FW: [IUG] SMS and Millennium

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Another issue could be the length of messages. At Cingular, if someone sends me a message longer than x characters, their server splits the message up into chunks that are z characters long and bills me for each chunk. (Too busy right now to look up the exact values of x and z, but you get the idea.) Other carriers may simply truncate messages that are too long.

--Charles Gimon
Web Coordinator
Minneapolis Public Library

-----Original Message-----
From: Gimon, Charles A
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 11:50 AM
To: 'IUG INNOPAC List'
Subject: RE: [IUG] SMS and Millennium


Most cellular providers offer e-mail gateways to SMS. As a stopgap solution, you could offer instructions for users on how to enter the e-mail address for their phone in their patron record. An example:

http://www.notjustcricket.com/2006/01/email_to_sms_gateways_to_cellu.htm

Of course, you only get one e-mail address per patron record, so regular e-mail versus cellphone would be an either/or situation.

--Charles Gimon
Web Coordinator
Minneapolis Public Library


-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org [mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Thomsen
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 11:33 AM
To: IUG INNOPAC List
Subject: Re: [IUG] SMS and Millennium


I guess I don't understand how this stuff works, the SMS server or
whatever it is. If it's so expensive, how can my grocery store offer this? http://www.digitaltransactions.net/newsstory.cfm?newsid=845

And how can Library Elf, which is free and in North America (Canada)
offer this?

There's gotta be a way! I really, really want this.

Kristen Hewitt wrote:
> Elizabeth -
>
> I talked with Jason Boland about this. I definitely let him know that
> this is something I would like public libraries to offer
>
> Basically, it is cost prohibitive for the US to offer this service.
>
>
> He wasn¹t optimistic that pricing options would be changing anytime
> soon. The pricing structure is out of the hands of III.
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Kristen Hewitt . Mgr of Support Services
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Westerville Public
> Library 126 S. State Street
> Westerville, OH 43081
> p. 614 .882 .7277. 134
> f. 614 .882 .5962
> e. hewittk at westervillelibrary dot org
>
> www.westervillelibrary.org
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Elizabeth Thomsen <et at noblenet dot org>
> Organization: NOBLE, Inc.
> Reply-To: IUG INNOPAC List <innopac at innopacusers dot org>
> Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 12:03:28 -0500
> To: <innopac at innopacusers dot org>
> Subject: [IUG] SMS and Millennium
>
> While working on enhancement requests (deadline for submission coming
> soon!), I noticed that in Release 2006 LE there's a listing for a new
> product that offers the ability to deliver circulation notices via SMS
> (text messaging), but it will only be available for sites outside
> North America. Does anyone know why?
>
> I'm glad to see that this is coming, even if it's not immediately
> available to those of us in North America. I assume it's coming for
> us as well. I really think we need to integrate SMS into the system
> and into libraries in several different ways, and it's good to see III
> moving forward in this area.
>
> Here's a press release from III about Edge Hill College of Higher
> Education, a new customer and the development partner on this:
> http://csdirect.iii.com/pressrelease/index.php?id=235
>
> Here are my top priorities for Millennium and SMS --
>
> Real time hold notification:
> As soon as a book is checked in and sent to the holdshelf, an SMS
> message should be sent to the user. For many people, this will catch
> them while they are out, and they can stop in to get the item on their
> way home. It's a perfect use of text messaging. This should, of
> course, be something that the user sets up in My Millennium. This
> sounds like exactly what III is doing with Edge Hill.
>
> Send to Phone option in the catalog:
> People often look up find a book or other item in the catalog, and,
> whether they're at home or in the library, they need to jot down the
> author, title and call number to go find it in the stacks. Currently,
> they have to save the record to a list, and then go do something with
> it-- print it, save it, send it to their e-mail, whatever. This is
> sort of cumbersome for a single item, and still pretty much relies on
> getting the information on paper for the actual trip to the stacks.
>
> I'd like to see the bib/item page have a little box of options,
> including one to send to e-mail, and one to send to phone. It's
> especially important that the send to phone one be concise. Having
> the information saved in the phone would be much more convenient than
> paper for a lot of people who use their phones as their primary
> organizational tool.
>
> Send to phone option are popping up all over the place-- see this
> example on Local.com for what I am envisioning here:
> http://tinyurl.com/z7e8h
>
> Of course, some users may be doing what I am doing, which is using
> some external method of sending data from the catalog to their phones.
> I use Google's Send to Phone extension for Firefox:
> http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/extensions/sendtophone/
>
> This lets you select text on any webpage and send it to the phone, or
> to type or paste information into a text box to send, but it would be
> much nicer to have this feature directly in the catalog, nicely
> formatted.
>


--
Elizabeth Thomsen, Member Services Manager
NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange
Danvers MA 01923
et at noblenet dot org
--
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