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Public libraries, smart phones and Europeana

Professor David Nicholas, CIBER Research,

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• Speaking as an educator and researcher who has run international Information Schools for 12 years and also someone who sees the challenges for the library profession that come from the Internet

• Strange title and not one you might have expected but title makes the very important point that the new digital information universe in which we all find ourselves creates mash-ups; old borders are down, everything mixes with everything; nothing can be seen in isolation; its all change.

• So things that were once not well connected (information and rural communities) are now well connected and things that were once unconnected (mobile phones and libraries) now are and my talk today is all about helping you connect!

• First we need to reflect on the digital transition (the biggest migration that the world has ever witnessed) and its implication for public and rural libraries especially.

• Then I will report on some ground breaking research CIBER are doing with the EU in regard to tomorrow’s information services for European citizens which shows the new information domains being constructed and the policies of the EU in regard to their development

Background

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Digital transition: transforming information needs, behaviour and delivery: challenges for libraries

1.Digital transition creates unbelievable access to everything and brings search and evaluative skills to all aspects of life, including e-shopping

2.Disintermediation is a consequence and results in fast and massive choice, courtesy of Google. DIY. We are all librarians now and connected to the big fat information pipe, but we don’t behave like librarians

3.Digital transition has much further to go what with the likes of mobile devices , e-books and social media (they are queuing up!)

4.The digital transition means user behaviour goes on remotely and anonymously

5.Consequence is librarians know less and less about more and more information users

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Digital transition

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5. This leads to decoupling and, possibly, professional and subject melt down; unless you have something with which to connect

6. Compounded by the fact that the virtual has fundamentally changed the way we seek, use and communicate. Fast information – we have been conditioned; view rather than read and don’t do anything for very long; horizontal has replaced the vertical

7. People like immersive environments of the Net – social media

8. Trust and authority challenged in the complex and dis-intermediated space

9. Internet year is seven weeks – rural librarians note!

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• In UK rural library services largely provided through mobile libraries. A mobile library typically carries 1,500-3,500 books. Half of the stock adult fiction, with the rest usually made up of popular non-fiction, such as gardening and cookery.

• Digital transition rapidly killing them off, especially rapid rise of e-books (readers) and massive choice.

• Thus 700 in 1990 and there are about half that number and now brunt of government cuts. Now being sold to ‘antique collectors’.

• So the King is dead. Long live the King. The future platform of choice for retrieving, viewing and reading information will be the mobile [phone] – in just two-three years’ time! Information on the go

• Indeed in today’s digital universe the geographical has disappeared. But not library! We have a new paradigm and need a new vocabulary but are still talking about services to rural communities. Rural information communities are being connected to the big fat information pipe. Broadband Britain. This will come as quite a shock

From mobile libraries to mobile libraries!

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From mobile libraries to mobile libraries

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• CIBER involved in assessing how the EU’s mission to bring the contents of museums, libraries, and galleries to every individual in Europe – rich or poor, rural or urban, especially via mobile phones, is going

• Rural librarians are going to have to connect to such huge economic and political initiatives

• So going to show you the future and I want you to think what this means for all you because if you don’t in 7 weeks you could be looking for a new job

• Selling mobiles!

From mobile libraries to mobile libraries!

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From mobile libraries to mobile libraries

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• Massively popular: mobile devices used more and more for accessing the Web for information and vast proportion of the population own one or two

• Cool and social. So extend the reach of websites and draw in a wider range of people

• No boundaries. Mobiles enable people to search on the move, virtually anywhere and at any time – and in the social space

• People pay to use them. Mobile consumers used to paying to access information

• Small is beautiful. People search on smaller devices, which typically have less functionality

• Restricted functionality. Mobile user presented with a simplified ‘lite’ interface, without some of the search functionality available to the PC user. Possibility of dumbing down?

Why mobiles are really interesting information platforms?

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• Chart opposite shows monthly numbers of page views for individual mobile devices and an exceptionally rapid period of growth

• Fastest growth coming from the iPhone.

• Mobile visitors are the fastest growing category of Europeana users and their influence will be felt increasingly, and our estimate that they will comprise around 17% of visitors during 2012 is somewhat conservative

• It is likely that the installed base of internet-ready mobile devices will actually overtake that of desktops and laptops around 2013…then the tail wags the dog

Growth in Europeana mobile use

Europeana: Mobile page views by platformJanuary 2010 to July 2011

2010 2011

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• Europeana’s mobile users huge fans of Apple cool, with traffic dominated by Apple’s iPad and iPhone which, in July 2011, accounted for more than 70% of all mobile page views. These devices particularly suited to viewing cultural content because of their very high definition.

• French users dominate the mobile market for Europeana content within the EU-27, despite having the second lowest number of mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Where is Poland!

Europeana mobile visits by country global percentage market sharesOctober 2010 to July 2011

Europeana mobile page views by platform worldwideJanuary to July 2011

Who uses Europeana on the go?Europeana mobile use and users

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Mobile visits from outside

EU2730.9%

Mobile visits from within the

EU2730.9%

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CIBER dashboard: fixed and mobile users comparedFast is the future

Duration of visit (seconds)

Time per page (seconds)Record views per visit

Culture on the go 29 of 35Key Europeana visit metrics for fixed and mobile usersOctober 2010 to July 2011 (one shot users excluded)

Page views per visitQueries per visit

Search page views per visit

Visits from mobile devices are much less interactive than those from fixed platforms. Fewer pages are viewed, and fewer searches are conducted.

Mobile users spend on average more than twice as long per page, but this is only to be expected given the relatively slow performance of these devices in many situations.

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1.Rural access to information increases rapidly – level playing field if broadband speeds and connectivity up to scratch. Connects to information super highway Catch-up. And that could be a case of shock and awe.

2.Nature of demand and information seeking behaviour will change; need for intervention

3.Self-service, DIY so who picks up the ticket, especially with the young?

4.The mobile is the library so what happens to traditional services, what role for them in an increasingly digital universe. The buck stops with you!

5.For its size Poland probably underperforms on Europeana stage (behind Belgium and Iceland) and especially so regarding Mobile access . Possibly due to lower penetration; also, perhaps, more insular (Language skills?) and less developed as an information society. Some things for you to think about.

6.We are doing a lot of interesting mapping of use as the following slide shows and there is definitely something there for rural librarians and educators….

Issues

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http://ciber-research.eu/EuropeanaConnect.html