Day 2 – IL2009 – Dreaming, Designing, & Using Mobile Library Platforms

Mobile Technology for Libraries was the topic for an entire Track on Day 2.  The morning was taken up with a great panel discussion including Tom Ipri, Jason Griffey, Toby Greenwalt, Jason Clark, Matt Benzing, Christa Burns and Michael Sauers.  Christa and Michael started off the session with a quiz for all of us.  We had to guess which tasks Michael and Christa accomplished using a mobile device vs. using a laptop.  As it turned out, everything they had to do regarding the conference over the past two days they were able to do from a mobile phone.  After this humorous warm-up, the other panel members each touched on different aspects of Mobile Platforms in a library environment.

Getting a Second Chance at a First Impression – Tom Ipri   www.slideshare.net/tombrarian

Mobile Devices – another paradigm shift
Let’s not screw up again like many libraries did with web pages.
No crappy mobile sites made from our crappy web sites!
Libraries need Feedback from their patrons before starting:
            Should there be a site?
            What should be on the site?
            What is realistic?
            What is best for YOUR population?

Mobile device will be primary connection tool to the Internet by 2020.

Considerations
            Mobile web is mobile
            Transactional not browsing (DO things)
            Very different devices are being used today – screen size, input, poor curser control
            If web text is brief, mobile text should be uber-brief
            Simple navigation
            Even good connections are slow
            Essential Information only – skip the large graphics

 Mobile web of 2009 = desktop web of 1998
             Average mobile success rate – 59%
             Better the phone, better the success rate
             Touch phones: 75%
             Smart phones: 55%
             Feature phones: 38%

Mobile – the future!  Jason Griffey 
            What we can expect in the next 18-24 months:
                    3G is now – cellular protocol.  5mg/second on iPhone
                   4G is coming:
                             WiMax  10megabits/second but has huge coverage
                             LTE 100megabits/second – top is 300 megabits/second – always on 

Future of Content:
            Text – reasonably easy
            Audio – also reasonably easy
            Video – also reasonable easy – copyright issues must be addressed in all of these.

            Augmented Reality – new kind of media – type of virtual reality – gives you realtime information about where you are at the time.  Layar is an example.  Hold your phone up and it queries the thing you’re pointing at.

            Local libraries have unique archives that would be great in augmented reality.  Only we have those kinds of archives.

            Library patrons often don’t really know what they want.  We have to push the boundaries of what these new tools will do.

            Clay Shirky – “Tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.”

These are but two of the many informative presentations done in the morning session.  What was stressed in each of these talks was to find out what sort of mobile phones our target audiences are actually using now.  Also, rather than try to shrink our existing web page into a small format, we need to totally RE-THINK a mobile library application.  Strip out all non-essential items, especially graphics which will slow down the process.  Forget about browsing.  Mobile users want to find specific information such as library hours, directions, phone numbers, and if a book is currently available.