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Mobile Friendly Databases
Stephen Francoeur | Baruch CollegePresentation at the Pocket Library: Trends in Mobile User Services12 May 2011CUNY Graduate Center
The Story
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e wanted to get our users to our databases that work on mobile devices
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hat does work on mobile devices mean? It means either the interface is optimized for the tiny screen of browsers onphones or that there is an app that can be downloaded by the user
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To publicize a list of these databases, it made sense to have a page that itself was mobile friendly
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I realized that our LibGuides automatically detect whether they are being viewed on a mobile device. If they are, then thepage is rendered differently so that it displays reasonably well on a phones browser
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So we decided to create a special LibGuide page that would spotlight these mobile friendly databases and enable access tothem
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My talk today is to give you the inside dope on what I learned about where we are now with mobile access to librarydatabases. Although I will talk about how I used LibGuides, Im more interesting sharing what is notable about the apps andmobile web interfaces.
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Because I dont know enough about phones to know how to hook mine up to a projector, Im going to fake the mobileexperience by using the Google Chrome browser.
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hat the Vendors Are Offering Us
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Mix of apps and web interfaces
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Most of the major vendors have a mobile option that will work(i.e., they are serviceable at best) for academic libraries:
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BSCO
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ProQuest
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ilson
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Gale/Cengage
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STOR
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ScienceDirect
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orldCat
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Some major vendors dont have options that work for academic libraries
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LexisNexis
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Factiva
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x Libris
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Books 24x7
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Lots of smaller vendors have mobile options:
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American Chemical Society
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Annual Reviews
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Cambridge
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ournals Online
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EEE
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SSRN
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book vendors arent really there yet.
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Some apps are developed for iOS only, others are for multiple platforms (Android, Blackberry); havent seen many or anyapps for
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indows Mobile or for
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ebOS
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Some vendors charge for their apps
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American Chemical Society charges $4.99 for iPhone app and $2.99 for Android app)
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Authentication can be funky or buggy
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Cambridge
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ournals Online
http://rookery9.aviary.com.s3.amazonaws.com/7687500/7687891_cc91.png
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Some vendors have apps or web interfaces that dont work with the way academic libraries authenticate
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