Thursday, April 15, 2010

CIL2010: QR Codes

At least two of the sessions mentioned quick response (QR) codes.  According to Wikipedia:

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

QR Codes are common in Japan, where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional codes. Moreover, most current Japanese mobile phones can read this code with their camera.
QR codes are growing in popularity in the U.S. and being adopted by libraries.  One article on the subject is:
Walsh, Andrew.  Quick response codes and libraries. Library Hi Tech News.  v. 26, n. 5/6. p. 7-9.  (If you have access to the Emerald database, you can find the article there.)
There could be many uses of QR codes in libraries.  For example, using a camera phone with a mobile browser and free QR code software, a patron could use a QR code on a bookshelf to locate and read a related guide on the subject (libguide). 

At Computers in Libraries, QR codes were created for all of the bloggers and placed on the bulletin board.  These became conversation starters because most people have never seen them or used them.  And people could try them out in a safe environment.  (JD, nice idea!)


CIL2010 QR codes for bloggers

1 comment:

JD Thomas said...

I'm glad people liked them, but the credit for the idea really should go to Chad Mairn.

He mailed Jane a few weeks ago suggesting that we might look into getting them for the badges to let people easily exchange contact information.

We did not have time for that but it got me reading up on them and I loved the simplicity of the technology so I used them any time I had a chance on LibConf.com.