Or rather being broken by the code!
Here's my attempt at making a QR code. It should link to information about the exhibition 'Books by Artists' which I'm co-curating with Linda Newington at the Winchester Discovery Centre.
I tried using the Nexus tablet in order to read it but got into a complete muddle. I was confused by the fact that I kept seeing myself until discussing the problem later with my son. I now realise that the camera/reader element must have been set as front facing rather than back facing. However, I was unable to work out how to change this. If you are not used to using this kind of technology (that's me as I still don't even have a smartphone) then this sort of thing is not intuitive. I did manage to scan my code and was very excited but then got the message "oops Google Chrome did not recognise that http". I've left it in this post so do let me know if it works for you!
If we were to take these seriously and start using them across the Library we would need to know that more users than not had the technology to read them. In my naivety I thought all smartphones came with the capacity to read QR codes but this doesn't seem to be the case. I also feel that much information is more easily accessible in other forms. We have experimented tentatively with using QR codes at WSA library. We produced holiday opening times as a QR code and some users, mostly our international students, did find this helpful. This sort of infromation seems more suitable for a QR code rather than, for example, a website.
It was good to learn about QR codes but I can't see myself using them in the future and remain in need of convincing of their worth to libraries.
Hi Catherine,
ReplyDeleteI've just scanned the code with my phone, and your code is pointing at: http://http://ww3.hants.gov.uk/library/wdc/city-space.htm
...in short, you've doubled-up the "http://". Try making a new QR code, pasting just the www3.hants... onwards into the code creator :-)
Ric.
Simple when you know how! Thank-you Ric. I will attempt another QR code. Watch out for the next installment!
Delete(I meant "www3", rather than "ww3")
ReplyDeleteHi Catherine
ReplyDeleteWe also couldn't work out how to change the camera from front to back. Went all through the settings and came to a dead end. Maybe it can't be done?? Very straight forward to change this on the ipad - the Nexus not so much....
I came to the conclusion that it didn't have that option as there was nothing under settings. Has rather put me off the Nexus but maybe someone who is a Nexus enthusiast (are there any?) can enlighten us.
ReplyDelete