Tag Archives: mlibs event

Mlibs event – lightning talks

In addition to the more in-depth breakout sessions at the mobile technologies in libraries: information sharing event, we also had a series of lightning talks. Each presenter had 5 minutes to give a very brief overview of a topic they wanted to talk about – anything went as long as it fitted into the broad topic of mobile technologies in libraries.

Below are the relevant links to resources for each of the sessions:

Mlibs event – Mobile devices in the physical environment in libraries, exhibitions and galleries

This is part of a series of blog posts based on the sessions held at the Mobile technologies in libraries: information sharing event. More resources from the day are available at the event Lanyrd page.

Gary Green

Gary Green

Jason Curtis (Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals NHS Trust), Gary Green (Surrey County Council), and Peter Kargbo (Manchester Metropolitan University) facilitated a group discussion during the morning breakout sessions on using mobile devices to link the physical to the virtual. Gary had prepared a collection of links on Delicious to help shape the discussion, and ideas were shared by those attending the session too.

Some topics discussed in this session included:

  • AR Apps – scan location to find local areas of interest e.g. restaurant – including Layar and Wikitude
  • Aurasma – AR app to scan book cover & view video reviews
  • Using AR to see videos for exhibitions (e.g. John Rylands)
  • AR issues round technology e.g. reflections/lighting
  • How do users know about AR?
  • Rooms tagged to provide further info on room (e.g. British Museum)
  • QR code based quizzes e.g. for school groups
  • Lists of journals with QR codes
  • Problem linking to non-mobile sites
  • Study rooms and booking forms – system for real-time booking
  • How to track usage of QR codes? – Google tracking codes
  • Complex QR codes may be difficult to scan on some devices
  • QR codes on opening hours posters e.g. holidays  – feedback very useful
  • QR codes on catalogues e.g. www.shelib.nhs.uk
  • Concerns over data charges (study at Huddersfield) and use
  • Could use plain text for contact details etc. – how to update
  • Finding out more especially visual search
  • Using QR codes to book computers in FE libraries, give students some independence

The facilitators asked everyone in the group to note down some of the challenges faced in implementing such technologies. The key themes emerging from those notes were:

  • Acceptance of mobile technologies in libraries
  • Lack of awareness of technologies from library staff
  • Lack of awareness of technologies from users – will they need to be trained?
  • Uncertainty about technologies in terms of their suitability for meeting a need – sometimes it can seem like a solution looking for a problem
  • How to apply the use of technologies in local context – which technologies to use, where, how…
  • What skills are needed to implement these technologies?
  • What have other people done? How can we learn from that?
  • What resource is needed to implement? What benefits will we gain?

Mlibs event – Delivering existing library-owned content (e.g. historical maps) on mobile devices

This is part of a series of blog posts based on the sessions held at the Mobile technologies in libraries: information sharing event. More resources from the day are available at the event Lanyrd page.

Ed Fay

Ed Fay

Ed Fay (London School of Economics) presented a demonstration of the PhoneBooth project (part of the JISC mobile infrastructure for libraries programme) during the afternoon breakout sessions.

The PhoneBooth project is taking existing library owned data and repurposing it for use on mobile devices. In this case the data is historical maps from the Charles Booth Online Archive – from Booth’s survey into life and labour in London (1886-1903). The materials are already available digitally, and the PhoneBooth project is building on this to bring the data to mobile devices. This will then enable examination of the map data whilst out on location, as well as comparison with current geographical map data.

The PhoneBooth project is currently at the prototyping stage and Ed provided a demonstration during the workshop as well as providing a handout to explain the project and show the maps overlaid with other geographical data such as Google Maps and the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2010. The handout is available online: http://www.slideshare.net/evidencebase/phone-booth-brief

For further information about the JISC PhoneBooth project is available from the project blog: http://jiscphonebooth.wordpress.com/

Mlibs event – Developing a mobile strategy for the library

This is part of a series of blog posts based on the sessions held at the Mobile technologies in libraries: information sharing event. More resources from the day are available at the event Lanyrd page.

Kay Munro and Rosemary Stenson

Kay Munro and Rosemary Stenson

Kay Munro and Rosemary Stenson (both from University of Glasgow) facilitated a presentation and discussion on developing a mobile strategy for the library during the morning breakout sessions.

In early 2010, monthly data from Google Analytics began to show significant and steadily increasing traffic to the Library website from mobile devices. In response to this need to support mobile technologies, University of Glasgow Library established a Mobile Technologies Group, and later, a Mobile Strategy for the library. Kay and Rosemary discussed the development of the ten-strand project plan and progress so far on the implementation and delivery of different areas of the strategy.

