The Mobile Web
Are Library Services Ready?
Kevin Reiss
Office of Library Services
kevin.reiss@mail.cuny.edu
10/5/09
LACUNY Emerging Technologies
Committee Meeting

Is this the mobile web?

Outline
● What is the mobile web?
– User trends
– Devices
● How do our current services perform on
it?
– Informal Evaluation
● What are our options?
– Strategies for effective web design
– What we can do now

Mobile Web Use is
Skyrocketing
● Mobile devices are fast becoming the
most common computing tools.
● Pew surveys on Internet life say mobile
computing will the dominant form of
computing within 10 years.
● “Cloud” services will become more
important
● Mobile Computing and Cloud Computing
mean more 24/7 computing
● Web design practices need to be
reconsidered

Mobile Services and Younger
Users
● 71 % of teenagers use a mobile device to
access the web – Pew Survey on
Internet Life
● 1700 text messages a month for
teenagers in 2008 – Nielson Mobile
Survey
● Being networked during all waking hours
seems to be where we are headed

SMS Text Messaging
● Is this an important means of service or
content delivery for libraries?
● Certainly Important for Information
Sharing
● Some rudimentary support in today's
library applications
● Text message reference

The Devices – by OS
● Symbian (Nokia phones)
● Blackberry
● Iphone/IPod Touch (fastest growing
group)
● Windows Mobile Devices
● Android Devices
● Palm

Mobile vs. Desktop
● Current mobile use has been described
as “snacking” in between time spent at
a desktop or full-size laptop computer
● This distinction is blurring
– Think netbooks – lightweight laptops
– Tablet PCs
● Most immediately think smartphones

Netbooks

Tablets

Or Many Devices?

Repeat of the Browser Wars?
● Mobile devices are typically run using
proprietary operating systems
● Innovative Interfaces has a library
application [Airpac] for the Iphone and
Blackberry
– What about other devices?
● Blackberry, Iphone Windows Mobile
● Android
– Open Source
– Linux-based mobile Operated system

Develop for Just One Device

Android Open Development

Not to be forgotten...Wireless
Reading Device

Kindle Native Interface

Kindle Format?
● AZW – proprietary kindle reader format
● Also support html, .mobi, .txt
● PDF is not fully supported yet
● DRM is important in the mobile sphere
● Ebooks are only approximately 3% of the
book market but are gaining acceptance
● Compare the “book-like” experience of the
kindle with the experience our current
library “eBooks” offer the user

How will DRM fit in? A Major
challenge facing eBook authors,
publishers, and libraries

Core Library Services on the
Mobile Web
● Search and Discovery
● Content Delivery
– E-books
– Full-text content
– Citation Managers
● Reference Services
● Course Reserves / Course Management
Support
● General Information; hours, location, etc.

Search
● Needs to get better and easier
– Voice search will be important
– Search by picture will too
● Better results display is needed
● Browsing Options need to be more readily
available
● Catalogs
– SMS
– Mobile Friendly Display

Search

Catalog Search Example

Kindle App on IPhone

Kindle App Search Example

Content Delivery
● Electronic Books
– Lacking quite a bit....
● Research Databases
● Citations
● Multimedia?
● How will “personal” mobile libraries
evolve?
– Think Itunes for books
– Think Zotero/Refworks/Endnote for
content

Ebrary

Kindle Library

EBSCO Platform
accessed on
Iplatform
(iPhone/iPod Touch)

Reference Service
● How will do our online reference services
work with the mobile web?
● CUNY is a member of the OCLC-based
questionpoint service
● How did an attempted session turn out?

