ALA OITP Study Looks at Library Response to Mobile Connectivity
By Anne Lee Jun 24, 2010What will libraries do as more and more people rely on mobile devices for information?
Libraries will "experiment with mobile devices and services to support the information needs of their users wherever they may be," wrote Timothy Vollmer, an American Library Association (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy consultant, in his introduction to a policy brief released this month.
Given that libraries vary in budget and tech savvy, the contours of such experimentation will be variable.
Concerns for patrons
Vollmer explored the growing reality of mobile connectivity, how libraries have been serving their mobile patrons, and what risks patrons take in seeking information over mobile networks in There's an App for That! Libraries and Mobile Technology: An Introduction to Public Policy Considerations.
It also raises public politic issues. "The adoption of mobile technology alters the traditional relationships between libraries and their users and introduces novel challenges to reader privacy," he noted.
"At the same time, the proliferation of mobile devices and services raises issues of access to information in the digital age, including content ownership and licensing, digital rights management, and accessibility," he added.
Embracing mobile technology
Vollmer gave several examples of forward-looking library mobile services:
- The New York Public Library offers mobile access to its online public access catalog (OPAC);
- The District of Columbia Public Library developed an iPhone application that allows users to place items on hold, obtain information about hours and locations, and access its OPAC
- Duke University, Durham, NC, partnered with a third-party content provider for a free iPhone application that lets users access its extensive digital collections
- East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, launched a series of how-to podcasts for "researchers on the go"
- The National Library of Medicine provides PubMed for Handhelds
Vollmer also mentioned Library Short Message Service (SMS) notifications and SMS Reference "text-a-librarian" services for simple questions, and provided a link to M-Libraries, Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki.
Keeping pace with the information age
"As negotiations for providing access to digital content continue to play out, libraries should be ambitious in offering new mobile services," Vollmer wrote.
Are libraries more likely to purchase such services or develop them on their own?
"Speaking for my own organization, our resources - be they financial or human - are pretty heavily taxed as it is," said R. Toby Greenwalt, the Virtual Services Coordinator for the Skokie Public Library, IL, when queried by LJ. "It's not really feasible for us to devote the time necessary for creating an app and/or porting it to other mobile platforms - especially considering our audience is relatively limited."
"Smartphone capabilities and mobile web/HTML5 standards are making such leaps that one can get a far better return simply by making core websites as mobile-friendly as possible," he added.
Skokie's mobile platform was constructed in association with outside providers. It has three major features: an OPAC; a retooled mobile website first developed as an HTML site, and a number of text-message-based services, explained Greenwalt.
The mobile user demographic
Greenwalt was among eight librarians and vendor representatives who served as "bullpen panelists" during The Future is Mobile, a three-hour online symposium in May co-sponsored by Library Journal and OCLC.
College students play a significant part in the mobile demographic, according to a recent Chronicle of Higher Education posting about a national study which found that since early 2009 student use of smartphones has doubled and that texting has a decided edge over email and instant messaging.
Privacy concerns
Both the Chronicle posting and Vollmer's policy brief noted the ubiquity of the mobile phone. Vollmer pointed out that with the advantages of mobile devices come the disadvantages of what he termed the "digital dossier." While physical libraries have managed to safeguard user records, cyberspace opens up new vulnerabilities.
Because mobile phone usage access to the Skokie library is significantly lower than via computer access, Greenwalt said privacy compromises had not been a major worry. "But it's definitely something we'll need to monitor, at least with regard to our own network security," he said.
"Things get a little thornier when you look at the ways mobile technology and apps are broadcasting user activity and location data," he noted. "There reaches a point where we can't police everything. Rather, we'll be doing more instruction on how users can make informed decisions about their own online privacy."
Taking hold of the future
In the policy brief, Vollmer asserted that libraries are at an opportune juncture for analyzing and addressing mobile technology policy issues. He urged libraries to be proactive, noting that "once a system is in place, meaningful change is difficult."
Libraries, he concluded, should "maintain a strong voice, working with the producers and distributors of content to serve their users in the most socially constructive and fiscally responsible way possible."
