We have MackinVIA at my school’s library, so for the eleventh Thing I downloaded the MackinVIA app to my Samsung Galaxy Note 8S to see if I could access my school’s ebook/eresource collection, and lo and behold, I can! Surprisingly, though, when I try searching for anything, the app just opens up a browser tab with my school’s collection, which I guess saves space and processing power, but seems kind of lame, since I could just go to the browser and look it up myself. Might be handy to have that little app reminder, though, since having single bookmarks on my tablet’s “desktop” doesn’t work conveniently like on my phone.
When I tried to open a book, I discovered that Flash was required, and my tablet doesn’t support it, so I can’t actually view/read any of the ebooks, or listen to any of the audio books, or access the few databases linked to MackinVIA. So, kind of a wash - I was excited to play with my school’s ebooks on my tablet, to use it as an ebook reader, but I guess I’ll just have to use my laptop. I think iOS still also doesn’t support Flash, so I’m not sure what mobile devices will be able to access this collection, or if various people are working on increasing access. Personally, if it worked, it would be neat, and professionally it would allow my students to access materials more widely, if it worked widely.
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