Delivering Content to a Moving Target

By Andrew K. Pace
American Libraries Columnist
andrew_pace@ncsu.edu

Head of Information Technology
North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh

Column for June/July 2006

Last month, I went for a quick spin around the block with some new gadgets. Most librarians I talk to mention that their libraries have a “gadget person”—the one who’s up on all the latest offerings and usually owns one or two. You can even pick out the uber-geek in the crowd: the one who owns hardware only available in Asian or European markets.

Watch out when the gadget person utters that dangerously enticing phrase, “Wanna see something cool?” Dangerous, because it’s hard to find the practical application for libraries in playing pool on a cell phone; enticing, because with only a little ingenuity and willing library partners, it’s not that hard to make something useful out of what seems like a solution looking for problems.

Every gadget, its consumer

While content providers might not be the biggest moneymakers, there are certainly niches for them in the handheld market. To date, most of the content has focused on legal and medical professionals. Ovid partnered with Unbound Medicine in 2001 to offer Ovid@Hand, a synchronization, reading, and research tool for on-the-go medical professionals. The National Library of Medicine has provided handheld-friendly access to PubMed and an NCBI bookshelf since 2005. EBSCO has made DynaMed available to handheld users through its partner, Skyscape.

Dissatisfied medical patients might turn next to the legal data made available to handheld-wielding consumers. PDAs with web capability can gain access to Westlaw through Westlaw Wireless. LexisNexis makes its content accessible for Blackberry users.

It’s easy to spot Blackberry users at conferences and group meetings: That unusual posture of head bowed and hands together in one’s lap is commonly referred to as the “Blackberry prayer.” Conveniently, the Bible and other spiritual resources are another popular content area for small devices. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made many of its publications available for handhelds free of charge. Bibles of various editions and formats are available from dozens of websites. I can even download a free English translation of the Qur’an or Sahih Bukhari directly to my Samsung cell phone.

If you don’t know what you’re looking for and that fancy new smartphone or ultramobile PC truly is an empty slate looking for content, you might check out Handango.com. Handango provides an easy-to-use interface that can be set to your particular device, offering a wide array of content from free to over $100. Whether you want the latest funny video clip, card games, financial applications, or e-books, Handango can find it for you.

When it comes to more serious library use of handheld content, the Handheld Librarian is a good resource. This blog, with many contributors, covers the commercial and library space for handheld and wireless devices, as well as discussion of the impact on the library profession.

Now, that’s outreach

Though portable devices have been around as prototypes for a couple of years now, library automation vendors have gotten much more serious about the potential for managing libraries using handhelds. Beyond the typical use of PDAs and Tablet PCs in meetings and at conferences, vendors are developing useful applications for use with their ILS software.

One of the first to market with a handheld version of its online catalog was Innovative Interfaces, whose AirPac interface (released in 2001!) detects the device without the patron having to choose a specialized interface. In 2005, SirsiDynix released its PDA Circulation tool, which allows staff to check out materials to patrons waiting in line, do inventory control on the spot, or even operate while the main system is offline. Altarama, an Australian library management system, has tried to make a niche market out of extended services, including text messaging for overdue books and SMS messaging and blogs for reference queries.

Managing access to wireless itself has become a challenge, particularly for public libraries. Polaris has Wireless Access Manager to login patrons, meter bandwidth, and prevent after-hours access to library wireless networks. TLC has similar offerings with Wireless.Solution.

Mobility demands wireless access, and libraries must step into the breach between patrons and their devices with content and services that make wireless and handheld access applicable to the library space. These are not solutions looking for problems, but rich opportunities for libraries to maintain relevance to a growing population of patrons.

Contracts and agreements

Innovative Interfaces sales of Millennium:

The University of Texas at Austin, replacing a locally developed system, which leaves only one local system amongst ARL libraries (University of California at Berkeley); Texas State University at San Marcos, replacing SirsiDynix DRA.

SirsiDynix sales of Corinthian:

Valley Forge Christian College in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, replacing Winnebego.

Announcements

The Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority (INCOLSA) has chosen WebFeat to power INSPIRE, the Indiana Virtual Library, for simultaneous searching of its online resources. INCOLSA also just signed a deal with Xrefer to provide discounted access for 2,200 members to Xreferplus’s more than 200 titles.
The University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Innovative Interfaces, and EBSCO have announced the successful real-time acquisition of electronic resource statistics using the new SUSHI protocol. The real-life implementation follows proof-of-concept testing by both Ex Libris’s Verde and Innovative’s Electronic Resource Management systems. The new download standard will allow libraries with ERM systems to efficiently incorporate usage statistics without having to download, merge, and load them resource-by-resource.
Following in the footsteps of Google Scholar, Microsoft has released a beta version of its scholarly search solution, Windows Live Academic Search. Like Google Scholar, the tool will search proprietary publisher content and the open web. The content will focus on engineering, computer science, and physics, and includes publishers one would expect in this arena, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Institute of Physics, John Wiley, and Elsevier. Microsoft has also worked with Ex Libris, OCLC, TDNet, and Serials Solutions to incorporate OpenURL reference linking from its searches.
Index Data has announced the first implementation of Keystone Target Manager, a NISO Z39.92–compliant resource for assessing digital library availability and service description. Index Data teamed with the National Library of Finland, whose director of information technology, Juha Hakala, played a major role in the development of collection and service description standards on the NISO Metasearch Initiative Committee. Z39.92 is currently a draft standard for trial use.