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Mobile Technologies for Academic Libraries: An Overview

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 Mobile Technologies for Academic Libraries: An Overview
Sheik Maideen
Head of the Library, Skyline University, Sharjah, UAE
Abstract
Digital Technology has provided faster access to information and it is also challenging the
libraries to rethink and remodel their services by adopting the technological changes. Today
mobile phones are becoming an integral part of everyday life and are changing the way one
connects and interacts with the world. In this changing scenario, Mobile Technology will be of
great help to libraries towards strengthening their relationship and providing enhanced user
oriented services to existing users. Libraries may well reach out to the remote users who were
considered unlikely to connect because of absence of a medium. The paper discusses on the need,
advantages, drawbacks, barriers and solutions for propitious implementation of the mobile
technology in libraries. It also explores the type of infrastructure required by the libraries for
providing these services in libraries.
Keywords: Mobile Technology, SMS notification services, Mobile document supply, e-resources
Introduction
Mobile technology has made communication and information access very convenient and timely
to users from the comfort of their own homes and offices, and from wherever they are while on
the move with their cellular phone units or PDAs (personal digital assistants). As today’s cellular
phones have more features and capabilities than ever before, including mp3 players, picture
messaging, streaming video, and. become more data-capable, fewer people need a computer to
collect information. People use a cell phone as their primary interface for surfing the Web,
listening to music, watching television, reading books, and interacting with friends. So over the
past ten years, the mobile phone has become one of the major interfaces people use to access and
share information. Libraries are social institutions, connecting people with people and people with
information. They are increasingly no longer just physical places. As most library users owning a
mobile phone, and increasing numbers of these being smart phones, it is time for libraries to take
advantage of mobile technology. Mobile Technology will help both novice and experienced
librarians to stay relevant in an increasingly mobile society. They need to be aware of
technological changes, peer forward, and prepare for the future of library mobile interaction.
Librarians must be commensurate with this trend and integrate themselves into the mobile realm if
they wish to deliver enhanced user services.
Mobile Technologies
The 2009 “Horizon Report” called mobile technologies “an opportunity for higher education to
reach its constituents in new and compelling ways.” The report implied that academic libraries
would find them to be the ideal tools for bringing reluctant researchers to the library, mainly for
their convenience. It’s not hard to see why in 2008, mobile phones were in the hands of more than
4 billion users, a 61% penetration rate worldwide. That same year, mobile users sent and received

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 Mobile Technologies for Academic Libraries: An Overview

2.3 million text messages. The leaders in mobile communication are, not surprisingly, adults in the
18 to 29 age group, the traditional college-age student. Academic libraries are not blind to this a
2009 Library Journal survey found that 65% of academic libraries either already offer or plan to
offer mobile services. If your library is in that 35% with no plans for mobile outreach, keep
reading you’ll find ideas to make your library a true 21st-century information hub.
Mobile Technology v/s Libraries
Mobile technology has now come up with “Libraries in hand” trend. Our librarians are in move to
determine these devices are affecting information access and ensure that they are communicating
with patrons and providing web content in the most appropriate and effective ways. Our librarians
must be prepared to take this challenge to increase the market and demand for mobile access to
personalized facts and information anytime, anywhere on one’s own handheld device. Since
mobile handled devices are truly personal devices, search histories and physical locations can be
harnessed to produce more accurate, individualized information and services. Users don’t want to
wait for list of web results, libraries today are covering most of the technologies given by mobile
industry like PDAs, Blackberry, iPod, cell phones, UM PCs(Ultra Mobile PC) and mobilizing
library contents in a portable form suitable for small screen and delivering short services in the
form of contents/information with multiple searching features. Librarians will need to become
proficient in using these devices to enable users to access them anywhere from anyplace.
Mobile devices today can run increasingly complex software, interact with cloud services, play
rich multimedia content, and allow for advanced user interactivity. New hardware and
technologies such as Bluetooth, accelerometers, and multi touch screens, as well as text
messaging, smart phone software applications, mobile websites, global positioning systems (GPS),
wi-fi, and media creation and capture tools, are all part of the mobile environment. Many of
today’s mobile devices are increasingly “always on”, that is, by default meant to be connected to a
wireless network.
Libraries Provide Expanded Services
Libraries can better serve their users by embracing the growing capabilities of mobile technology.
They can promote and expand their existing services by offering mobile access to their websites
and online public access catalogues: by supplying on the go mobile reference services: and by
providing mobile access to e books, journals, video, audio books, and multimedia content. Thus
audio/video collections no longer are composed only of physical units to borrow, but increasingly
are streamed on demand or downloaded, Circulating content in urban, suburban, and rural libraries
across the country. An American library association study in 2010 found that 66 percent of public
libraries offered e books to their users (up from 55 percent the previous year). An estimated 83
percent of libraries offer online audio content and about 63 percent offer online video content.
The M-Learning Development in India
‘Libraries in hand’ is the latest slogan of the Indian libraries and mobile services in India are quite
affordable. The proliferation of mobile phones, PDAs and other mobile devices means that the
platform has lot of potential in India, with over two million users being added every week and as

