And I don’t mean “television”. I recently attended a QULOC (Queensland University Libraries Office of Cooperation) ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) meeting where Cathy Slaven from QUT Library gave a presentation on designing for devices such as PDAs and mobile phones.
Some interesting discussion followed about how much access there is by users of these devices of existing library websites. Apparently very little at present, although more students seem to be using the University library websites on small laptop screens they haven’t gone real small as yet. There’s a tradeoff between functionality and weight!
But, if library websites were providing more information tailored specifically for hand held devices, would there be more traffic from these users? It seems that libraries have a wealth of information that is not really suited for hand-held devices. But that being the case, there are specific services and information that could be ideal for special treatment.
- Opening Hours
- Contact details
- My loans & holds
- New books (and dvds, cds etc.) lists
Other ideas? or Tell us what your library is doing in this area.
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July 10, 2006 at 20:29
I’d add a general “search our site” box. It may bring back pages of info too detailed to display, but then you’d know whether what you wanted was available and whether to walk over to a larger screen device.
In OurUniversity library, the internal wireless network isn’t set up to allow PDAs to access it. The line of our IT is…”we don’t support non-standard devices”. Not good enough say I.
July 11, 2006 at 14:56
It would be good to receive short reminder notice in sms.
July 13, 2006 at 09:19
Speaking from the point of view of a university IT support officer, it is very difficult to officially support every wireless device under the Sun. However, wearing my librarian hat, I know how frustrating it is when IT do not want to support something I believe is quite trivial.
Whenever a student brings in some weird and wonderful new device, I will try very hard to get it connected to the campus wireless network. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don’t.
I have found, however, that not many students actually use PDAs to connect to the wireless network. I may see a student with a PDA perhaps three times each semester, but laptops are far more common. More common than laptops, however, are mobile phones.
Mobile phone screens are starting to get larger and larger screens. I think that providing small-format screen content geared towards mobiles is the way to go. That way, we do not even need to worry about providing the connectivity, only the content.
July 15, 2006 at 22:16
I’m just looking at this blog on my PDA. Just checked out my blogger one too.
A revelation! Blogs are one of the few websites that actually look great on a PDA . I’m popping that one in my pocket and taking it out next time I’m asked “why blog ?”
I’m also inspired to take out my tablet and hook it up to my big pc -it’s great to enter a convent via stylus. (That’s a typo caused by using a stylus that I want to keep…I meant to enter “comment” instead of “convent”. I also entered “enter” and posted it before I was ready…ummm..maybe I won’t drag out the tablet just yet.)
July 16, 2006 at 10:27
Blogs are inherently good for small screen devices because of the small posts of information delivered in chronological order.
We also found that some of the templates on blogger already have css set up especially for handheld devices, when we set up the Library’s blog. Although we tweaked it a bit as we had to redesign the whole template to suit our colour scheme etc. The L files
I’m not sure if Wordpress templates tend to include css for handheld devices.
July 17, 2006 at 19:57
Hey Peta, not sure if you would have seen Curtin’s page on services for handheld devices?
I hadn’t even thought of blogs being good for small devices! Good point! Like Matthias I haven’t seen that many students use PDAs but laptops and of course mobile phones are a dime a dozen these days.
Also just thought I’d mention this presentation by John Dunn: The Handheld Library. Integrating Handheld Technology in Information Services. I think the paper was presented at Ontario Library Association’s 2006 conference recently.