Map a museum

M is for Maps and Museums

A-Z Challenge 2016: Apps in April

Maps

There is a wide range of map apps in the both the App store and Google Play store. A few of the varieties are:

• organisation and institutional maps – includes maps of educational institutions and museums
• navigation maps – includes Google maps, Open maps, Waze and more specific city and town maps
• tourist maps – individual place maps with tourist highlights includes parks and hiking and other outdoor activity maps
• transit maps – bus, train, underground/subway, cycle and parking maps
• sky maps – star trackers, charts and mobile observatories
• weather maps – weather radar maps from official agencies and a raft of commercial products

Google maps

Some features other than the navigation that I use in the app -

Offline maps – download an area where I expect to be out of reception or network range is poor
Add or fix a place – improve the quality of the online data by editing or adding local information or missing places
Save places – useful for planning ahead for visits to previously unknown locations
Give some places private labels

Some other features of MyMaps are available only through the web version of Google maps but can be viewed through the apps. Sometimes I find it useful to pinch out a map and take a screenshot that I can then annotate and send to others. Download for iOS or Android.

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Museums

There are several companies that specialise in producing museum guides for the app market. Always visit the website of the museum first to see if they have an official guide. Here are some apps from favourite Australian museums.

Australian Museum- Sydney

This museum is based right in the heart of Sydney and a must visit especially for those with children.  This app focuses on the natural history of Australia and offers a tour and quizzes. It is regularly updated. This is just one of the seven mobile apps produced by the museum. They are all available for both iOS and Android
Check out their Tyrannosaurs, Frogs field guide, Kids Trailblazers and other apps on the website.

Powerhouse Museum- Sydney

The Powerhouse Museum Walking Tours app treats the visitor to central Sydney to a tour through time. It includes:
Exploring old Sydney: Sydney Harbour Bridge
Ultimo: charting 150 years of change
Pyrmont: charting 150 years of change
Exploring old Sydney: George street
Exploring old Sydney: The Rocks
Available for both iOS and Android

Museum Victoria – Melbourne

This walking tour through 3 historic Melbourne precincts is just one of the many apps produced by Museum Victoria.

The walks include:Spotswood Industrial Heritage Walk, Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens Walk and Melbourne's Golden Mile.
There are over 700 images included from the museum’s collections.

Eight field guide apps to Australia’s unique fauna have also been produced by Museum Victoria in conjunction with the other State museums. All of these apps are free and available for both iOs and Android. 

Enjoy exploring these Australian apps from just a few of our museums. Watch out for apps from museums in your local area.

Next up  - N Notes on the News

Love a Library

L is for LibraryThing and other Library apps

A-Z challenge 2016: Apps in April

LibraryThing

Keep track of all the books you read and all the books you own, your very own catalogue of books. Add to your list by scanning a barcode on a physical book or enter an ISBN or search for the book by author or title.
Organise your books into collections, rate with stars, add a review, add tags, view recommendations from other readers.
I’ve been a member of LibraryThing since 2006 and find it is an excellent way to keep track of my reading and receive recommendations based on books I’ve enjoyed
This app is currently only available for iOS with the promise of an Android app to come. Visit LibraryThing on the web.

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Check with your library to find out which apps they have that provide lending services. My excellent local library provides e-lending through these apps.

BorrowBox

Browse, borrow, read or listen to a collection of ebooks and audiobooks. Log in with your library member’s card details to access the library’s own collection. Preview titles, borrow instantly or reserve for later if the title is currently loaned to another user.
Search by title, author or genre. Titles can be renewed or returned at any stage and they automatically expire once the borrowing period is exceeded so no library fines are generated.

BorrowBox is available for iOS and Android Check your library to see if they have it.

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OneClickDigital

From your library site, register on the OneClickDigital site. Once you download the app find your library and enter the details registered previously through your library site. Now you will be able to see a tutorial to get you started. The search will launch your library’s digital collection, some libraries may have both ebooks and audiobooks others may have only audiobooks. Preview titles by description, information and length of audio chapters. Listen to a short excerpt from the book before making your decision.

This is a great app for borrowing audiobooks.Available for iOS and Android.

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ePlatform by Wheelers

Wheelers is ebooks only. Browse by category or search for a title or author. Wheelers has a strong Australian and New Zealand collection with my library exhibiting 354 books in the AU, NZ, and South Pacific collection. Wheelers also concentrate on children’s titles so is a good option for those with young family members.
Available for iOS and Android.

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Your library may have a different collection of apps including OverDrive. Do check out your favourite library site to find out if there are options for e-borrowing.

Next up M – Map a museum

This post first appeared on http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2016/04/love-library.html

Keeping and Kindling

K is for Kindle, Keep and a Keyboard

A-Z challenge 2016: Apps in April

Kindle

You don’t need a Kindle to read Kindle books. I include this because what is obvious to some, is not to others. Download the app for iOS or Android to have access to more than a million books. There are plenty of free books too.

From the app, you can shop in the Kindle store, add bookmarks to books being read, change the size or font of the text, search within the text, go to a particular page and sync where you are up to in the book on another device. Tap and hold text to reveal definitions.

Your Kindle account comes with an email address so you can send personal PDFs and documents to be read here.

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Keep

Google Keep is an app for adding notes, editing, sharing, and collaborating on any device. As well as notes one can add lists, photos, and audio. Organize the notes with labels and colours. Keep incorporates with reminders and I find it excellent for short term things. I use it for shopping lists, to take note of where I have parked in multi-storey parks, I use it to record prices in various outlets. Tap the microphone to record a note and see it rendered as text. I use Evernote for long-term storage and retrieval of information but Keep fills in as an everyday tool.

For my book club where we read paper books Keep is a great tool to snap an image of a memorable page or quote then tap on the menu (three dots) and choose Grab image text. The OCR text is then added at the bottom of the note. Keep for iOS and Android.

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SwiftKey Keyboard

This app replaces the built-in keyboard and learns the way you type and the words you use frequently so the text prediction is excellent.
On Android phone, one can choose a variety of coloured themes. Enable the keyboard in Settings – Language and Input.
In iOS head to Settings – General – Keyboards.

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Next up - L Love a library

This post first appeared on http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2016/04/keeping-and-kindling.html