Scan a book’s ISBN barcode to find it at the University of Manitoba Libraries

I created a neat little "app" for the iPhone that uses redlaser ($1.99 in the iTunes AppStore) to search the UML catalogue using Summon.

 

 

Redlaser is an app for the iPhone that scans barcodes on products (books, toothpaste, electronics) and searches for these items at various online retailers. However, redlaser created a method that allows one to create a custom version of it that will only search the resource of your choice (see www.redlaser.com/apps). So I made one for our One Stop Search.

 

 

Please note that you need redlaser for this to work. If you visit here on your iPhone you will be prompted with instructions for saving the app to your home screen. A link called "UML Search" (it had to be short) will be added to your homescreen (your list of apps).

Click this app and a custom version of redlaser will launch, point your camera at the ISBN barcode on a book and redlaser will search One Stop Search for that ISBN. Currently you need to click "See Catalog" to see the availability of the item, but once some Summon-Bison kinks are worked out it will show the location and availability on the Summon result. Alternatively, you could use this link to get the version of the "app" that goes directly to bison.

When I told my father about this he asked, "Why would you need to know where the book was if you were already holding it?" I explained that what I had imagined is that one could see if the UML had a copy of a book that one had found in a bookstore, or that a faculty member could see if we had a copy of a book that she wanted to put on reserve.

Thanks to Kristen Kruse with the UML who pointed me in the right direction on this.