Libraries going mobile

Are libraries ready for the mobile internet?

Digital information will be accessed in future primarily, if not exclusively via Smartphones or Tablets. That's why the Bavarian State Library is gradually providing its digital services within the framework of these innovative environments. At first the OPAC and website was programmed and designed as generic mobile applications thatrun on all current smartphone browsers.
Mr. Ceynowa highlights that not only mobile applications should be offered but they have to be contextualized in a suitable way to meet user's needs.

"For many people all over the world but especially in devoping countries, mobiles are increasingly the access point not only for common tools and communicationbut also for informationof all kinds, training materials and more"

(Horizon Report, 2010)

Mr. Ceynowa underlines that libraries as important, also web-based provider of information and services have to face this trend toward a mobile use of internet and therefore offer its central services (OPAC, electronic resources, digitized materials etc.) as mobile applications. Especially young library patrons that are used digital natives to mobile devices expect mobile kinds of library services and won't be satisfied with web pages (pressed) en miniature:

"When we get to a point that mobile version is expectedof whatever content we want to interact with, not having a mobile version may cut-off desire to consume that content"

(Challenges and opportunities of the small screen, Inside Higher Education 2009)

The Bavarian State library did not end its efforts with developing mobile applications of the OPAC and its website: In another step the library provided 50 highlights of its collection as an app for iPad and iPhone: "Famous Books - Treasures of the Bavarian State Library". In spring 2011 the App "Islamic Books - Oriental treasures of the Bavarian State Library" followed. There are 3 reasons for providing these Apps only at Apples App-Store:
1.povision as a stand-alone product (in contrary to an integration into Europeana where the contentis hided behind millions of other digital objects and therefore hard to find)
2. Apples App-Store is a common channel for sale (so that it is sure that the product reaches the user)
3. iPad is nowadays one of the best E-Book-Reader regarding high-resolution coloured digitized objects (Gartner Report "Forecast: Media Tablets by Operating System world-wide 2008-2015.")

Currently, the Bavarian State Library experiments with Augmented-Reality: In the App "Ludwig II" the library will provide multimedial content as ann Augmented-Reality application, georeferenced at prominent places of the king's life such as Neuschwanstein Castle. - It seems that my visit to Neuschwanstein Castle was a few years too early! :(

Conversational openings with faculty about scholarly communication

In April, there was an online discussion about how to talk with faculty on your campus about scholarly communication issues, although not zo be sure where to start. In the discussion useful strategies are shown.

Nowadays, it is a core question how to reach faculty staff and students. The relevance of the library is depending on that. Just last week my boss asked me how I want to communicate with faculty in future. - I am trying different ways and I am still thinking about what the best way is. Furthermore it is difficult to answer, because it varies not only from department to department but from person to person (or at least from team to team)!

By the way - sorry that there was such a long term in which I did not whrite anything. Meanwhile I started to work in another institution and I was busy to learn so much new things!

Fairness hearing regarding Google Books settlement on the 18th of February

in 2 weeks On the 18th of February there will be a fairness hearing at the US Department of Justice. According to Norman Oder the settlement now faces the biggest challenges ever (for more details please have a look at http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6717745.html?nid=2673&source=title&rid=18066631

well, now there is a new development:

the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in a long-awaited Statement of Interest, yesterday warned that the amended settlement still goes too far in giving Google advantages in distributing scanned books, as well as raising concerns about pricing (which has been one of the key issues raised by the library community).

For further information and an insight on the developments of this argument between the different parties please have a look at the recent "Library Journal"-article .

Social Media News and Web Tips @ Mashable (The Social Media Guide), e.g. GoogleMaps' future use

I gathered the blog "Mashable : Social Media Guide" (thx to Pierre Suter via recherchenblog - also a blog with helpful information). This "Social Media Guide" comes up with Social Media News, really a huge amount of information to discover! Mashable.com is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news. With more than 12.5 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web and offering social media resources and guides.



In one of these blogpostings GoogleMaps-Mashups are presented. In another article Stan Schroeder gives us a hint what Google intends to do:

Google has been granted a patent named “Claiming Real Estate in Panoramic or 3D Mapping Environments for Advertising,” detailing “techniques for identifying groups of features in an online geographic view of a real property and replacing and/or augmenting the groups of features with advertisement.”

from goRumors you can read

You might remember that this is not the first time Google is introducing sponsored listings on Google Maps. Such ads are already available on generic map views. However, it appears that this will be the first time when these listings will also be made available on real estate listings.

Sounds Fascinating but this worries me in terms of how detailed this 3D Mapping would be (people, cars etc.) ...

