A book is on the shelf or it is off the shelf. And then there are all of the exceptions. I was struck by a story about a New York high school librarian who had placed QR codes on the covers of books. The goal was to eliminate handling but still to encourage student book browsing. Now, QR codes aren’t new and I’m not going to pen a paean to them. But it made me decide to think out loud about how we could use them during this particular period in our law library. What if you coded every title in your library?

Code Technology

Do a web search for “QR code generator” and you’ll find plenty of options. There’s a scale issue you’d have to face in a law library, but I think it’s manageable. For example, you might not have deep links to a multi-volume set (whether loose leaf, code, or case law reporters) so you might generate one for the set.

Mobile browsers have the functionality to scan codes. I’m not very hip to what the kids are doing these days so I don’t use my browser scan function often. But the integration means that a researcher with a bog standard device would have everything they need to use a QR code.

A screenshot of the the onscreen keyboard in Firefox and the location bar (with the DuckDuckGo search engine selected). The QR code scan option is just above the location bar and can be tapped to activate the camera.

The QR code is just an image. It encodes the URL you provide. Your take on the URL would depend on your audience. You might:

  • use direct, deep links to the content. This may be preferred if you are in an IP-authenticated environment or the content is freely accessible (like a government document). The QR code should take the person directly to the resource, so the publisher site should recognize the IP resolution;
  • use links to your catalog record, in case you have multiple options (same content in multiple electronic databases)

I used a free QR code generator in the Microsoft Windows Store to generate this one for the O’Briens Encyclopedia of Forms, a precedent mainstay in Canadian law libraries. There used to be a need for deep link generators. But you may find your legal publisher provides straightforward URLs now for online texts or sub-divisions of their online collections.

A QR code of Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw O’Briens Encyclopedia. I’m wondering whether a colored background might make the QR code more distinct on a book spine.

Any reduction in physical formats being handled saves your staff time and keeps them in circulation longer. Under the current pandemic recommendations, books are sequestered after use for days. If you can keep that book on the shelf, you can maintain a higher level of information access.

A QR code obviously is more portable than your physical texts. If you are generating and maintaining them, you may be adding them to your catalog records. Our discovery layer has a virtual browse function. Adding the code to this view (rather than just a book cover) might enhance a user’s experience by taking them to the resource without having to click into the resource’s record. A QR code could be embedded in an intranet page or other firm resource to also eliminate additional navigation or clicks.

I could see some format frustration using QR codes with legal texts. There is a difference between a book blurb (for selection during browsing) destination and one that is for full-text. This might be a reason to avoid QR codes on certain publisher’s content. You might be able to send someone to a PDF of a publication but how does that read on a phone? If the content will not reformat for a mobile device, the frustration in being unable to use the text may outweigh the other operational considerations (risk, access, etc.). On the other hand, it gives the researcher an option.

Better URLs

If you are able to redirect a researcher, you should be able to get some usage data from the transaction if it hits a licensed database. But there is no need to push that off on to the publisher. You can take some control of this yourself.

I’ve talked about using URLs for marketing purposes before. This falls right in that category. I have an installation of the open source YOURLS URL shortener (probably available for free if you have a web host using CPanel). You could use any link shortener that offers analytics (Bit.ly, for example, for a fee).

There is a plugin for YOURLs that will also generate a QR code, saving a bit of leg work. The YOURLS view of the O’Briens Encyclopedia shows the long URL, the short URL, and the QR code.

A screenshot of the YOURLS administrator panel with the detail for a short link.

The short link is a deep link but the Quick Share option returns the first page (in this case, a log in since I’m not logged in) it hits. I don’t use this social sharing function so it’s irrelevant to me, but you would want to tailor that window before sending. All short links are stored in a database. You can custom generate your URLs too – you might use ISBN or some other unique identifier.

Using your own URL shortener would give you an additional data option. Adding a + sign to the URL will show you usage statistics, something to contrast with your internal browsing statistics (on the shelf/off the shelf). It’s a flat statistic – you can’t tell whether the usage was useful or not and, unless I’m mistaken, legal publishers aren’t able to provide referral information. You wouldn’t be able to link a QR scan to a subsequent visitor.

A Cutter Above?

Law library book spines aren’t always very wide. We live with our spine labels wrapping around the spine a bit. That wouldn’t work for QR codes.

There are obvious options when you might replace a spine label with a QR code entirely. Multi-volume sets that have their own spine numbering, for example, especially in areas where you are already providing signage about organization.

I wonder if there is a place for QR codes to replace spine labels, with the custom URL incorporating the call number and cutter (as the entire custom URL or as the starter).

Another benefit of creating custom URLs is that they will contain less information. The resulting QR code will be less busy and can potentially be shrunk further. You can see the difference with the codes (direct to Westlaw in red, using my own URL on the right)

My phone would read the URL in the red QR code so long as it was larger than 175 pixels square. My phone would read the white QR code, the one with the shortened URL, even when it was only 50 pixels wide.

Use

You can’t just put QR codes out and expect people to know how to use them. So a bit of documentation would be in order. But I think the pandemic gives us a useful context in which to consider this. It would make sense to people that they might want to handle as few physical, shared objects as possible.

Beyond live subscriptions, though, it seems to me this would be good for book dummies. As law libraries cancel texts, either entirely or as they move titles to a digital format, book dummies can serve a useful purpose. First, they can avoid the perspective that empty shelves mean an empty library. There are law libraries for whom books are more decor now but that is better than just emptying shelves. People notice.

Second, a book dummy can ensure that a researcher who browses a shelf does not miss something you have only online. A QR code on the spine could be an easy way to bridge those two format worlds.

I’ll be storing this idea for the future. We don’t have the staff or demand (since we’re physically closed and will be for some time) but it may be a new process to introduce. It may make sense to add to all texts in a small law library collection. It might only be efficient to do prospective application in a larger law library.