1) The document discusses the growing use of mobile devices and opportunities for universities to mobilize their digital resources and services. 2) It analyzes usage statistics and options for developing a mobile platform at Ghent University, including do-it-yourself development or using existing products like Aleph Mobile, Primo, or a hybrid app created by Boopsie. 3) Ghent University ultimately chose to partner with Boopsie to create a mobile app in 4 months at relatively low cost that provided search, hold requests, and other library services to students on their mobile devices.

1. Mobilize UGent
Patrick Hochstenbach @hochstenbach
Digital Architect, Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent
Informatie Aan Zee 2011, Oostende

2. Part I - The Numbers

3. Internet Stats
20% 9% 6%
80% 91% 94%
Facebook Google Twitter
0,5%
1% 1% 1%
99% 99% 100%
WorldCat EBSCO UGent

4. Mother of All Markets

5. Exponential Growth
4.000.000.000
3.000.000.000
2.000.000.000
1.000.000.000
0
1998 2002 2006 2010
Internet Mobile

6. Huge Market
• Mobiles > Cars + PC’s + TV’s combined
• Revenue SMS > Hollywood
• Box Office + DVD Sales + Music Industry +
Video Games
• Smart Phones, Kindle, Tablet, MP3, Car
Electronics, Mobile Video, Wireless Home
Appliances, Smart Fabrics

7. Increasing capabilities
1998 2002 2006 2007 2010+?
Camera Email Video Tablet
PDA Web Television
Games Music 3D Touch
GPS
Apps Transflective
Colors

8. 2010 worldwide statistics
Android
Android iPhone
Cell Phones Smart Phones iPhone
BlackBerry Rest
Rest
19% 17% 8%4%
14% 44%
69% 44%
81%
2010 Q2 worldwide mobile sales 2010 Q2 smart phone martket
19% of mobile market = smart phones 2010 web statistics
31% of smart phones =
88% Android or iPhone
Android or iPhone
9% of mobiles sold in 2010 is driving the mobile internet

9. University statistics
UC Davis 2009 TU Delft 2010 UGent 2010
13%
43% 48%
57% 52%
87%
43% surf the web Mobile Voice
Mobile Data 13% surf the web
- 88% read email
- 90% websites - 55% read email
- 72% read books/articles - 65% websites
- 35% read books/articles

10. UGent Platform
Nokia Samsung
Sony Android
iPhone Other
6%
3%
3%
12%
47%
28%

11. Where are they?
Enrico Fermi - 1950

12. Part II - Implementation Details

13. What
• SMS?
• Mobile Website?
• Mobile Web Widgets?
• Mobile Web Apps?
• Native Apps?
• Game?

14. Options
• DIY
• Stand on shoulders of others:
• Aleph - Aleph Mobile OPAC by Daniel
Forsman
• Primo - Ex Libris
• Metalib - Xerxes by Davisd Walker
• Generic - Boopsie Inc

15. Aleph Mobile

16. 2010 UvA Aleph Mobile

17. Xerxes

18. Xerxes

19. Primo

20. Primo

21. DIY

22. 2009 UGent DIY

23. 2009 UGent DIY

24. 2009 UGent DIY
• Mobile web = absolute developer fun!
• Issues in 2009:
• Mobile Web != Desktop Web (maybe this will change?)
• Still a bit Wild West: new practices, quirks and workarounds
• Libraries reinvent iPhone / Android look & feel but what about older Nokia,
Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry?
• What about: telephone, GPS, video, camera, tilt/touch
sensors, 3D, app integration (agenda, etc)? Will
HTML5 specs keep up with new hardware
capabilities?

25. Boopsie

26. 2010 Boopsie
• http://www.boopsie.com
• Hybrid Application: Native + HTML code
• iPhone, Android,BlackBerry,WinMobile,...
• MARC Dumps/Z39.50
• Aleph 500 integration
• Word/Excel to define menu’s

28. Main menu...

29. GPS-powered library search...

30. GPS-powered library search...

31. Incremental search...
SMS like search, show results while you type...

32. Brief and long views...

33. Hold request...
Here we reused an in-
house
developed web
application...
Boopsie supports
ALEPH hold requests

34. RSS Feeds..

35. UGent Library tweets...

36. Creating submenu’s: list of
mobile enabled databases

37. Admin interface

38. TOC (sub) Menus

39. TOC in vanilla interface

40. Reading list

41. Reading list in vanilla interface

42. Results
• 4 months, 3 persons:
• 2 system librarians : 2 x 0.1 FTE
• 1project manager: 1 x 0.1 FTE
• Costs: ~ 4 weeks paying a programmer
• Some work to synchronize library addresses (250).
Setup the hold request link. Testing on iPhone, HTC
and Nokia.
• More work in color schemes to use, icons, etc...

43. Acknowledgements
• Frank Vandepitte - UGent Library
• Paul Bastijns - UGent Library
• Omar Reygaert - UGent Library
• Gary Fletcher - Boopsie Inc
• Lukas Koster - University of Amsterdam

44. Sources
• MorganStanley “The Mobile Internet Report”
http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/mobile_internet_report122009.html
• Gartner News
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1421013
• Student Smart Phone Survey - Winter 2009
http://clm.ucdavis.edu/pubs/survey/student-w09-2.html
• TU Delft Mobile Survey Results
http://www.slideshare.net/wfvanvalkenburg/tu-delft-mobile-survey-results
• The Mobile Internet is Bigger Than You Think
http://www.slideshare.net/grigs/the-mobile-internet-is-bigger-than-you-think

45. Sources
• UBA Mobile
http://www.slideshare.net/lukask/uba-mobile-igelu-2010