Public libraries, smart phones and Europeana
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Professor David Nicholas, CIBER Research,
Background
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• Speaking as an educator and researcher who has run international Information Schools for 12 years and
also someone who sees the challenges for the library profession that come from the Internet
• Strange title and not one you might have expected but title makes the very important point that the new
digital information universe in which we all find ourselves creates mash-ups; old borders are down,
everything mixes with everything; nothing can be seen in isolation; its all change.
• So things that were once not well connected (information and rural communities) are now well connected
and things that were once unconnected (mobile phones and libraries) now are and my talk today is all
about helping you connect!
• First we need to reflect on the digital transition (the biggest migration that the world has ever witnessed)
and its implication for public and rural libraries especially.
• Then I will report on some ground breaking research CIBER are doing with the EU in regard to
tomorrow’s information services for European citizens which shows the new information domains being
constructed and the policies of the EU in regard to their development
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Digital transition: transforming information needs,
behaviour and delivery: challenges
for libraries
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1.Digital transition creates unbelievable access to everything and brings
search and evaluative skills to all aspects of life, including e-shopping
2.Disintermediation is a consequence and results in fast and massive
choice, courtesy of Google. DIY. We are all librarians now and connected
to the big fat information pipe, but we don’t behave like librarians
3.Digital transition has much further to go what with the likes of mobile
devices , e-books and social media (they are queuing up!)
4.The digital transition means user behaviour goes on remotely and
anonymously
5.Consequence is librarians know less and less about more and more
information users
Digital transition
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5.
This leads to decoupling and, possibly, professional and subject
melt down; unless you have something with which to connect
6.
Compounded by the fact that the virtual has fundamentally
changed the way we seek, use and communicate. Fast
information – we have been conditioned; view rather than read
and don’t do anything for very long; horizontal has replaced the
vertical
7.
People like immersive environments of the Net – social media
8.
Trust and authority challenged in the complex and disintermediated space
9.
Internet year is seven weeks – rural librarians note!
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From
mobile
libraries
to
mobile
From mobile libraries to mobile libraries
libraries!
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• In UK rural library services largely provided through mobile libraries. A mobile library typically carries
1,500-3,500 books. Half of the stock adult fiction, with the rest usually made up of popular non-fiction,
such as gardening and cookery.
• Digital transition rapidly killing them off, especially rapid rise of e-books (readers) and massive choice.
• Thus 700 in 1990 and there are about half that number and now brunt of government cuts. Now being
sold to ‘antique collectors’.
• So the King is dead. Long live the King. The future platform of choice for retrieving, viewing and
reading information will be the mobile [phone] – in just two-three years’ time! Information on the go
• Indeed in today’s digital universe the geographical has disappeared. But not library! We have a new
paradigm and need a new vocabulary but are still talking about services to rural communities. Rural
information communities are being connected to the big fat information pipe. Broadband Britain. This
will come as quite a shock
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From
mobile
libraries
to
mobile
From mobile libraries to mobile libraries
libraries!
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• CIBER involved in assessing how the EU’s mission to bring the contents of museums, libraries, and
galleries to every individual in Europe – rich or poor, rural or urban, especially via mobile phones, is
going
• Rural librarians are going to have to connect to such huge economic and political initiatives
• So going to show you the future and I want you to think what this means for all you because if you
don’t in 7 weeks you could be looking for a new job
• Selling mobiles!
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Why mobiles are really interesting
information platforms?
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• Massively popular: mobile devices used more and more for accessing the Web for information and
vast proportion of the population own one or two
• Cool and social. So extend the reach of websites and draw in a wider range of people
• No boundaries. Mobiles enable people to search on the move, virtually anywhere and at any time –
and in the social space
• People pay to use them. Mobile consumers used to paying to access information
• Small is beautiful. People search on smaller devices, which typically have less functionality
• Restricted functionality. Mobile user presented with a simplified ‘lite’ interface, without some of the
search functionality available to the PC user. Possibility of dumbing down?
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Growth in Europeana mobile use
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• Chart opposite shows monthly numbers
of page views for individual mobile
devices and an exceptionally rapid period
of growth
• Fastest growth coming from the iPhone.
• Mobile visitors are the fastest growing
category of Europeana users and their
influence will be felt increasingly, and our
estimate that they will comprise around
17% of visitors during 2012 is somewhat
conservative
• It is likely that the installed base of
internet-ready mobile devices will
actually overtake that of desktops and
laptops around 2013…then the tail wags
the dog
2010
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Europeana: Mobile page views by platform
January 2010 to July 2011
2011
Who uses Europeana on the go?
Europeana mobile use and users
• Europeana’s mobile users huge fans of Apple cool, with traffic
dominated by Apple’s iPad and iPhone which, in July 2011,
accounted for more than 70% of all mobile page views. These
devices particularly suited to viewing cultural content because of
their very high definition.
• French users dominate the mobile market for Europeana content
within the EU-27, despite having the second lowest number of
mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Where is Poland!
Mobile visits from
outside EU27
30.9%
Mobile visits from
within the EU27
30.9%
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Europeana mobile page views by platform worldwide
January to July 2011
Europeana mobile visits by country global percentage market shares
October 2010 to July 2011
CIBER dashboard: fixed and mobile users compared
Fast is the future
Duration of visit (seconds)
Page views per visit
Time per page (seconds)
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Search page views per visit
Queries per visit
Record views per visit
Visits from mobile devices are much less interactive than those from fixed platforms. Fewer pages are viewed, and fewer searches are conducted.
Mobile users spend on average more than twice as long per page, but this is only to be expected given the relatively slow performance of these devices in many situations.
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Key Europeana visit metrics for fixed and mobile users
October 2010 to July 2011 (one shot users excluded)
Issues
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1. Rural access to information increases rapidly – level playing field if broadband speeds and
connectivity up to scratch. Connects to information super highway Catch-up. And that could be a
case of shock and awe.
2. Nature of demand and information seeking behaviour will change; need for intervention
3. Self-service, DIY so who picks up the ticket, especially with the young?
4. The mobile is the library so what happens to traditional services, what role for them in an increasingly
digital universe. The buck stops with you!
5. For its size Poland probably underperforms on Europeana stage (behind Belgium and Iceland) and
especially so regarding Mobile access . Possibly due to lower penetration; also, perhaps, more insular
(Language skills?) and less developed as an information society. Some things for you to think about.
6. We are doing a lot of interesting mapping of use as the following slide shows and there is definitely
something there for rural librarians and educators….
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http://ciber-research.eu/EuropeanaConnect.html