Libraries launch apps to sync with iPod generation
By Jeannie Nuss
The Associated Press - Washington Post
Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Hillard Goodspeed uses an ipod application called "shake it", to find reading suggestions at the Orlando Public Library in Orlando, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010.(AP Photo/John Raoux) (
John Raoux - AP)

Grandview Heights, Ohio -- Libraries are tweeting, texting and launching smart-phone apps as they try to keep up with the biblio-techs - a computer-savvy class of people who consider card catalogs as vintage as typewriters. And they seem to be pulling it off.

Since libraries started rebranding themselves for the iPod generation, thousands of music geeks have downloaded free songs from library websites. And with many more bookworms waiting months to check out wireless reading devices, libraries are shrugging off the notion that the Internet shelved them alongside dusty books.

"People tend to have this antiquated version of libraries, like there's not much more inside than books and microfiche," says Hiller Goodspeed, a 22-year-old graphic designer in Orlando, Fla., who uses the Orange County Library System's iPhone app to discover foreign films.

The latest national data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services show that library visits and circulation climbed nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2008.
Since then, experts say, technology has continued to drive in-person visits, circulation and usage.
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