LibTour

What are QR Codes?

American Jurisprudence (Amjur) LibTour Poster (JPG)

AmJur LibTour poster. Click for printable PDF.

QR stands for “quick response.” It’s a scan-able bar code that has self-contained information such as text or a URL. The abundance of smartphones has made QR codes increasingly popular because, among other uses, QR Codes are an easy way to send your smartphone’s web browser directly to someplace on the internet just by scanning with a camera. If you want to learn more, there’s this thing called Wikipedia.

What do students need to play?

Students need a smartphone like an iPhone or Android, of course. They will also need to install a QR code or bar code scanner app, which they can find for free in their smartphone app stores or marketplaces. Other than that, they must be connected to their cell phone carrier’s network or a wireless connection on their phone while they scan.

Can CALI recommend an scanner app?

There are lots of free scanner apps that will work. We’ve tested LibTour QR codes with an iPhone using the free AT&T Code Scanner App. On Android we’ve successfully tested with equally free (at least for Android) QuickMark.

What’s this going to cost me or my school?

Nothing, if you’re a CALI member school – which is all but a few US schools. If your school is one of the unlucky handful of schools that still isn’t a CALI member, what are you waiting for? Contact us now if you have questions about joining.

Why is CALI doing LibTour?

Besides the fact that we at CALI love to introduce cool new technologies into legal education, we think LibTour will be a useful and fun service law librarians can provide for their students. Many law schools do something like a self-guided library tour for 1Ls using a set of paper instructions. And we’ve always wanted to create a database of universal audio files to help law librarians piece together an audio tour, like you’ll often find at museums or tourist attractions. When we realized that posting a QR Code next to a collection could send that audio directly to a device many students already have on them, we thought it was too good of a project to pass up.

May I reproduce, customize, or edit the contents of this website?

Those of you at schools and libraries – including law firm and public libraries – can use LibTour about however you want. Just give credit to CALI and don’t turn around and sell our work.

More specifically, LibTour by CALI is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at cali.org.
Creative Commons License

Bottom line: have fun, be creative, share, and let us know what you’re doing with them. You’ll find ideas for customized LibTour implementation here, and we’ll update the list as we hear from you.