Wearable Technology: Smart Watches to Google Glass for Libraries

Librarians who are interested in incorporating wearable technologies into library programs and services will appreciate this handy guide as few works address the challenges of understanding and deploying wearables in any setting, let alone libraries. For the purpose of this book, wearables include smart watches, Google Glass, GoPro cameras, fitness tracking bracelets, virtual reality viewers, and drones operated by wearable devices.

Tom Bruno is the associate director for resource sharing and reserves at Yale University's Sterling Memorial and Bass Libraries and is known as a wearable technology guru, being one of the first people selected to test Google Glass. The author traces the development of wearables from a miniaturized abacus ring centuries ago in China to the first digital watches to virtual reality devices of the near future that may augment reality or be totally immersive.

Bruno encourages allowing library staff time (as much as 20% per week, for example) to experiment with new technologies and to make sure that libraries that lend wearable technological equipment to patrons maintain devices in reserve that can be used by library staff as they learn new ways to provide services that support such devices. Bruno also emphasizes the importance of fostering strategic partnerships and taking advantage of the technical expertise of existing campus faculty and staff, particularly student workers, when considering, testing, lending, and mainstreaming wearable tools.

In addition to sharing his experience beta testing three Google Glass devices through Yale University's Bass Glass project, Bruno describes examples from public libraries (Skokie Public Library and Arapahoe Library District) and academic libraries (Claremont University and University of South Florida). Notable examples include Google Glass being used for mobile reference or translation services, point-of-view video projects, clinical interactions with patients, and captioning. That said, Bruno is candid in his assessment that “the best way to find wearable tech's ‘purpose' in a library is to share it with as wide an audience as possible, stand back, and see what our community makes of it” (p. 42).

This work's most useful and practical chapter (“Step-by-Step Library Projects for Wearable Technology”) provides detailed guidance for circulating wearables, training library staff, and implementing library projects related to Google Glass, GoPro cameras, and Google Cardboard virtual reality.

The author also offers practical tips related to battery life, management of patron expectations, library staff comfort level with the technologies in order to provide advice to others, troubleshooting, and privacy issues. The content related to modifying Google Glass and other wearables to be Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act–compliant may interest health sciences librarians, but overall the information is suited for librarians in any type of library setting, particularly those who like to be technology-forward. The guide includes a two-page recommended reading list and a two-page index.