THE NSW State Library has launched a highly innovative location-savvy smartphone app that gives users detailed information about exhibits as they pass them by.
The app offers extra information on each exhibit and, where available, audio and video. But it goes beyond traditional offerings. It includes an ability to pinpoint where the user is in the library and provides relevant information about exhibits they can see.
Users also can rate objects in the library while on site and play back their visit to the library at home, as well as share their favourite objects on Facebook and Twitter.
The new "Curio" app is available for iOS and Android devices but works optimally with the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and the ASUS-manufactured Google Nexus 7-inch tablet.
The app is free, and users can download it and peruse three discovery collections at home, and then view them in the library.
The library also is making available 60 Asus-built Google Nexus 7 tablets with the app installed. Patrons without their own copy of the app can borrow a tablet and glean extra information about each exhibit they see – as they pass by.
The launch of Curio coincides with the opening of the State Library's contemporary new space, AMAZE: The Michael Crouch Gallery, which showcases a changing collection of inspiring objects from the Library's collections.
The exhibits included in the app are: "The Greatest Wonder of the World exhibition tour", a collection of 19th century photos of goldfield life in NSW and Victoria, and includes interviews with curator Alan Davies.
The AMAZE Gallery Tour features 60 rare exhibits from the William Dixon collection, including the only known pirated copy of Charles' Dickens' Pickwick Club, printed in Launceston in 1838.
A third tour – the Mitchell Wing Discovery Tour, looks at the history of the library's Mitchell Wing in Macquarie Street.
Curio uses a form of indoor location technology that is accurate enough to give patrons information about collections within the room they are visiting.
iOS devices are located using Bluetooth 4 nodes and a form of triangulation, while Android devices are tracked by internal WiFi.
"The innovative mobile interface knows where you are inside the State Library and intuitively delivers interesting facts, surprising stories and multimedia about the objects and architectural features around you," the library said in statement.
Co-founder of start-up Art Processors, developer Tony Holzner told The Australian that the Curio app had been under development for a year.
Development work included supplying the library with its own content management system (CMS) which it used to create and manage content for the app.
Mr Holzner said Art Processors had forged a business building apps to showcase exhibits and collections.
The Curio app had built on previous application work undertaken for the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart.
"Curio is the evolution of what we did at MONA and uses the most state-of-the-art app technology to offer a new level rich content discovery that is a first in Australia," he said.
The CMS-built content also is available for the public to view in a web browser.
