Design of a low-cost mobile application for library networks

The development of a low-cost mobile application for a library network is presented. These apps are needed to support the uses made by library users, to improve user loyalty, and to facilitate the recurrent access to multiple websites. The Valencian Public Reading Network is used as a case study to illustrate the approach. The starting point is an analytical process regarding the characteristics of the entity and the requirements of the mobile application. For the development of the application, different platforms for the construction of apps are compared. Then, the final product is evaluated in relation to efficiency and usability. The results indicate that the use of an app, which integrates information from a single point, improves performance in terms of search time and error rate. The main contribution of this work highlights apps as complementary services to websites for library networks in terms of centralisation of information and services.