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Mobile Technologies for Academic Libraries: An Overview

per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, there were 910.16 million mobile phones and
938.34 telecom service (including landlines) users in India at the end of May 2014, and excellent
connectivity across regions. Major mobile manufactures such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson and
Motorola in India have linked up with service providers like Airtel, Vodafone and others to
provide mobile content, which also includes learning content. Companies that specialize in content
aggregation provide the actual content, while mobile value added services providers develop the
mobile technology and delivery.
The ISRO satellite centre has introduced mobile library services in the first phase to only senior
scientists/engineers who are allowed to use mobiles in the campus and in the second phase to the
faculty and the students of Indian Institute of Space Technology (IIST). All information services
hosted on ISAC library homepage are accessible through intranet and space net can be straight
away optimized to mobile based services. Initially library’s alert services like information on new
books for suggestion, books on display, arrival on indented document, reserved documents ready
for collection, books overdue, library circulars, information about important events, etc, are
provided via mobile devices and later by allowing users to comment on the items in catalog and
letting users to comment directly from their PDAs and mobile phones to library databases.
Library Services that can be provided to Patrons via Mobile Technology
SMS Notification Services :
Libraries may provide the alerts on latest news, events and notices via SMS and MMS to users
wherever they might be. The users can get notified instantly with notice alerts such as- alerts on
bringing new books to the notice of users for suggestion, intimation of arrival of indented
documents by users, informing availability of reserved documents for collection, appraising about
overdue books, outstanding fines, reminders to return library items, renew books, library circulars,
e-journals subscribed, change in timings, information about important events, loan request etc.
Such alert notifications can be generated automatically using integrated library management
system/software. SMS messages can be sent to group of users simultaneously through many free
applications, and intermediary websites/clients.
Formal Education, Distance Learning and E-learning
Students are very versatile in using their mobile phones and various mobile applications.
Academic libraries can harness the advantage to lead implementation of library services through
mobile devices to support distance learning, formal education, and research activities in e-learning
environment by making the information resources ubiquitous. Library services should also blend
with teaching and research practice of colleges/universities, scientific community or other patrons
whom they serve.
Database Browsing : Libraries provide access to a variety of its resources and databases. The
users can just enter search terms and see results that are designed specifically for mobile viewing.
This service includes OPAC, integrated search, and original document search. OCLC’s WorldCat
Mobile application pilot allows users to search for and find books and other materials available in
their local libraries through a web application they can access from a PDA or a smart phone.

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 Mobile Technologies for Academic Libraries: An Overview

My Library : My library is a personal library space where users can find information and
resources of their choice. Users can read alerts, check records, renew resources, request items,
track interlibrary loans and document delivery requests, set up email notices of new books and
journal articles, set up preferences for catalogue searching, etc.
E-resources with Mobile Interfaces : Some publishers are already delivering e-books (both text
and audio) that are accessible via mobile phones. It offers access to a variety of databases and
digital resources such as e-Books, e-Journals, Web databases, dissertations, audio books,
streaming music, films, images and article databases which can be used on mobile. These
collections can either be downloaded from the library websites on user's own mobile devices or
libraries lend mobile devices with the collections already on them. A large collection of audio
books both free-and subscription based services are available for download and also transferable
to mobile devices. Libraries can make use of multimedia messaging service (MMS) on mobile
devices to share photos, videos, and audio. Most of the e-book publishers provide 24x7 access to
the library subscriptions from any internet terminal within the campus, as well on mobile devices,
such as iPods, Android devices, and Kindle.
Library Guide : Libraries can give users the best of library guide information such as library use
guide, question answering service, and library statistics delivering rich content in a way that works
best for users. If users have questions and want to contact the librarian for help, they can get a fast
response from the library via the mobile device and find the appropriate information needed.
Mobile Document Supply : The mobile environment and technology present new opportunities
for sending document requests and scanned images and monitoring the use of collections as well
as the automation of administrative operations. It can support electronic funds transfer, supply
chain management, e-marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data
interchange, and automated inventory management systems.
Text Reference Service : If the library receives a high volume of enquiries that require brief
responses, such as dictionary definitions, facts or service information, then Librarians can provide
instant answers, and links to articles/references in real time.
Library Virtual/ Audio Tours :
Library Virtual/ Audio tours, instruction/induction/orientation programs have been quite
significant in bringing the non-users to libraries and also help the remotely located or users located
in different geographical locations. Library users, who don’t have time or inclination to attend an
on-site workshop, can get access to library tours on their mobile devices. Audio/ virtual library
tours can be produced fairly quickly, inexpensively, and could reduce the amount of staff time
spent helping new users to orient themselves in the library and explaining the facilities available.
It can easily be provided both as downloads from the library website and on mobile service.
Mobile Devices Used in Libraries
 PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant)
 Smart Phones

