Rolling out m. and app – lessons in similarity
Tom Ruthven, Digital Library Innovation and Development
UNSW Library
Mobile Services at UNSW Library
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Students always on their mobile devices – continuous wi-fi upgrade
Mobile promoted heavily to student demographic
Products and expertise available for libraries
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SMS notifications – UNSW Library
– students NEVER read their emails
Library map and directory - Abuzz
– Tour on website not geared to finding your way round the libraries
Mobile App – Boopsie and Ex Libris Primo Web Services for searching
– Get in early
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The University of New South Wales
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52,284 students: 15,000 post graduates, 14,199 international students
7,737 staff: 4,200 academics, 3,800 professional
3 campuses; 8 Faculties, 66 Schools, 97 affiliated institutes
300,000 e-books, 900,000 print books
88,250 online journals, <2,000 active print
5,000,000 searches this year
Development process
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Project proposal
Stakeholder input
Essential and nice-to-have, but pragmatic
Approval by senior management
Project team
Test scripts
Deadlines
SMS notices
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iFrame in User Interface (Primo) of borrower record (Aleph bor-update)
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Second shorter email sent to external SMS service
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Messages for:
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loan due
loan overdue
recall an item on loan to you
reserved item ready for pick up
interlibrary loan ready for pick up
interlibrary loan is being mailed to you
intercampus loan is ready for pick up
SMS notices
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Clearly defined goal
Applications well understood by Library
University infrastructure in place (SMS vendor)
Development and testing expertise
Library map and directory
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http://m.library.unsw.edu.au/locate
Library map and directory
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Build on existing service (touch screen)
Excited, local vendor
Android 2.X
Buried in app when we had only one library map
UNSW corporate branding wasn’t decided for mobile
Ownership of maps
Moving collection
Library map and directory
Library app
Library app
Library app
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UNSW corporate branding wasn’t yet decided for mobile apps
Map coordinates
Which colour is yellow?
Pictures of Outreach Librarians, Senior Management, and Library buildings
Position of Spinner circle hard to see
Back button on iOS
Items due not in red on iOS
Text changes: “My Account” to “MyLibrary”
Library app
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Does not work with iOS2
The yellow screen of death
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FRBRised records
Search results not the same as the web interface
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Scope
XML namespace
Web services started to require Institution
Exclusion of “Expand beyond my collections”: initially filtered out then Primo web service
Web services started to require IP
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Relevance sorting: leave blank
Which link for online: GETIT, LINKS, linktorsrc, openurlfulltext, or openurl
Last record of the first page is first record on second page
Cancel hold/recall does not take effect
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Can’t renew an item
Fine amounts not showing
Library app
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RefTracker from Altarama
RSS feed of Library news looks good but not full news item from Blog
Library news shows 660 days of news
EZProxy: detect Mobile and provide different style sheet
SFX: detect Mobile and provide different style sheet
DigiTool: ‘I agree’ on copyright page does not take you to item on Android
default browser, works on iOS
Library guides from Springshare: “How Do I Find” not displaying well
e-book readers and mobile devices
Library app
Working with the rest of the University
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Icon development
Branding rules
Listing in other apps
Inclusion within other apps: Blackboard
UNSW Web Masters Group
Working with vendors
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Very good
Very responsive
Interested in development that fits needs
Happy to share knowledge
Time zones
Sometimes hard to get attention after development finished
Where is the problem?
Common lessons
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Clear, core requirements
Project plan
Expect to make mistakes
Integrate into library business units
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User feedback
Deeper usage reporting
Need test environments
Continual development
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Ongoing relationship with vendor(s)
Phone platforms
Feedback from users
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What is mobile?
Refine Search
• In the Library
• Online
• Books
• Articles
• Reserve an item
• My e-shelf
• Link from catalogue to map
Thank you
t.ruthven@unsw.edu.au