Improving Your Library's Mobile Services

Sep. 12, 2013
ALATechSource Workshop
Bohyun Kim
DigitalAccess Librarian, Florida International University Medical Library

1. The significance of the mobile web
2. Mobile consumer behavior
3. Developments in libraries’ mobile websites
4. ResponsiveWeb Design
5. Building and growing your library’s mobile
presence
6. Ask questions on the chat window or on
Twitter (@bohyunkim / #libmobile).

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Smartphone-Ownership-2013/Findings.aspx

http://www.pewinternet.org/Trend-Data-%28Adults%29/Device-Ownership.aspx

Image from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40198520@N00/7943106962/

 Leaving a voice mail instead of texting is
impolite because it wastes the receiver’s
time.
 Asking people something that is easily
discoverable on the Internet is equally rude
because the communication is not only
unnecessary but also time-consuming.
Nick Bilton, “Disruptions: Digital Era Redefining Etiquette,” Bits (blog), NewYorkTimes,
March 10, 2013, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/ etiquette-redefined-in-the-
digital-age.

Image from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/35075971@N00/3839176730/

 An estimated 20 million passengers miss bus or
train stops each year because of "digital
distraction" from their smartphone.
 The problem has affected 51% of Britons and
causes around 15% of commuters to run late for
meetings, according to the findings.
 Over the last year, passengers have missed their
stops an estimated 29 million times.
Mobile Life Report by O2/Samsung (2013), http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-
news/smartphones-lead-to-missed-stops-1.

 While the average British
smartphone owner
spends 97 minutes a day
with their nearest and
dearest, they spend 119
minutes – just shy of two
hours – on their phones.
Mobile Life Report by O2/Samsung (2013),
http://news.o2.co.uk/?press-release=i-cant-talk-
dear-im-on-my-phone.
Image from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smith/6267342711/

 Over the five-year period from 2007 to 2011,
wireless data traffic on AT&T, the second
largest wireless carrier in the United States,
has grown 20,000 percent, at least doubling
itself every year since 2007.
ChrisVelazco, “AT&T’s Wireless DataTraffic Doubles EveryYear, butThrottling Is Not the
Solution,”TechCrunch, February 14, 2012, http://techcrunch. com/2012/02/14/atts-
wireless-data-traffic-doubles- every-year-but-throttling-is-not-the-solution.

 Worldwide mobile data traffic will increase
13-fold over the next four years, reaching 11.2
exabytes per month (134 exabytes annually)
by 2017.
CiscoVisual Networking Index: Global Mobile DataTraffic Forecast Update, 2012–2017,
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_pa
per_c11-520862.html

ComScore, 2013 Mobile Future in Focus, white paper (Reston,VA: comscore, February
2013), 12, www.comscore.com/
Insights/presentations_and_Whitepapers/2013/2013_Mobile_Future_in_Focus

Image from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29487767@N02/4053393372/

Mobile Life Report by O2/Samsung (2012)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-
phones/9365085/Smartphones-hardly-used-for-calls.html.

 Browsing the internet 24
 Checking social networks 16
 Listening to music 15
 Playing games 13
 Making calls 13
 Text messaging 11
 Checking/writing emails 9
 Reading books 8
 WatchingTV/films 7
 Taking photographs 3
 Total 119 minutes
Mobile Life Report by O2/Samsung (2013), http://news.o2.co.uk/?press-release=i-cant-talk-
dear-im-on-my-phone.

ComScore, 2013 Mobile Future in Focus, white paper (Reston,VA: comscore, February 2013), 33,
www.comscore.com/ Insights/presentations_and_Whitepapers/2013/2013_Mo- bile_Future_in_Focus.

 According to the interviews and the survey
conducted byYahoo! and the Nielsen
Company in June 2010 , 93 percent of mobile
users accessed the Internet on their mobile
devices away from home but as many as 89
percent also used their mobile devices to
access the Internet inside their home.
Ashmeed Ali, EdwinWong, Gateley Meeker, andDavidGill,The Mobile Shopping Framework Study:The Role of
Mobile Devices in the Shopping Process, white paper (NewYork: Nielsen Company, January 2011), 5,
www.slideshare.net/ashmeed25/mobile-shopping- frameworkstudy2010whitepaper-final.

Danielle Bulger, “smartphone owners: A Ready andWillingAudience,” Compete Pulse blog, March 12, 2010,
http://blog.compete.com/2010/03/12/smartphone- owners-a-ready-and-willing-audience

 There’s a persistent myth that mobile users are
always distracted, on the go, “info snacking” in
sessions of 10 seconds.That’s certainly part of
the mobile experience, but not the whole story.
Mobile isn’t just “mobile”. It’s also the couch, the
kitchen, the three-hour layover, all places where
we have time and attention to spare. 42 percent
of mobile users say they use it for entertainment
when they’re bored.Those aren’t 10-second
sessions.That means we shouldn’t design only
for stunted sessions or limited use cases.
Josh Clark, “Nielsen Is Wrong on Mobile,” .Net Magazine, April 12, 2012,
www.netmagazine.com/ opinions/nielsen-wrong-mobile.

