By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

NORTH SHELBY – The North Shelby Library has launched a mobile app that may revolutionize how patrons access the library.

“Ours is the first that’s come out for Alabama. It allows people a lot of functionality,” said Librarian Katie Guerin. “We’re already a 24-hour library in terms of there’s a lot of services that can be accessed remotely. They can be on a trip 1,000 miles away and get on the app and renew their books. Or they can put a book on hold, and when they get back, it’ll be on the shelf.”

Guerin said the app works for Blackberry, Windows phones, the iPhone, Android-powered phones, the Kindle Fire and the iPad. She also said patrons need a library card to access the app.

Library patrons can also use the app to scan barcodes at a bookstore and see if the library has the book.

“You can put it on hold from the app,” Guerin said. “We try to make it as user-friendly as possible. It also allows you to access our e-books very easily.

“There’s an ongoing feed of our calendar events,” she added. “If you want to know when the next story time is for kids, you just click on the app and look it up.”

Guerin said the library’s new technology won’t replace the library’s traditional role.

“We’re trying to be seamlessly integrated with the technology that is emerging,” she said. “We will always have books. We continue to buy books, but we want to meet people where they want to access the library.”

For more information about the North Shelby Library mobile app, visit Northshelbylibrary.org.