Mobilising e-resources for academics and students

Mobilising e-resources for academics and students

Ruth JenkinsLoughborough University

Alison McNabDe Montfort University

Context

Declining budgetsDeclining budgets

Demonstrating valueDemonstrating value

Maximising subscription e-contentMaximising subscription e-content

AccessibilityAccessibility

Why mobile matters

• 77% world’s population is ‘mobile’ [ITU]• c 1bn smartphones will be sold in 2014 [Gartner] • c 10 bn mobile Internet devices by 2016 [Cisco]• Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition

Loughborough UG applicants

Market research survey in 2011 results:

•98.5% of the sample of potential applicants had mobile phones

•About 46 % of these mobile phones were smartphones:

• 12% Android• 17% iPhone• 17% Blackberry

Mobilising e-content

Mobile websites or apps?

e-booksfull-textdatabases

journalsA & I

services

American Institute of Physics app

American Chemical Society app

Publisher apps are great but…

• Users have to know who publishes the journals they read & download the right app

• They are often designed for browsing• Need to link with resource discovery (e.g.

Primo, Summon) & reference management (EndNote, RefWorks) software

• May not be available for all platforms• Off-campus access is limited (so not a truly

mobile service!)

Primo mobile

Barriers and challenges

PublishersPublishers LibrariansLibrarians UsersUsers

The librarians’ view March 2012

• No single place listing which publishers have mobile offering

• How to make users aware of the mobile sites/apps available

• Support for large number of interfaces - lack of standardisation. How do you test access problems on multiple devices? Budgets don't extend to purchasing all types of devices let alone ensure these are up to date

Issues for libraries (cont.d)

• How to integrate mobile optimised links in the library catalogue

• No way to search across apps

• Connectivity issues. Not everyone has or can afford 3G and wireless can be unreliable

The librarians’ view March 2012

• Multiple authentication processes, hard to explain to users

• Off campus authentication

• Supporting distance learners

• High student expectations

• Licensing restrictions

The publishers’ view March 2012

• Cost of development

• Pace of technology change

• Whether to create device specific apps…

• …or mobile websites

• Providing user friendly tools to allow libraries and users to get the most out of mobile

• What features to include

Thank you!

Ruth JenkinsLoughborough UniversityR.Jenkins@lboro.ac.uk

Alison McNabDe Montfort Universityamcnab@dmu.ac.uk