 People are turning to their smartphones more to
utilize their downtime than to meet some urgent
need and that users are not always in a huge
rush when they are using their smartphones.
(p.11)
 People are willing to and actually do turn to their
mobile devices for a longer time than just a few
minutes and for tasks that can be complicated.
(p.12)
Bohyun Kim,The Library Mobile Experience: Practices and User Expectations, LibraryTechnology
Report 49(6), ALATechSource, 2013.

 Lookup/Find (urgent info, local): I need an answer to
something now -frequently related to my current
location in the world.
 Explore/Play (bored, local): I have some time to kill
and just want a few idle time distractions.
 Check In/Status (repeat/micro-tasking): Something
important to me keeps changing or updating and I
want to stay on top of it.
 Edit/Create (urgent change/micro-tasking): I need
to get something done now that can’t wait.
LukeWroblewski, Mobile First (NewYork: A Book Apart, 2011), p. 50.

 There are, of course, differences based on
mobile and desktop usage patterns; but the core
value of a web service remains the same across
both formats and beyond. In fact, you’ll quickly
find your customers will expect to do just about
everything (within reason) on mobile. Especially
those who primarily (or only) use their mobiles
to get online. So don’t dumb things down on
mobile—focus on what really matters most
anywhere people can access your website.
Wroblewski, Mobile First, 22.

 The mobileWeb is no longer an inferior or a
complementary means of accessing theWeb.
It is a competitor to the desktopWeb and will
soon be accessed by more people than the
desktopWeb. Considering this situation,
offering only a basic set of information and
features on the mobileWeb is no longer a
viable strategy. (p.13)
Bohyun Kim,The Library Mobile Experience: Practices and User Expectations, LibraryTechnology
Report 49(6), ALATechSource, 2013.

 Mobile websites are preferred by libraries over native apps for the
reasons of cost and development skills required.
 But consumers overwhelmingly prefer native apps over mobile websites.
 According to the recent survey and interview results from the Pew
Internet andAmerican Life Project, 63 percent of Americans ages 16 and
older would use apps-based access to library materials and programs (35
percent “very likely” and 28 percent “somewhat likely”), and 62 percent
would use GPS-navigation apps that help them locate material inside
library buildings (34 percent “very likely” and 28 percent “somewhat
likely”).
– Kathryn Zickuhr, Lee Rainie, and Kristen Purcell, Library Services in the Digital Age
(Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, January 22, 2013), 57,
http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/01/22/library-services.

Content in a walled garden Easily discovered by a search engine
Access to the device hardware such as
GPS, microphone, camera, file system,
etc.
In development:
- File systemAPIs
- Device /media APIs
- Audio APIs
Easy payment collection Can be cumbersome or not supported
Continual updates / Separate installation No need for installation or updates
Can function without Internet connection Requires Internet connection
Faster Slower
(Mobile Data Speed is improving)

NCsU Libraries’ mobile website MobiLIB in 2007 [Image credit: Markus Wust, “MobiLIB:A Library service for Generation ‘Mo
bile’ at NorthCarolina state University” (presented at the RUsA MARs HotTopics Discussion Group at Ameri- can Library
Association An- nual Meeting,Washington, DC, June 23, 2007), www. lib.ncsu.edu/documents/dli/ projects/mobilib/presenta-
tion_ALA.ppt]
Images from AaronTay’, “What Are Mobile Friendly Library sites offering?A survey,April 24, 2010,
http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/2010/04/comparison-of-40-mobile-library-sites. html.

http://www.csupomona. edu/~library/m/

https://www.lib.umn.edu/mobile

http://sherman.library.nova.edu/m/

 More information and resources beyond
hours and contact info
 Research section
 Article Search
 Course Reserves
 Catalog Search Box on the mobile website
homepage
 Mobile-appropriate (for 2013) features
 Study rooms, computers, account management

 “Participants’ interest in conducting research
using their mobile device was certainly a
surprise. Our assumption was that basic
library information would suffice on a mobile
Web site; however, the students who
participated in this study wanted to be able
to interact with library resources on their
mobile devices.”
Jamie Seeholzer and Joseph A. Salem, “Library on the Go: A Focus Group Study of the Mobile Web and the
Academic Library,” College & Research Libraries 72, no. 1 (2011), 17

 Being able to search the library catalog on the mobile device.
 Request or place an item on hold from their phone.
 Customizable options and personalized information from the
library regarding their library account and other services such as:
 Contacted by text messaging when a requested library item was
available for pickup or when a material was nearing its due date.
 Text message reminders about upcoming library appointments.
 Being able to customize their mobile web experience such as:
 Being able to pick their favorite databases or choose their own top ten
links to see on a mobileWebsite
 A library building guide and an explanation of the call number
system.
 Text or have a live chat with a librarian about a research question
or how to cite a source.
Jamie Seeholzer and Joseph A. Salem, “Library on the Go: A Focus Group Study of the Mobile Web and the
Academic Library,” College & Research Libraries 72, no. 1 (2011), 15-19.