In order for library staff to be able to support their users, the Mobile Technologies Group have realised the library staff need support and training to help them understand the technologies. One way they hope to support this is with the Live Lab they have which has a variety of mobile devices for library staff to try out to see how they can be supported and used in a library context. Another initiative they are trialling is a 23 Things Mobile course which will introduce staff to different areas of mobile technologies and encourage them to ‘play’ with them – this initiative has support from senior management and staff will be able to spend an hour a week during the course on this. There was a lot of interest in this and Kay and Rosemary say they hope to be able to share the resources once they have tested out the course.

It was really interesting to hear about the strategic approach University of Glasgow have taken towards this and I’m sure other libraries can learn a lot from this approach. The key points to take away from the session were:

  • Develop a strategy rather than just ideas
  • Keep the framework flexible as technologies change rapidly
  • Get all library staff involved (including senior management)
  • Understand your users, their devices and what they want to do on their mobiles

Kay and Rosemary’s slides are available on Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/evidencebase/developing-a-mobile-strategy-for-the-library) and Kay also contributed a case study on developing a mobile strategy for the m-libraries community site.

Mlibs event – Bibliographic management on mobile devices

This is part of a series of blog posts based on the sessions held at the Mobile technologies in libraries: information sharing event. More resources from the day are available at the event Lanyrd page.

Mike Jones

Mike Jones

Mike Jones (University of Bristol) presented during the afternoon breakout sessions on bibliographic management on mobile devices.

Mike gave an overview of the m-biblio project which is being undertaken at the University of Bristol as part of the JISC Mobile Infrastructure for Libraries programme.

The project is investigating the use of mobile devices in capturing references and looking at how it might be possible to gather useful statistics for the Library, including data about library items that are often confined to branches such as periodicals, journals and reference books.

The project has included a student survey and a workshop, both of which have contributed to a greater understanding of how students use bibliographic data and how this can be supported by mobile devices. This also uncovered the pain points and what students would like from a simple piece of software to help:

Compile them, format them to the desired style, and alphabetise

The m-biblio project has ensured that the information from the survey and the workshop has fed into the development of the mobile app, which we were fortunate enough to watch a demo of. Mike was able to scan the barcode of a book and get the bibliographic data into the app, and also showed us how you can add information in (or edit) manually – great for when the information isn’t quite right. He then showed us how to export the list ready for adding to assignments.

Although it’s still in development, what’s there so far is simple to use yet effective and we all agreed it would be great to be able to offer this sort of app to our students.

Some brief notes from the flipchart based on the discussion that followed the presentation and demo:

  • Easybib –  mobile app for bibliographic data on mobile devices (though doesn’t provide as much functionality as m-biblio)
  • Could m-biblio be available as a mobile website rather than an app? (the project team had investigated this option but decided against it due to the advantage of being able to use the camera through an app)
  • Geolocation – is this creepy or does it have potential for obtaining library metrics (i.e. where materials are being used)

Mike’s presentation is available on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/MrJ1971/2012-0508mibibliomlibs and for more information on the m-biblio project you can visit their project blog.

Mlibs event – Resource discovery on mobile devices

This is part of a series of blog posts based on the sessions held at the Mobile technologies in libraries: information sharing event. More resources from the day are available at the event Lanyrd page.

Keren Mills (The Open University) gave a presentation during the afternoon breakout sessions focused on resource discover on mobile devices. This was based largely on the work Keren has been involved in with the MACON project as part of the JISC Mobile Infrastructure for Libraries programme. The notes below have been contributed by Ben Showers who attended Keren’s session

Keren Mills

Keren Mills

Before Keren began her presentation she asked the librarians present what the top things they wanted from discovery tools. She then asked what their students wanted from discovery tools.

The list was fairly recognisable:

  • Automated authentication – easy access and minimise the need to type.
  • Relevance ranking
  • ‘find similar’ type services (Amazon style)
  • spell checking/auto correct/complete type functionality (although it was recognised this can be frustrating in an academic context with complex terms)

In contrast to the high degree of functionality and granularity that is expected by librarians (and academics) from discovery services, a lot of research highlights that students don’t use or require the same level of functionality (see for example this JISC user behaviour observational study: User behaviour in resource discovery). Furthermore, the functionality available on mobile devices is often constrained, so there’s inevitably a balance between usability and functionality when developing for mobile.

A number of the participants echoed Keren’s analysis, arguing that increasingly library users want a Google like experience. This includes assumptions that the library discovery services will learn more about them the more they use it, a certain level of personalisation – something which is still in its infancy for library discovery services.

