Going mobile: creating a mobile presence for your library

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to determine how students at the University of Regina would like to interact with the library on their mobile devices and how to best construct a mobile site to suit the university community's needs. Design/methodology/approach -A survey was designed to gather feedback from the university community on their use of mobile devices and how they would want to use the library's resources and services via their mobile device. This survey also attempts to better understand how academic libraries can provide effective mobile services. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to several Canadian academic libraries. Its purpose was to discover what other institutions were doing with mobile technologies. Findings -The survey found that 95.4 percent of students that responded to the survey had a smartphone and 75 percent of them used their mobile phone to access the web. The survey indicated that the library catalogue was the most popular resource chosen to become mobile enabled. The questionnaire distributed to other Canadian academic libraries showed that some libraries were designing and building web apps, while others were creating native apps. Originality/value -With the increase of mobile technology availability and the demand for accessible mobile content, it is imperative that libraries examine how they can provide services to their patrons within this medium in order to continue to provide valuable services. Mobile technologies are constantly changing, so continuous assessment in this area is of importance.

Identifying Key Steps for Developing Mobile Applications & Mobile Websites for Libraries

“…MAMW developers could also scan the environment by examining existing MAMW and reviewing the literature to create sets of guidelines for replacing old information systems by developing new, well-functioning MAMW. 24 Librarians could also scan the market for free software options to conserve financial resources. 25…”

Factors impacting library-related uses of mobile phones by students in public universities in Malawi

“…Ownership of feature phones has in some studies reached the 100% mark (De Wee 2013, Dewah andMutula 2013); that of smartphones is steadily edging towards reaching the same threshold (Brookes 2016, Nowlan 2013. If the trend continues, it is anticipated that smartphone ownership will reach saturation point within the next few years.…”

Attitude of the Rudjer Boškovic Institute’s scientists to the small screen mobile devices library services

“…(Karim et al, 2006;Paterson and Low, 2011) Users have also expressed a desire for mobile friendly online catalogues and databases, which may come as a surprise because they both require a more complex search and downloading files which is complicated due to technical limitations -primarily because of the small screen and difficulties that users may have when using a small keyboard. (Ballard and Blaine, 2013;Dresselhaus and Shrode, 2012;Meier, 2010;Murray, 2010;Nowlan, 2013;Paterson and Low, 2011;Pendell and Bowman, 2012) In order to obtain information in as simple manner as possible most "mobile version" catalogues (MOPAC) offer only simple search.1 (Meier, 2010;Murray, 2010) Users have ambiguous relationship with MOPAC. On the one hand, the ability to search the library catalogue has been found by a good portion of users as very useful for mobile devices, (Paterson and Low, 2011) but on the other hand, the frequent catalogue users will not use a mobile device as their primary entry method into the library online catalogue.…”