The Schlow Centre Region Library has recently launched a mobile app, free of charge to readers.

The app provides its customers, namely parents, with the ability to store multiple library cards, Michael Hayward, app creator and IT services technician, said.

“The app allows families to organize the accounts on their phones rather than holding onto multiple library cards,” Hayward said.

The app, titled “My Library Card,” also allows readers to “nickname” accounts to help users differentiate one from the other and provides links to library sources, Hayward said.

“The app has been really helpful for me,” Physical and Mathematical Sciences Librarian John Meier said. “I can pick up books for the whole family and save my wife a trip to the library.”

From his interest in fantasy fiction to graphic novels and his wife homeschooling their children, Meier said he has greatly benefited from the new app and has used it at least once a week.

“It’s like the Starbucks app of visiting the library,” Meier said.

Head of IT Services Technician Nathaniel Rasmussen described the app as “powerfully simple,” and he said it allows the library to adapt to digital changes.

“Everyone’s moving their whole lives to their devices,” Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen said he believes this app will make going to the library an easier experience for readers as he has seen a decline in users carrying their library cards on them.

While the main feature of the app is having the convenience of accessing different family members accounts at a time, Rasmussen said the Schlow Library would like to build on top of that by adding a feature that would validate parking.

The app is available to both iPhone and Droid users. Approximately 360 cards have been added since the app first launched less than two weeks ago. Rasmussen said.

The cost to develop the app was fairly inexpensive costing less than $200 since the IT Services developed the app themselves, Hayward said.

Only one customer reported a glitch with the app, Hayward said. The customer ran out of memory on their phone and the app deleted the user’s library card. However, the glitch has since been fixed and no other problems have been reported.

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