Keren stressed the importance of consulting users (students and researchers). One of the big problems with the academic environment is the diversity of the use-cases. It’s important to be clear about who your core audience is (Keren stressed the importance of extracting value from things like analytics, surveys, interviews etc).

It was also clear that libraries should be adopting a ‘mobile first’ policy: start with mobile, and work from there. This approach helps you focus on exactly what you’re trying to deliver.  It’s also beneficial in terms of accessibility and usability, as developing services for mobile incorporates best practice for accessibility.

The clear message from the session was that as professionals we can have very different expectations from the average user and heaping on all the functionality used by expert searchers can overwhelm less experienced searchers who are mostly looking for convenience, especially when they’re using a handheld device. Keren was keen to leave us with a philosophy of reduction wherever possible: reduce the number of required clicks, downloads, and scrolling. If students do have to download (and this is likely as libraries usually don’t create the content they serve) minimise the volume of the downloads.

Less, it seems, is definitely more.

Keren’s presentation is available on Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/mirya/resource-discovery-on-mobile-devices-keren-mills) and you can read more about this topic on the MACON project blog.

Mlibs event – Mobile devices in teaching and research: how do libraries support this?

This is part of a series of blog posts based on the sessions held at the Mobile technologies in libraries: information sharing event. More resources from the day are available at the event Lanyrd page.

Sarah Barker (Yale College), Claire Beecroft (University of Sheffield), and Adam Watson (Leeds Metropolitan University) facilitated a group discussion during the morning breakout sessions. These notes have been contributed by Pete Dalton.

Sarah Barker and Claire Beecroft

Sarah Barker and Claire Beecroft

The session took the form of a facilitated group discussion and was wide ranging in coverage.  People shared experiences about how they were using, or hoped to use, mobile technologies in supporting teaching and research as well as in delivering library services and other campus wide services. These discussions painted a diverse picture of library activity in this area.

Discussions focussed on challenges to implementing mobile technologies.  These included:

  • cost of vendor provided services including costs for ongoing upgrades
  • decisions on whether separate mobile sites should be developed or whether a single point of access would be provided regardless of device used for access
  • variability of availability of mobile friendly apps from vendors
  • in some areas technology is ‘ahead of the law’ in this area and mobile allows the possibility of services which currently are not legal
  • the possibility of an institution using a service that it subscribes to as it is tied into that service when a free app might actually serve the purpose more effectively
  • support issues around free apps
  • the need for user education in the mobile area – one cannot assume that people know how best to use mobile services to support their learning or research because they know how to use mobile technologies in other contexts

Two key messages from the session were:

  1. There was a general consensus that institutions needed to embrace mobile technology or risk the services that libraries might provide to support teaching and research not being fully exploited as users access other services through mobile devices
  2. The quality of content delivered was of paramount importance regardless of the medium of delivery

Mlibs event – Augmented Reality for Special Collections

This is part of a series of blog posts based on the sessions held at the Mobile technologies in libraries: information sharing event. More resources from the day are available at the event Lanyrd page.

Matt Ramirez

Matt Ramirez

Matt Ramirez (Mimas) gave a presentation during the afternoon breakout sessions on the topic of Augmented Reality for Special Collections. The presentation was based on the work of the JISC-funded Special Collections using Augmented Reality to Enhance Learning and Teaching (SCARLET) project. The main points from Matt’s session were recorded by flipchart:

  • SCARLET project used Junaio app to create their A.R.
  • Students wanted to be able to interact with A.R. models, rather than just being signposted elsewhere
  • Useful tool for enquiry based learning
  • SCARLET toolkit will be available to use
  • Sketchup good for pre-built 3D models
  • No W3C standards for A.R. browsers
A more detailed overview is below, thanks to Pete Dalton:

Matt presented details of the Special Collections using Augmented Reality to Enhance Learning and Teaching (SCARLET) Project at the University of Manchester (Mimas) in collaboration with the John Ryland Library.   Through the use of Augmented reality through mobile devices students are able to have more immersive experiences when interacting with rare materials in special collections.  While viewing an object first-hand, AR markers and  spatial triggers provide access to supporting materials through mobile devices to enhance the learning experience.  Through the use of mobile technology the original object is in effect ‘surrounded’ by additional contextual material to enhance the learning experience.

It was reported that to date that the AR functionality had been generally well received by students.  The project had learned lessons about developing such content including not underestimating the time it takes to create the surrounding content and the need to get buy in from all stakeholders. In addition it was clear that AR should be presented as a unique additional experience and not an attempt to simply duplicate other experiences.

