Creating a Mobile Library Website

Sandra Bandy, Lindsay Blake &

Tom Cutshall

Greenblatt Library at Georgia Health Sciences University• 5 Colleges: Nursing, Medical, Dental, Allied

Health, Graduate• 2 Hospitals: Georgia Health Sciences Medical

Center and Children’s Medical Center• Working with students, faculty,

residents, clinicians & researchers

Why Create a site?• Increase in use of Mobile

Technologies• Advent of the iPhone in 2007,

Android in 2009• Rise of the ‘apps’• GHSU Mobile Application Suite• Application development

versus site development

How we created the site1. Research other institution sites –

medical and/or academic2. Based site design features and/or

design ideas we liked from these sites3. Choose services and resources4. Build the site5. Test every aspect of the site6. Add additional resources or

services as they become available

Design and Technical Issues• Mobile websites ≠ full-size websites in miniature• Don’t make users read tiny print • Minimize user typing • Mobile users on the go/just want quick answer• Don’t reinvent the wheel--borrow coding• Test your mobile site: simulators, devices, users• Let user chose between mobile and full size site

Where we are now• Additional sites have been tested and added– STAT!Ref & DailyMed

• Some special exceptions– Access Medicine– UpToDate– Web of Knowledge?

• Journals Category• Constant Feedback

and UpdatesGHSU Greenblatt Mobile Library

Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March April May June July August Sept0

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Mobile Web Page Views

Month

Num

ber o

f hits

SeptemberOctober

NovemberDecember

JanuaryFebruary

MarchAprilMayJuneJuly

AugustSeptember

0 50 100 150 200 250

Mobile Database Usage

PubMedCINAHLMicromedex

Number of hits

Mon

th

Cutshall, T.C., Bandy, S.L., Blake, L. Creating a Mobile Library Website. Computers in Libraries. 31(7) 22-48.

EDUCAUSE free webinar: “Library in Your Pocket: Strategies and Techniques for Developing Successful

Mobile Services”http://www.educause.edu/Resources/LibraryinYourPocketStrategiesa/195003