M‐libraries: Libraries on the Move to Provide Virtual Access

Citation

Barker, P. (2010), "M‐libraries: Libraries on the Move to Provide Virtual Access", The Electronic Library, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 351-353. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471011033747

Gone are the days when libraries were considered to be discrete, isolated entities to which users made “pilgrimages” in order to obtain sought‐after items of information and knowledge. Nowadays, libraries can be quite the opposite. Many libraries are networked organisations containing substantial volumes of sharable digital resources that people can access remotely without the need to travel to particular geographical locations to access them. Indeed, a whole range of different types of electronic technology can now be used to access the digital resources held in modern‐day libraries. The latest trend is the use of mobile technology – that is, technology that people carry about with them in their pockets, handbags or rucksacks. Typically, the devices that are used include mobile phones, personal digital assistants, hand‐held and net‐book computers.

This book contains a collection of 24 papers that were originally presented at the “First International m‐libraries Conference” that was hosted by the UK's Open University at its Milton Keynes campus on 13‐14 November, 2007. Following an extensive Foreword and Introduction, the 24 contributed chapters that make up the book are organised into four broad sections. These deal with:

1. 1.

   The changing landscape.

2. 2.

   Mobile technology for development.

3. 3.

   Initiatives, innovations and challenges.

4. 4.

   Practice perspectives.

The book finishes with a conclusion entitled “thoughts on the future of m‐libraries”.

The six chapters that make up the first part of the book discuss various ways in which libraries may need to change the nature of the systems and services that they offer as their clients' needs and expectations evolve as a consequence of emerging developments in mobile devices and mobile communication technologies. The importance of providing appropriate resources and access to libraries (both for the support of mobile learning and for nomadic clients) figure prominently in this section of the book.

Containing just four chapters, the second part of the book is a relatively short one. These deal with various aspects of the development of resources for delivery on mobile devices in various contexts. Applications within developing countries (particularly those in Southern Africa) are an important issue that is discussed in this part of the book. Education and healthcare are the principal areas considered in these contributions.

The third part of the book is by far the largest. The ten chapters that it contains cover a broad range of topics relating to uses and applications of mobile library access. Several of these chapters are devoted to: supporting students on placement and/or studying at a distance; inter‐university collaboration in relation to resource development and resource sharing, respectively; and developing students' creative potential. There are also some interesting contributions on: the use of digital libraries (both in healthcare applications and in teaching English as a foreign language, respectively); the use of “Digilab” for mobile course delivery; and the use of metadata and the LOM (Learning Object Metadata) standard for the “operationalization” of m‐libraries.

The four short chapters contained in the final part of the book are devoted to application case studies. These deal with: the use of PDAs (by students on clinical placement) for accessing information; delivering library orientation videos using a cell phone; providing mobile service connectivity for the library system at the Open University of Sri Lanka; and the use of mobile phones to help students with information literacy. In the conclusion to the book, one of the editors (GN) discusses possible future developments for m‐libraries. Four important issues are discussed: technology; convergence and lifestyle; content; and personalisation. Bearing in mind the evidence presented, it is likely that mobile devices will become powerful personal tools with which to access remotely held information (in libraries and elsewhere) and web‐based services. Future libraries will therefore need to accommodate, and provide support for, developments in mobile devices – and their uptake by “the masses”.

Overall, I thought this publication was a very useful one, in that it illustrates the very broad range of possibilities that are emerging in relation to accessing digital library resources (via web servers) using portable devices. It contains a wealth of information both for “library people” and for those who may wish to access library resources from remote locations using a mobile device. The second conference on m‐libraries was held at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada on 23‐24 June 2009 – no doubt, another useful book will eventually emerge from this event.

Links

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  http://library.open.ac.uk/mLibraries/2007/index.html

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  http://m‐libraries2009.ubc.ca/

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  http://digilab.open.ac.uk