bibliographic management on mobile devices

IT Services R&D

Using emerging learning and research technologies to enable excellence

m-biblioBibliographic management on mobile devices

Mike Jones, Senior Technical Researcher

#mbiblio

IT Services R&D / ILRT

Background

•Investigate the use of mobile devices as a tool to collecting and managing bibliographic data

•Collaboration between the Library and IT Services at the University of Bristol

•JISC-funded project in the m-library innovationprogramme (1 November 2011 to 31 July 2012)


Devices have lots of sensors and connectivity ...

3

Camera Accelerometer

GPS Compass Network Access

Near Field Communication(on some recent Android devices)

... what can we use in capturingbibliographic data and usage information?

Can we provide something useful?


Design a useful tool for students ...4


... but also provides the Library with statistics5


Student Survey and Workshop6

•User experience expert ran a survey and workshop

•67 students responded to the survey

•10 students attended a 2 hour workshop. Mix of subject areas (undergraduate, taught post graduate and research postgraduate)

•Students not initially told about the aims of them-biblio project


Approximately how many references do you put in your essays?

7

36%

42%

18%

4%1-55-1010-20> 20


What tends to be the approximate ratio of books to journal articles in your reference list?

8

6%

19%

19%

20%

36%25% Books / 75% Articles50% Books / 50% Journals75 % Books / 25% Journal ArticlesPretty much all journal articlesVaries too much to say


How do you usually find your references?9

4%

17%

24%31%

23%

Online citation databases (e.g. Web of Knowledge)Google ScholarUniversity library systemReading lists provided by lecturersOther


Where do you store your references?10

1%7%

17%

16%

58%

In word processor format (e.g. Word)Using bibliographic software (e.g. EndNote)In a hand-written notebookI don’t store my referencesOther


What’s your biggest frustration about managing references?

11

“Citing the reference in the correct format”

“Copying the reference format easily from a paper”

“Different lecturers have different preferences for style of referencing, so its difficult to know what style to choose.”

Inputting the data into Endnote

“Having to put them all in the exact harvard style of referencing”“Time-consuming”


If you could design a simple piece of software to help you manage your references better, what would it do?

12

“Compile them, format them to the desired style and alphabetise”

“It would automatically put them in alphabetically order and split them into the types of references they are e.g. books, journals etc”

“Quick and easy to learn, will format in necessary style”

“Take the journals and books you’ve read and write them in the correct format”


Response from Library Staff13

“It is interesting that EndNote / EndNote Web can deliver on most of the requirements given in 6. However, making the students aware of this and encouraging them to make use of it is another thing.”

Very sad to see that only 14% are using Endnote, yet almost all of them want something that has the capabilities of Endnote! Attendance this year at Endnote Web sessions was very low, so we are clearly not getting to all those who need it.


Workshop - Pain Points14

•Lack of uniformity - different lecturers in the same department have different requirements

•Students used a range of methods for collectingreferences - pen and paper to Endnote

•Software didn’t work as the students expected


Workshop - Ideas for using mobile devices15

•Scan barcodes

•OCR text for references

•Format references to commonformats - customisable

•Manage reference lists

•Export references to text/PDF and Word

•Share references via email, textand store in the Cloud


To develop something useful ...16

•It needs to help the students create accurate references easily

•It needs to be simple and intuitive to use

•It should fit within theirworkflow - export to Endnote or Word


Architecture17

Web Service

Aleph

COPAC

CrossRef

Statistics

Query

Results


Technologies18

Server-side•Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS)

•Simple API for XML (SAX)

•Marc4J

Client-side

•iOS 5.1(iPhone 3GS/4/4S, iPod Touch 2nd/3rd generation, iPad)

•Core Data (local database)

•ZBar bar code reader API


Near Field Communication19

•NFC is a set of standards that allow devices to establish radio communication when in close contact

•Standards cover protocols and data exchange formats and are based upon RFID

•Bristol City Council are looking at initiatives to promote the use of NFC in the city

•It would be great if we could readLibrary RFID tags with a phone ...


NFC/RFID and the Library20

•The Library piloted using RFID in the Chemistry branch Library

•Plans to put RFID tags in stock across all branches

•However ... the tags used by our Library can’t be read by NFC capable devices :-(

Project has requested that NFC and recent RFID Library standards be considered by the Library

RFID project


Camera21

•Use the camera to scan barcodes

•Use OCR to scan for Digital Object Identifierson a page

•You need a camera thatcan auto focus:(iPhone 3GS/4/4S and 3rd generation iPad)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coffeegeek/3198844118




Barcodes22

•The Library uses Telepen for stock management - not supported ‘out of the box’ by open source libraries

•Needed to write a decoder so Telepen was supported


Fallback input for barcodes23

•For devices that don’t have a camera

• Or a camera can’t read the barcode (damaged, poor light etc.)


Examples of data Issues24

•Missing information - issue numbers, volume numbers, page numbers

•Typos in data

•Titles and names all in upper case or lower case

•Author or editor?

We can help improve accuracy but some curation is needed by the user of the app


Demo25


Further Details26

Developer:Mike Jones ([email protected])@MrJ1971

Project Manager:Dave Kilbey ([email protected])

http://mbiblio.ilrt.bris.ac.uk

mailto:[email protected]






bibliographic management on mobile devices

Education