Students Àngels Puigpinós, Daniel Bonhomme and Gerson Prieto are the three winners of the first prize of the BiblioLAB, a cheque for €600 from FNAC. The goal of this initiative is to detect the needs and the areas for improvement of the Library services and to develop proposals to bring the experience closer to the user. The project presented by the three students is called “The UPF Card on your Mobile”. It consists of a mobile application that allows you to have all the services offered by the physical card with the possibility of extending them further. In this way, students can access resources more easily on a day-to-day basis.

- What led you sign up for the BiblioLAB initiative?

We found it an interesting initiative, especially because of the ECTS credit on offer. It may seem funny, but one of us needed this credit and convinced us to go in for it. Once there, concentrating on coming up with an idea, we wanted to give it our best shot.

- The project you designed is a mobile app with the Library card  to make access to Library services easier. Why did you choose this proposal?

We had several proposals in mind, since the range of things to improve was quite broad. It went from all the specific services offered by the Library to those of the University in general. In the end, we began to develop the project on the basis of one proposal from the ideas exchange. It all began with a small idea, to implement the UPF Card on the mobile phone, and it ended up becoming a big project. The big project of designing a mobile application that was simple and that would facilitate the use of the services most in demand by students, lecturers, as well as the personnel and members of the PAS.

- Which measures to improve the service does it include?

The goal was to fuse the student card with the phone and turn it into a powerful Swiss army knife allowing us access to the most commonly used services as quickly and intuitively as possible. Also, to make reservations easier as it is currently rather a confusing process. But also other services such as topping up the balance for the printer using the mobile phone and even using it as a key, via such technologies as QR and NFC to open spaces.

We believe that digital format is the future, and that is why our first idea for the project was to digitize all the books and documents of the library. 

- You believe in digital format. Do you think that the digitization of Library services is a tool that will be used in the future?

We believe that digital format is the future, and that is why our first idea for the project was to digitize all the books and documents of the library. But we realized it is a problematic process because of all the legal issues of copyright, so we abandoned that. The design we have implemented is based on the fact that by digitizing resources it will be easier to make reservations, payments and even open doors.

- What other aspects of the University Library do you think should be improved?

There are always things to improve or optimize. You need to speak to library users and employees in order to fully understand the system and see what their needs are.

6. As students at UPF, do you think that all of the services provided by the library are sufficiently exploited? How could the library be brought closer to the students?

We have so many services at our fingertips that sometimes we don’t even realize, and that’s why we don’t use them. What is clear is that we always end up by making greater use of the resources that make our day-to-day easier, without ever exploiting the rest.

However, we think that our proposal could incorporate new functionalities that help to promote certain services, both of the Library and of the University. 

Video summary of BiblioLAB: