signing and pressed down on the document icon until the Open in SignNow icon appeared which I selected. I tapped the option screen and selected "Signature." I selected the pen and ink color, tapped the screen, signed the document, selected the check mark in the upper right screen and Saved as which showed that it was uploading a PDF file which was saved to an email. The new email displayed with the subject: Here is my signed document and included the option to fill in the email address for the recipient. This email also included the message: I signed the attached document. Thanks! Signed with SignNow. I was able to log out of this app by going to Account settings.

I really liked this mobile signing app and think it would be helpful for expediting the sales contract process since it eliminates the need for scanning in documents and the user can set up needed signatures in a particular order.