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Mobile Technologies for Academic Libraries: An Overview

 Cell Phones
 iPods and MP3 players Tablets
The design of mobile devices and services is important to accessibility. As reading becomes more
inclusive of diverse communities, libraries will need to address the ongoing accessibility
challenges of the mobile world.
Components
The users, the devices, the operating systems, the services, the content and the research tracking
(how users currently engage with information on the World Wide Web via their mobile devices.)
are the components required.
Prerequisites for Implementing Mobile-Based Library Services
Mobile technology is unlikely to be able to supply the necessary service on its own, but needs to
be integrated with digital technology. The following prerequisites were identified:
 Digitized information base
 Information products designed for an e-platform
 Electronic information service delivery
 Design of electronic access systems.
Mobile Site Development Tools
While libraries can make their own mobile sites, there are also different services that translate the
website into a mobile friendly interface via the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or ADR
(Auto-Detect and Reformat Software) which allows a website to rearrange its control and
navigation to suit the size of the screen it is being viewed on. That way websites will look good on
all sizes of screens including the popular netbooks and libraries will be well positioned to meet
future demand. The Library websites (with or without OPACS) which are especially designed for
viewing on mobile devices are : American University Library, Boston University Medical Center
Mobile Library, Cambridge University Library, Cornell University Library, Duke University,
Florida International University Libraries, London School of Economics (LSE) Library etc.
Drawbacks of Mobile Technology
The drawbacks of mobile technology are, to mention a few:
 compared to wired Internet service, has relatively slow transmission speed
 limited computational power
 inconvenient input and output interface
 insufficient contents and
 high price
Limitations / Barriers
Although mobile Technology holds great promise for library services, there are some limitations
or barriers in providing library services such as content ownership and licensing, expensive,

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 Mobile Technologies for Academic Libraries: An Overview

resource intensive, limited memory of mobile devices, digital rights management, access to
information in the digital age, reach of an external vendor into the digital collections and
technologies, sustained access etc. Another pressing concern about mobile technology in the
library is privacy - because of the risk that patron usage information can be used and exploited by
law enforcement official and those who commit identity theft. Mobile technology is changing the
relationship between libraries and their users--by expanding services and posing new challenges to
reader's privacy.
Conclusion
There is a growing influence of mobile technology in Libraries, especially as network access
becomes more affordable and reliable, and mobile applications have seen mainstream acceptance
in teaching, learning, and research. This trend will likely continue, and one way libraries can
respond to this emerging trend is to make the library's website easily accessible via web-enabled
mobile devices. Libraries should make conscious choices about what they want to offer in this
arena and act accordingly and only time will tell if a completely mobile-accessible library, in
terms of its services and collections, will become common place.
References
1. Barile, Lori. (2010). Mobile technologies for libraries: a list of mobile applications and
resources for development, College & Research Libraries News, 72(4), 222-228.
2. Booth, C.(2009). Information innovation: Tracking student interest in emerging library
technologies at Ohio University. ACRL Report. [http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/
divs/acrl/publications/ digital/ii-booth.pdf.]
3. Hahn, Jim. (2008). Mobile learning for the twenty-first century librarian, Reference Services
Review, 36(3), 272-288.
4. Hanson, Cody W. (2011). Libraries and the Mobile Web, Special Issue of Library
Technology Reports, 47(2, February/March).

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