libraries and mobile web

ON THE MOVE WITH THE MOBILE WEB

LIBRARIES AND MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES

Shanna Caines, Mary Chu, Darlene Davis, Charlie Terng

Mobile Web: An Introduction What does it mean?

-WWW accessed through a mobile device (cell phone, iPod touch, blackberry etc.)

Who is using it? Japan among early adopters Gen Y (18-27) and Gen X (28-41) English speaking Hispanics and African

Americans are also among leading users. People of all income levels

What is it used for? Interactive, stay constantly connected Texting (SMS), email, instant messaging Downloading ring tones, games. Searching for information (weather,

news, maps)– location aware

Mobile Devices: The Evolution

Mobile Devices

Mobile Phone Devices- are becoming increasingly amorphous…

(convergence)- range from smartphones to PDAs, to

camera phones, with a lot of overlap.

Carriers- Hundreds of carriers but in the U.S. Sprint

Nextel, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Alltel are the big 5.

Operating Systems- between 30 & 40 mobile operating systems

available. (Symbian, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Linux OS, Palm OS, etc

815T PB Transformer Cell Phone (Japan)

GRRR…

Challenges of the Mobile Web

• Lack of Uniformity- So many providers, functions,

operating systems

• Where’s the browser?- Can be difficult to locate on

some phones- Tough to navigate

• Costs and Speeds- Carriers typically charge you

for this access- Connection speeds can be

slow.

What can we do with the Mobile Web?

Mobile Web Applications

TIVO’S MOBILE WEBSITE

Mobile Newspapers:• The Wall Street Journal

• http://online.wsj.com/home-page

• The Los Angeles Times• http://mobile.latimes.com

Audiobooks:• http://www.audible.com• http://www.audiobooks.com

Shopping:• http://www.amazon.com• http:///www.eBay.com

Entertainment:• Games

• http://www.websudoku.com • Video

• http://www.youtube.com

What does this have to do with libraries?

Wisconsin’s South Central Library System

http://libonline.scls.lib.wi.us/mainPageNew.htm

Seattle’s Public Library’s Central Branch

http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=branch_central_computers&branchID=1

NYPL’s Mobile Site

MOBILE WEB APPS TOUR

E-MAIL

Web-Based E-mail Services

Push E-mail Functionality

Messages delivered directly to phone

Functionality is built in to most smartphones and PDAs.

Users can install push mail applications: Emoze (

www.emoze.com) Funambol (open

source) (www.funambol.com)

Browser-based Users must visit client in

order to retrieve messages

Examples: Yahoo! Mail Mobile Gmail Windows Live Hotmail

• 42% of U.S. adults send and receive text messages

(2007 study)

• Enables participation in other activities:

– Vote for Reality TV characters (American Idol)

– Sign up for news alerts (Weather Channel, ESPN)

– Text search terms to Yahoo! or Google

– Send MapQuest directions to your phone

• Group text:

– Bluepulse, Joopz, Mozes, Broadtexter

TEXT-MESSAGING

MUSIC & RADIO Free:

International radio stations www.tuned.mobi (formerly Radio4PDA)

Mundu Radio Application

Pandora Radio advertises

‘On the Go’ subscription service

Most cell providers offer a way to stream or download music

Verizon V CAST Sprint Radio

(streaming) and Sprint Digital Lounge (download)

Alltel Radio and XM Satellite Radio application

AT&T offers many different mobile music apps: XM Satellite Radio, MobiRadio, Napster Mobile, and eMusic Mobile

MUSIC & RADIO (Cont.)

OverDrive media services provide music, audiobook and video files to subscribing libraries. Featured Public Library list includes: Los Angeles, Toronto, District of Columbia, Seattle, and Greater Phoenix

• Hardware: Amazon Kindle & Sony E-reader

• Free reader software downloads for mobile devices (Mobipocket and Plucker)

• E-book formats:• Mobipocket• Adobe PDF• Microsoft Reader for Pocket PC

• Content available via OverDrive media service subscribers, Mobipocket, FictionWise and Ebooks.

• Free content available via Project Gutenberg and Daily Lit

E-BOOKS

• Market leader by far is Audible.com

• iTunes is closest competitor

• LibriVox offers free audiobooks in the public domain

• Our friend, OverDrive media service enables patrons to download audiobooks from public and special libraries

• OCLC NetLibrary also provides a service to libraries in making eBooks and audiobooks available for download to patrons

AUDIO BOOKS

Widgetsoffering quick access to content without having to open a

browser

Yahoo! Mobile: calendar, search, Flickr Nokia WidSets: Sudoku, eBay, Twitter,

Flickr Over 4,000 to choose from Community development

Plusmo: sports, entertainment, news Over 20,000 to choose from includes

apps for iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia

District of Columbia Public Library iPhone App

60 million people read an online newspaper in July 2007

Virtually every major news organization has a mobile website

NEWS

MORE MOBILE WEB APPLICATIONS

Moblogging: blogging straight from your cell phone

All major news readers have mobile websites This means reading all of your RSS feeds

while you’re out and about Many take-out restaurants will now let

you text in your order Microblogging sites, Twitter and Jaiku,

also have mobile sites

Library Mobile Initiatives

An increasing number of libraries are offering

mobile services

AirPAC is a portable version of an OPAC

AirPAC offers A visual design just right for the iPhone Integrates library locations with built-in

Google Maps™ software Catalog search with RightResult™

Relevance-ranking technology Access to online resources and

electronic journals

INNOVATIVE INTERFACES: AirPAC

Digital media collections are increasing in libraries

OverDrive digital media service has partnered with several libraries to offer audiobook collections, e-books, video, and music files to library patrons New York public library is one of their

users

MOBILE COLLECTIONS

Academic software and Scholarly databases have created mobile functions Endnote Factiva Westlaw legal research database National Library of Medicine’s “PubMed”

MOBILE DATABASES

Self-service audio tours for handheld devices

Text messages are being used to provide user alerts

Text messaging, IM, and e-mail is increasingly used in reference departments to communicate with patrons

Mobile Library Circulation PocketCirc enables librarians to access the

Unicorn Library Management System on a PDA

MORE LIBRARY MOBILE APPLICATIONS

How to Create a Mobile Experience

Take no action. - Consider user base- Is your website already primed?

Push content via mobile alerts Mozes, Broadtexter Simultaneous text message to subscribers

Mobile Style Sheets CSS for mobile devices

How to Create a Mobile Experience

Transcoded websites- Sweezer, Mowser- Compress HTML content for mobile

display

Mobile-only websites Specially programmed for mobile

phones Looks best but limited compatibility.

Getting Started with the Mobile Web

Starter activity

Yahoo! GoE-books

Text yourselfQR CodesListenUp!

Thanks! Questions? Comments?