Heather Denny, “survey snapshot: Library Research Using Mobile Devices,” MIT Libraries News, December 3,
2012, http://libraries.mit.edu/sites/news/survey- snapshot-library/9911

 Create a MobileWebsite
 MobilizeYour Library Catalog
 Put the Catalog Search Box onYour Library’s
MobileWebsite Homepage
 Add More Mobile-Friendly Library Resources
and Content
 Offer LibraryAccount Management Feature
 Other experiments

 What is it?
 How is it used in libraries?
 Pros and Cons
 Resources andTools

www.saclibrary.org
See more examples in Eric
Rumsey, “Responsive
Design Sites:
Higher Ed, Libraries,
Notables,” Seeing the
Picture (blog), May 3, 2012,
http://blog.
lib.uiowa.edu/hardinmd/20
12/05/03/ responsive-
design-sites-higher-ed-
libraries-notables.

http://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/

 The term, “responsive web design,” has become
popular from the article that a web designer and
developer Ethan Marcottee wrote in 2010.
 The goal of responsive web design is to make a web
page look equally well regardless of the screen size
of a device.
 Ethan Marcotte, “Responsive Web Design,” A List
Apart, May 25, 2010,
http://alistapart.com/article/responsive-web-design.

 A flexible, grid-based layout
 Flexible images
 Media queries

 An extremely
long page
filled with too
many
navigation
items,
links, and
more links.

 Responsive sites usually do not give users an option
to go back to the look of the full desktop website.
 For those who are familiar with the existing library
website and know exactly where to go and get the
information they want, the automatic change in the
website layout on a small-screen device can be
disorienting and confusing.

 Provide an option for mobile device users to opt out of
responsive design by removing or changing the viewport meta
tag.A demo page for one of the solutions is found at :
http://creativeandcode.com/demos/responsive-view-full-site/.
 “Should Users Be Forced into a Responsive Design (without
the Ability to Opt Out)?,” Stack Exchange - UX, May 1, 2012,
http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/20824/should-users-
be-forced-into-a-responsive-design-without-the-ability-to-
opt-out .
 Chris Coyier, “Opt-Out Responsive Design?,” CSS-Tricks,
September 12, 2012, http://css-tricks.com/user-opt-out-
responsive-design/ .

Brad Frost, “Separate MobileWebsiteVs. ResponsiveWebsite,” Smashing Magazine, August 22, 2012,
http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2012/08/22/separate-mobile-responsive-website-presidential-
smackdown/.

 Example: A typical page on Romney’s mobile
website was about 687 KB and loaded in about 8.75
seconds.
 By contrast, the size of a typical page on Obama’s
responsive website was about 4.2 MB and took
whopping 25 seconds to load.
 Brad Frost, “Separate MobileWebsiteVs. Responsive
Website,” Smashing Magazine, August 22, 2012,
http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2012/08/22/se
parate-mobile-responsive-website-presidential-
smackdown/.

 Web performance researcher Guy Podjarny reported that his
performance test on 347 responsive websites showed that as
many as 86 percent of them had little to no performance
savings when loaded in the smallest window compared to
the largest one, thereby making the page load painfully slow.
 Guy Podjarny, “Performance Implications of Responsive
Design – Book Contribution,” Guy’s Pod, July 11, 2012,
http://www.guypo.com/mobile/performance-implications-
of-responsive-design-book-contribution/.

 WordPress Responsive theme
http://themeid.com/demo/responsive
 Bootstrap
http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap
 JQuery Mobile
http://jquerymobile.com
 The Responsinator
http://responsinator.com
 Ethan Marcotte, “Responsive Web Design,” A List Apart, May 25,
2010, http://alistapart.com/article/ responsive-web-design.
 Matthew Reidsma, “Responsive Web Design for Libraries: Beyond
the Mobile Web,” in Mobile Library Services: Best Practices, ed.
Charles Harmon and Mi- chael Messina (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press, 2013), 79–94.

 Mobile e-readers and tablets
 E-books/audiobooks downloadable to a
mobile device
 Mobile devices for check-out
(e.g. Flip camera, iPod touch, laptop, etc.)
 Mobile resources
(Part of your library collection)
 Mobile services and communication
(e.g. Facebook, SMS reference, etc.)
 Mobile website

http://libguides.calpoly.edu/
mobile/1192

Florida International University
Green Library.
Images from Bohyun Kim,
“Making Library e-Books on the e-
Book ReaderVisible,” ACRL
TechConnect Blog,
http://acrl.ala.org/techconnect/?p
=498

http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Telecommunications/Developing_a_fine-
grained_look_at_how_digital_consumers_behave

http://trendwatching.com/trends/12trends2012/?screenculture

NYPL Photo Booth Project - http://www.nypl.org/blog/2013/08/12/snapshots-nypl

Simple to Use
&
Rich in Content/Features
&
Attractive Enough to Appeal to Patrons

Image from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/37307410@N02/7305895166/

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