Boopsie

toc =What is Boopsie? =

Boopsie is a mobile solutions company which was founded in Silicon Valley in 2006 by Greg Carpenter and Tim Kay. Boopsie’s mobile applications are designed for use in Real Estate, Libraries, Universities, and Conferences/Trade Shows. Information professionals, who could take advantage of the Library, University, and Conference product lines, make up a large part of the target audience for Boopsie’s products. The mobile applications designed to work with libraries feature the ability to combine access to the ILS with non-catalog items such as a Library Locator, Ask a Librarian services, reading lists, and events calendars. Patrons can log in with a library card code and password and check the availability of books, place holds, and monitor other account information. The app’s features and design elements are customizable by subscribing libraries and available across multiple mobile platforms. Libraries can choose to integrate social media accounts, or electronic resources. The University products feature the ability to include campus information like bus schedules or faculty and student directories in addition to the library information. The premium library features, BookLook Mobile™, BookCheck™ , one-click access to Overdrive, and access to Reviews and Recommendations are part of the Optimum package which is receiving a lot of attention, but is not widely used by current Boopsie subscribers.

The Conference package, which the American Library Association (ALA) uses to mobilize the Annual and Mid-Winter Conferences, is also customizable to include features pertinent to the subscribing organization. The Boopsie app can provide conference attendees with local information, conference schedules, access to the social media feeds, and updated lists of sessions or events occurring within the hour.

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Premium Products
**BookCheck™** - This feature, which was introduced in April 2011, gives patrons the ability to check out library materials with their mobile devices by scanning the item’s barcode. Due to technology requirements, the barcode scanning feature is currently only available for Android, BlackBerry and iPhone. Patrons with other mobile devices can enter the barcodes manually to take advantage of Book Check™.

**BookLook Mobile****™**- This feature, introduced in June of 2011, also takes advantage of the barcode technology and has the same access issues as the BookCheck™ feature. With BookLook Mobile™ patrons can scan ISBN codes to see if they are available at their library. If a book is owned by the library, holds can be placed on books directly from the Boopsie app.

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**One-click access to Overdrive** – With over 15,000 library subscribers, OverDrive is the leading provider of eBooks and audiobooks. On June 22, 2011, Boopsie announced OverDrive integration which allows patrons to check out OverDrive resources from the Boopsie app. The OverDrive app is still required to read the eBooks.

media type="youtube" key="tZNx6tv2PZo" height="315" width="420" **Reviews and Recommendations** – There is a premium Reviews and Recommendations feature available to Boopsie Libraries. When available, reviews will be displayed with the catalog record during a search of the ILS. This feature access published reviews, bibliographic information, and reviews from social media sources, like GoodReads. On July 26, 2011, Boopsie announced an additional source of reviews, the integration of CoverCake. CoverCake is an iPad app that compiles book and author reviews which appear on TV and Radio shows. When users come across a book of interest, they can check to see if it is available at the library and then bookstores. With Boopsie integration, CoverCake users can now place a hold or join the waiting list for books they are interested in reading. CoverCake integration is available to subscribers at no extra charge.

Competitor –BookMyne
In 2011, SirsiDynix made the BookMyne iPhone App available to libraries using their Symphony ILS. Like Boopsie, BookMyne offers access to the ILS and patron account information. App users can search the catalog by entering info from the keyboard or using the barcode scanning capability to scan an ISBN barcode of a book at a friend’s house or in a store. This app also offers a book suggestion feature which is powered by GoodReads. Users can browse suggestions by three categories, Awards, Popular, or Social. Selecting the Social category requires logging into, or creating, a GoodReads account. Unlike Boopsie, BookMyne does include the ability to check out books, or access to additional non-catalog information. BookMyne is not customizable. Whereas each library using Boopsie has a separate unique app in the App Store, BookMyne has one app and patrons select their library from within the app.

References
Boopsie Inc. (2011), Boopsie for libraries. Retrieved from www.boopsie2.com/libraries.

(2011). Boopsie launches BookLook. //Advanced Technology Libraries, 40//(7), 3-4. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Brynko, B. (2011). ALA: Hot topics for librarianship. Information //Today, 28//(8), 17.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Johnstone, B. T. (2011). Boopsie and librarians: connecting mobile learners and the library. //Library Hi Tech News, 28//(4), 18-21. doi:10.1108/07419051111154749

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">(2011). SirsiDynix launches BookMyne 2.0. //Advanced Technology Libraries, 40//(1), 7-8. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">(2011). SirsiDynix launches web services for Horizon, BookMyne 2.1. //Advanced Technology Libraries, 40//(5), 6. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database