Open Educational Resources

In this presentation there are shown the most essential gateways to OER: some are institutional, others are regional or international. During my process of searching for similar tutorials I got to know most of them but there were as well some undescovered repositories.

Open Education and Libraries

View more documents from Ellyssa Kroski.

Using Social Media isn't everything

"Social networks are about ...being social"
that's the core message of this presentation - so: have a look. This presentation is inspiring (for libraries as well)!

Your Social Media Strategy Won't Save You 2

View more documents from Tara Hunt.

German universities are becoming an "University2.0"

The University2.0 is the most ideal way of accessing and sharing information. Moreover the University promotes itself by showing how research is done, how it proceeds and offering results and various documents for free and in one virtual place as a one-stop-shop.
In response to the need to acquire, to index, to store, and to provide documents which are increasingly only available in digital form, the Thuringian University and State Library (ThULB) and the University Data Processing Centre (URZ) began in 1999 with the composition of a digital library called UrMEL (University Multimedia Electronic Library). UrMEL will make it possible to combine the Friedrich Schiller University's (FSU) various activities for the provision of multimedia and historical documents. Since UrMEL can already integrate different projects and serve as a project platform for them, it forms the basis for the integration of further institutions in Thuringia. This is true not only of libraries, but also of museums, archives, and other cultural institutions.
Already realized are the following projects: University@UrMEL, Journals@UrMEL, and Collections@UrMEL.

• University@UrMEL
  
  Within the scope of the Digital Library Thuringia University@UrMEL provides online access to university documents such as doctoral theses, dissertations, research
  reports, and lecture scripts. It serves as a platform for accessing course materials. Audio and video recordings in different formats are also available at University@UrMEL.

• Journals@UrMEL
  
  Journals@UrMEL provides access to electronic journals. Via digitalization, historical journals are made more easily accessible, and are at the same time prevented from decaying. In cooperation with scientific publishers and societies, the ThULB increasingly also publishes online journals itself. In addition to this, the ThULB also purchases online journals from publishers, stores them, and makes them accessible on its own servers.

• Collections@UrMEL
  
  Within Collections@UrMEL, we work together with scholars from different areas to develop special applications for the digital and multimedia editing and indexing of valuable stock from archives and manuscript collections.

For more information please visit the project's website

On Novenber the 10th there will take place a special symposion about UrMEL. According to the program it really looks like as if the institution's libraries are fully integrated into digitazation, multimedia editing and indexing documents.

Let's hope this project leads to reshaping german universities into a real "University2.0" - which is more than only storing data and information in one place.

Becoming a good/ better instructor

Some quotes of other instructors:

There are many dimensions to being a great library instructor. Teaching regularly can certainly help to keep those skills sharp, and it affords the needed opportunity to experiment with learners, to try new things, and to stretch one’s capabilities in the classroom.

(taken from ARCLog:"Maintaining your instruction Mojo")

It’s all about adding value to the learning process. He is spot on when he says that students can now go anywhere to simply hear a lecture by a talking head that is attached to a series of slides. That describes a good deal of online learning and open education resource experience. You go to a web site or a course delivery system and just tune in to a lecture/presentation. But where’s the added value that comes from the dialogue between the teacher and the student? I believe what Bowen is really afraid of losing at his school is what makes the learning experience truly unique – the engagement between the instructor and the learner.

Academic librarians need to be mindful of the same challenge. We know that while we offer high quality information resources, our students and faculty can obtain information from a wide variety of resources. And there are times when they are accessing our subscription content through free search engines and are not aware that the content is delivered by the library. Those are well known issues. If the boundaries between information sources are becoming increasingly blurry to the end user, what is it that distinguishes what the academic library does for them? Finding the answer to that question is part of the challenge we face, just as our faculty colleagues will need to make clear to future students the value that they add to the learning process. Otherwise why bother with the huge investment in a traditional college education.

(taken from ARCLog: "We have to add the Value")

There are (at least) 5 key characterists an instructor has to follow:

1. Relevance – The big challenge is to connect course content to the current culture – learning has to be relevant to them.

2. Rationale – Today’s students were raised in a non-authoritarian manner. They won’t comply because the instructor is in charge, but will be more likely to do so when given a good rationale.

3. Relaxed – They thrive in a less formal environment in which they can interact informally with the instructor and each other.

4. Rapport – More than previous generations they are used to having adults in their lives and show interest in them. They appreciate it when instructors show interest as well or when we connect on a personal level.

5. Research-based methods – Millennials have grown up constantly engaged so they can tend to bore easily, so be prepared with active learning methods

(taken from "Why don't my students think I'm groovy")