Visual Contextualization of Library Data: Designing an Augmented Reality App

The role of libraries changed tremendously in the digital age. Search engine
technology and full text availability now define the standards for information
research. Libraries as knowledge providers have to face the challenges of the
new technologies.
Our poster contribution takes the example of Augmented Reality (AR) to
show a way to use the potential of digital technology for library services. AR
offers new possibilities to contextualize library data. Hence the transfer of
knowledge can be enriched by virtual information and visualization.
In our poster we introduce the project mylibrARy and the status quo of the
conceptual process of designing a library AR-app. mylibrARy is a cooperation
project between the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, a public
library in Berlin and metaio GmbH. By providing mobile access to enriched
library data the institution is able to stay in touch with users or even generate
new users with a high affinity for digital technology. According to the result
of our first of four user studies especially the integration of social media and
social reading functions plays a crucial role in reaching that aim. Beside the
connection to the local library knowledge organization system in the app we
plan to integrate further features for the semantic contextualization such as
the Wikipedia categories.