It was noted that this was a rapidly developing area and that the project had only begun to scratch the surface of what might be possible in the use of AR.  New possibilities were opening up all the time such as the ability for browsers to visually recognise 3D.

Matt highlighted the forthcoming Augmented Reality toolkit that the project will produce which can help others to harness AR to support teaching and research.

You can find out more about the project (including news about an extension project, SCARLET+) on the SCARLET project blog. You may also be interested in reading the case study the SCARLET team wrote for our community website, and if you have a smartphone you can sample the AR using the SCARLET demonstrator channel.

Mlibs event – Building mobile-friendly sites with responsive design

This is part of a series of blog posts based on the sessions held at the Mobile technologies in libraries: information sharing event. More resources from the day are available at the event Lanyrd page.

Matt Machell (Capita) gave a presentation during the morning breakout sessions focused on building mobile-friendly sites with responsive design. The notes below have been contributed by Ben Showers who attended Matt’s session.

Matt Machell

Matt Machell

Matt made it clear that the aim of this session was for us to question our assumptions about what mobile means.

The session began with some group activities exploring the uses we put our phones to, and which are the main tools we utilise on our phones. The top uses for phones were:

  • Maps and travel apps (trains, buses)
  • Communication and social media (Email, IM, twitter, facebook)
  • Camera
  • Music (spotify, radio)

Matt’s exercise made it clear that our phones need to be reconceived as small computers rather than a phone; indeed, no one mentioned the making calls on their phone the whole session.

What is responsive design?

Once Matt had made us deconstruct our mobile phone usage, he outlined what he meant by responsive design.

Rather than building for different devices (tablet, phone, laptop etc), fragmenting content across different apps, responsive design allows you to produce a single website that scales according to the device that’s accessing it.

Responsive design provides a solution to the proliferation of different devices that’s also manageable. It means you don’t have to second guess the devices people will be using.  Its fluidity means it will adapt to any device that’s being used.

Matt did, however, make it clear that there would be compromises as content will be reconfigured and lost/formatted for the different resolutions. The nature of navigation on the site will change for different devices.

The key is that is fluid and flexible, and adapts to different devices.

Matt’s presentation is available on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/Shuckle/web-app-and-responsive-design-for-libraries

Mlibs event – keynote session

This is part of a series of blog posts based on the sessions held at the Mobile technologies in libraries: information sharing event. More resources from the day are available at the event Lanyrd page.

James Clay giving his keynote presentation

James Clay giving his keynote presentation

James Clay, ILT & Learning Resources Manager at Gloucestershire College, delivered the keynote session for the day and gave an interesting overview of some of the technologies that are currently being used by libraries and those that could be in the future.

James began his talk with some really interesting facts and figures about mobile use including:

  • 45% of UK adults accessed the internet via mobile phone in 2011
  • 71% of 16-24year olds accessed the internet via mobile phone in 2011
  • By 2014, access to the internet via mobile devices is predicted to overtake internet access via desktop

He asked what message libraries give out about mobile e.g. ‘Don’t use mobile in library’, ‘Call us for help’.  Why?

Access to information now is wider than years back and journey to information is less important which makes information profession more complex.

New technologies mainly do not replace old technologies (e.g tv and internet), they often enhance it. This is echoed in libraries; ebooks are not a replacement to hard copy, they offer a different experience.

James then gave some examples of the types of things libraries can utilise in the area of mobile technologies, including:

  • QR codes – good for shortening website access
  • Augmented Reality – locational uses
  • Google goggles and barcode scanning apps – scan book cover or barcode to access price information (or details about availability in library)
  • Notemaking e.g. Evernote

James felt that libraries should be utilising mobile technologies to offer library service anytime and anywhere to our users, though he did point out the following issues which need to be considered:

  • mobile makes copyright issues more complex
  • cost
  • Innovation Prevention Department (i.e. institutional stumbling blocks or red tape preventing innovation)
  • digital divide (though don’t make assumptions that Facebook users know how to use electronic resources for learning)
  • change of learning expectations
  • connectivity – is it reliable and realistic?
  • staff development you dont need to know everything to provide help and support
  • time – its about which priorities there are and who decides the priorities

The concluding comments from James’ keynote included discussion about the pace of change and the fact that this is never going to stop so we need to learn to cope with it. He also highlighted that many libraries have pilot projects but that they should be learning from others who have already implemented similar things rather than potentially making the same mistakes. He urged everyone to take one thing from the event to really focus on making a change and implementing a new way of doing things via mobile technologies in their own libraries.

A copy of James’ presentation is available at: https://speakerdeck.com/u/jamesclay/p/mobile-technologies