The m-Library is Now

For Thing 15 in SPL's 27 Things, the exercise is to read a few articles from a past issue of OCLC's NextSpace that reflects on Web 2.0 and what this shift in Internet user behavior and expectations means for libraries. While these articles are still interesting, the concepts brought forth by the writers are now several years old; we are well-entrenched in 2.0 and well on our way to the next level of library transformation brought about by online possibilities.

With that in mind, and because the NextSpace newsletter is consistently of high quality, I skipped ahead to more recent issues and found some fascinating stuff. The Labs section of the February 2009 issue showcases WorldCat Mobile; this gorgeous looking app (designed by mobile software developer Boopsie) provides a truly functional mobile interface to WorldCat. If you have ever tried using a library catalog on your smart phone, you are likely aware of how unserviceable most of these interfaces really are. WorldCat Mobile is different. It works well and looks great, too. And OCLC isn't the only organization that recognizes what most of us are quickly catching up to (the fact that folks will soon demand a workable mobile library interface): take a look at what DC Public and NYPL have been up to lately. These are both impressives first steps.

So, the kind of decision-making that results from embracing 2.0 concepts has been great for pushing libraries toward greater responsiveness, greater transparency, and for allowing greater control on the part of the user to determine what they can get from their library. And this kind of decision-making has to continue; it has proven itself. However, the m-Library is the best tangible development of this line of thinking that I have yet to see and when you get right down to it, if what we're doing doesn't have tangible results, then it's all just talk.

Comments by Michael Lascarides of NYPL Labs provide a good starting point if you are interested in understanding what some of the basic philosophical questions are that underlie the push toward the m-Library; and if you have any doubts that this push is real, check out the list of libraries on the LibSuccess wiki that have already developed a mobile presence. This is for real. As Lascarides mentions, prior to any real effort on the part of NYPL to optimize their site for mobile visitors, the NYPL site experienced a 300% in mobile visitors over the last year. Imagine what kind of traffic we could get on our sites if they actually worked on mobile devices!

Of course, just developing a mobile friendly site for our users isn't the end of the game, either. Paul Coyne talks about the impressive potential for QR codes in libraries, saying that, " the idea that one can be connected to the virtual world from the physical with a camera phone is very seductive." He's right. I blogged a few months back about the possibilities of QR Codes in libraries; the ease with which library users can be connected to everything the library has to offer online in this fashion is exciting.

Another still underutilized but widely available (Lascarides says that 65% of the world's population now has access to a mobile phone) technology on which libraries should focus is the use of SMS notices for requests and pending due dates. Text messages are more ubiqitous than email for a large segment of the population; why not communicate with our users in the language they're using?

I've presented a fair amount of information in this post but I'm not even scratching the surface of what is currently happening and what is surely to become more mainstream with each passing month. Sacramento Public Library is following this trend closely and hopes to be a true m-Library in the near future!