Reference

Refworks Mobile

Informal Service Evaluation
Results
● Searching catalog was very cumbersome
● Questionpoint
– Couldn't successfully start a 24x7 Chat
● Ebrary
– No mobile version available
– Content display not impressive
● Refworks
– Mobile version available
● EBSCO Databases
– No mobile version available

How do People Actually Use
the Mobile Web?
● Currently characterized as snacking
between desktop visits
● Time filler (the kindle on the train)
● As lines between devices blur this will
change
● Mobile devices will in some cases
become a user's primary interface to the
Internet

Options for making web services
work with the mobile web
● Three levels of compatibility with mobile
devices courtesy of
http://web.simmons.edu/~fox/pda/cil1_09_fox_mo
● Standard; display the standard http
website within the device
● Transcoded; run your current site through
an emulator
– – see skweezer.com for example
● Create a true mobile website
– Number of encoding options exist for
building a “native” mobile website

Three Mobile Web Scenarios
Standard Transcoded True Mobile

Trancoding Service

W3C Mobility Checker

Evaluate how mobile-friendly
your website is

Transcoded CUNY Catalog

Transcoded Search Results

Create a true mobile web
presence?

The Mobile Campus

Users find your mobile website
with auto-discovery
● Same Mechanism as RSS auto-discovery
● <link> tag in an HTML page header
● Pick a Content Management System that can
help you easily maintain a mobile version of
your web content
● A number of different coding options are
available to the mobile web developer
● Ask vendors if they provide a true mobile web
version of their content

Have a message inviting the mobile
user appear to try your Mobile option

Apps vs. Mobile Websites
● An app could be a killer application the
way a browser toolbar could never be
● We have LibX toolbars, should we have
an “iLib” application?
– General purpose apps seem less useful
– Apps are generally focused around a
single application or service
– Reference might a good “app” choice
● Connect the user directly to the service
they want
● If you can get the user to install it

Your App will share space with
the following types of services
If you can get the user to install it...

The Amazon App for IPhone

App Problems
● Develop for only one platform
● Develop for every platform
● Getting users to install it may be a
problem
● Focus your app development around
specific content or services
– Search
– Reference
– Courseware/Course Reservers

Is this a good choice?

How do you make your library
functional on the mobile web?
● Consider developing a mobile version of
your core web services if possible
● Efficient search and effective content
delivery will be key on the mobile web
(look for support)
● Provide SMS support within:
– Content discovery tools
– Reference services
● Clean URLs Count

Manage Your Web Content
Wisely
● Choose a modern web Content Management System
(CMS) system if possible
● You can afford to be nimble and make a good choice for
web content management if this is a decision you can
make within your library
– Wordpress/Drupal good options
● A modern CMS will help you integrate your services into
all aspects of today's web
● Benefits:
– You won't have wait for someone to build SMS
support into your tool
– Someone is likely to have already created the
feature you want

Wordpress CMS Mobile Web
Example

Wordpress Mobile Plugin

Utilize Best Practices in Web
Content Management
● Use XHTML Strict
● Web-friendly Images
● Accessibility Standards
● Minimize tables
● Don't use tables for page layout
● Investigate requirements for wireless
markup compatibility
– If you might the above five points you will
be more than halfway there already

Implement a Mobile Catalog

Wireless Friendly Websites
● Are maintenance friendly websites
● Choose CMS tools that produce clean
HTML
● Choose CMS tools that may already
include mobile support
● Cloud-type applications are likely easy to
integrate into mobile services
● Think RSS, Calendars
– Developers have already built tools to
work with these standards

Even MARC can make it to the
Mobile Web...

ADD SMS Support to Core
Services

SMS Example Cont.

Clean URLs Count

Are your web services ready
for the mobile web? Test them

We Need to move towards an:
● An infrastructure where our web services
are easily adaptable to whatever
devices users want to access them with
● What we can do:
– Select local web content management
platforms that help us do this
– Select content that is broadly compatible
with the devices our students use
– Encourage vendors and content providers
to include more mobile support in their
services

For More
● http://mobile-libraries.blogspot.com/
● For a thorough overview of mobile issues
from a library perspective see
– http://web.simmons.edu/~fox/
● Try to use some library services on a
mobile device you've got available
– It will be an eye-opener
● Think about content delivery on the
mobile web
– Learn about kindle and kindle compatible
formats