We all know by now that the ubiquity of mobile devices, from smart phones to e-book readers to tablets, is changing when, where, and how people are accessing information for personal and professional use. What does this mean for libraries? It means our libraries not only need to have a mobile presence but that they also need innovative and desired services which utilize the native features of today’s mobile devices. This presentation will walk you through some things to consider when thinking about the needs for your library’s mobile environment, and it will point to useful tools for designing, implementing and managing the content on a mobile website. You’ll hear about the benefits and drawbacks of building a mobile website versus building a mobile application. You’ll also learn about ways many libraries are integrating library resources and services into their mobile environment. Objectives: Clarify distinctions between mobile app and mobile webpage; Consider concepts beyond just replicating content on your library's mobile site but taking advantage of other features; Generate ideas about your own mobile library environment by seeing examples of what other libraries are doing.

1. Considerations
for Your
Mobile Library
Rachel Vacek
Head of Web Services
University of Houston Libraries
TechNet - The North Texas
Conference on Library Technology
August 3, 2011

2. The cell phone is history’s fastest growing
communication device

3. In 2009,
530 million people
used a cell phone or smartphone
to access the mobile web
Strategy Analytics, March 2010

4. By 2015,
that number is expected
to rise to over
ONE BILLION people
Strategy Analytics, March 2010

5. Soon, Mobile
will overtake
the PC as the
most popular
way to get on
to the Internet

8. Who here has a cell phone?

9. Who here has a cell phone?
Who here doesn’t have a cell
phone?

10. Who here has a cell phone?
Who here doesn’t have a cell
phone?
Who has a smartphone?

11. Who here has a cell phone?
Who here doesn’t have a cell
phone?
Who has a smartphone?
Who accesses the Web every day
using that smartphone?

12. Who here has a cell phone?
Who here doesn’t have a cell
phone?
Who has a smartphone?
Who accesses the Web every day
using that smartphone?
What do you do on your
smartphone?

13. How smartphone owners describe their phones
Browse the web
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Smartphones.aspx, July 11, 2011

14. It’s not just
about the
phones.
It’s about the
experiences
they have with
their phones.

15. Name 5 things your
users do when they
visit your physical
library.

16. Name 5 things your
users do when they
visit your library’s
website.

17. Should the
resources and
services that are in
your physical
building and on
your website
also be offered on
your mobile
website?

19. Yes

20. Yes
No

21. Yes
No

22. Yes
No
It depends

23. Reference RSS feeds
Mobile services from blogs
friendly
databases
Library
Open access instruction
resources
Your SMS
QR codes services
library
website Event calendar
Location guides
or floor maps here
Research or Catalog
homework
guides Social media
Augmented
Videos reality Image
Audio
collections
tours

24. With so many options,
how do you begin
to plan for a mobile website?

25. Get to know your users
• Conduct surveys or interviews of library
users who use mobile devices
• Ask in different geographic regions and cover
all your demographics
• Understand their mobile habits
• Learn their device
ownership trends

26. Ask questions
• Why does your library
want a mobile presence?
• What are your peer
libraries doing?
• Do you know what your
users want?
• What defines success?

27. You want your
users to feel good
using the services
and resources you
provide on your
mobile library

28. Which do you choose?
mobile website
or
native application

30. Mobile Application Mobile Website
Performance
• Runs locally, resulting in quick • Relies on the Internet, resulting in
loading time slower load and response time
• An app has to be developed for • Device agnostic, so only one
each platform, pushed to each website needs to be built
Access platform’s app store, and then • Access is through a web browser
downloaded to a smartphone for • Can be viewed on many devices,
users to access including feature phones
• Updates are deployed through • Relatively simple to support as
an app store that has a multi- there are less things to go wrong
week submission and approval on the user’s device
Supportability process • Potential to become more
• Updates require users to complex
download new versions • No interaction with an app store
• Updates to server are instant for
users
• Mobile platforms such as • HTML standards evolve more
Application Android, Apple iOS, Symbian, slowly
Evolvement RIM and Windows Mobile are
evolving rapidly

31. Mobile Application Mobile Website
• Runs locally, resulting in quick • Potentially less satisfying
loading time depending on Internet
• Made for mobile so it has fluid connection and speed
interaction and intuitive interface • If a mobile stylesheet is applied,
Quality of User • Can access sensors such as GPS users might have usability issues
Experience and accelerometers with access to webpages that are
• Can take advantage of touch not mobile-friendly
screens and gestures • With the exception of social
• Can take advantage of augmented media and games, users still
reality prefer mobile sites over apps
• More risky because they can be • Less risky because site exists
Technical more complex, riskier to develop • A mobile version can be created
Risk and harder to test by applying a mobile stylesheet
or by building a simplified site
• Testing for native apps is slower • Only one site has to be tested
and more complex if multiple • Quality assurance and usability
Testing platforms are supported testing is simpler because there
• Testing might involve UX such as is less involved
touchscreens or GPS

