Library App: BookMyne

I recently discovered BookMyne, a library app that offers library catalog services, account services, and book recommendations in app form. How much do I love this app? As much as cupcakes love frosting and then some.

I couldn't exactly say why it is that I so often need or want to access the library catalog, or my library account (check-outs, holds, due dates) when I don't have access to a com puter. But it happens often, and BookMyne is a frequently-used app on my phone (despite the fact that my 2.5-year-old phone is well on the way to the end of its life).

 

I mostly use the app to check how many books I have out, when they are due (or overdue, as the case may be), what I have on hold, how long I can anticipate waiting for books on hold, and what hold titles are available for pick-up. I can also check my account balance (for said overdue books) and renew titles (to avoid said overdue fines).

But the app does much more than that, offering recommendations based on awards, popular titles, and Goodreads accounts. While I don't plan to link to my own Goodreads account, especially given the ever-uncertain future of my account there, I love seeing libraries linking up with existing, robust reader technologies to offer patrons more services:

BookMyne also offers library catalog search by title, subject or bar code (and if/when a book is located in the catalog, you can place a hold on it right there). I love this feature in theory, though I don't use it very often. Mostly that's personal preference: I hate typing on my phone, so avoid activities that require use of that awful tiny keyboard, and the bar code scanner borders on encouraging showrooming, which makes me slightly uncomfortable. But I can appreciate how these tools would be helpful for others, and that libraries are doing more each day to make books accessible to more people.

BookMyne is available for iOS and Android devices and some Android devices, depending on which version of the operating system you have. The nice people that created BookMyne say that an updated app for Android is in the works.