32. Mobile Application Mobile Website
• More investment because it • Less investment because it’s
requires more resources, time quicker and easier to build
Cost and skills • Can support any device that has
• Have to develop for multiple a web browser
platforms
• Thousands of mobile apps • Users can find your mobile
available on each platforms’s website via search engines, links
Marketing store, making the audience from other websites, and links
smaller and more focused embedded in emails
Operational • Must have room on the • Good cellular or wifi signal is
smartphone to download required
Issues
• Application development • Knowledge of HTML and CSS
demands more sophisticated for basic mobile theming
skills • Skills in HTML5 and PHP are
Skill Set • Developers with these skills are useful for creating more engaging
harder to find websites, but not all smartphone
browsers support HTML5 yet

33. Which is best for
your library?

35. Mobile Website

36. Mobile Website
Mobile Application

37. Mobile Website
Mobile Application
Both

38. Mobile Website
Mobile Application
Both
Neither

39. Mobile Website
Mobile Application
Both
Neither
Hybrid

40. You know what’s on your website
You know the needs of your users
You know what tech skills you have
available to you
You know the limitations of your
library’s wifi

41. Let’s dig in!

42. Options for building
mobile native apps
• Native platform SDK (software development kit)
• General purpose multi-platform tools - attempts
to “write once, run anywhere”
• Outsource the development, or hire a developer
with mobile app development experience on
each platform you want to create

43. Options for building
mobile websites
• Develop a mobile CSS
• Do nothing - users will still see your site, but it
won’t be optimized for the best mobile user
experience
• Google sites - mobile templates
- http://sites.google.com/mobilize
• Have an open-source cms like Wordpress or
Drupal that power your website? Find a mobile
friendly theme

45. Options for building
mobile websites
• Mobile application tool with web capability
- Completely home-grown approach
• JavaScript framework and code libraries
- jQuery Mobile, iUI, jQtouch, iWebKit
• Use Chad Haefele’s Mobile Site Generator
- http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/msg/

46. Hybrid Approach
You can do more than one of the methods for
creating your library’s mobile presence

47. Managing your mobile site
• Design & Functionality
- Can be determined by the stylesheet or the
framework chosen
- Keep your branding consistent
• Content
- Have a strategy for maintaining the content
- Pull (RSS feeds, from other systems if you
can
in content
APIs, etc.)

48. Examples of mobile
library websites and
applications

49. New York Public Library

50. NCSU Libraries
Computer Availability Find your study group

51. NCSU Libraries
Reserve a room Historic image collections

52. Seattle Public Library

53. Nashville Public Library
They have a
mobile website,
but it includes
links to device
specific apps

54. UH Libraries
Mobile Web Presence

55. An iPhone app for searching the UH Libraries’ Catalog
was developed by graduate students in the the
“Ubiquitous Computing” course in the
University of Houston Computational Physiology Lab

56. UH Libraries - Mobile Website - m.lib.uh.edu
Think differently about the RSS feeds are quick and
hierarchy of your homepage easy but have limitations

57. UH Libraries
Include catalog and/or
LibGuides comes with a
discovery platform, but be
mobile interface, too
clear on tool’s purpose

58. UH Libraries
You have videos? Create a Show off your images on
channel and include them your library’s Flickr site

59. Features we’re considering
• Mobile campus walking tour with historic images pulled
from our Digital Library collection
• Mobile version of the Digital Library
• Expanded computer availability to other labs in the
library, possibly branches
• Laptops available for checkout
• Room/computer reservation
• More social media integration
• QR code with physical exhibits that take users to audio,
video, or a webpage
• Augmented reality layar

60. Reference RSS feeds
Mobile services from blogs
friendly
databases
Library
Open access instruction
resources
Your SMS
QR codes services
library
website Event calendar
Location guides
or floor maps here
Research or Catalog
homework
guides Social media
Augmented
Videos reality Image
Audio
collections
tours

61. Final thoughts
• Understand your users mobile behaviors and needs
before you decide between a mobile app or website
• Sometimes a simple mobile stylesheet is a good
enough place to start
• Don’t just recreate your entire website in a whole
new mobile website
• Start small, add more complex features over time
• Walk a day in your users’ shoes to get a feel for
what services might be helpful on a mobile device

62. Resources
“Choosing Between Native and Mobile Web Applications.”
Gartner Report by Analyst Nick Jones. February 23, 2011.
M-Libraries, Library Success Wiki -
http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=M-Libraries
Chad Haefele’s Mobile Site Generator -
http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/msg/
Google Mobile Sites - http://sites.google.com/mobilize

63. Thanks!
Rachel Vacek
Head of Web Services
University of Houston Libraries
vacekrae@gmail.com
http://rachelvacek.com
@vacekrae
Presentation available online:
slideshare.net/vacekrae