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In the Palm of your Hand: the Future for the Hand-Held Librarian. Jon Fletcher, Liaison Librarian (Science & Technology) Nottingham Trent University jon.fletcher@ntu.ac.uk. Outline. Mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) E-book readers Games and mobile applications QR codes
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In the Palm of your Hand: the Future for the Hand-Held Librarian Jon Fletcher, Liaison Librarian (Science & Technology) Nottingham Trent University jon.fletcher@ntu.ac.uk
Outline • Mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) • E-book readers • Games and mobile applications • QR codes • Augmented Reality • Developing library services • ...and some groupwork!
Phones 4U (and everyone else) • An estimated 89% of UK adults own a mobile phone (Ofcom survey in Mintel, 2012a, p.4). Of those who do: • 48% of owners have smartphones (Mintel, 2012a, p.5) • 70% of 18-24 year olds (Mintel, 2012b) have smartphones • 80% have accessed the mobile web in the last 3 months (Mintel, 2012c] • 46% of owners have pay monthly contracts (Mintel, 2012a, p.4), indicating some type of data plan
Keep taking the tablets • Constant evolution since the iPad’s launch – c.10% of households had access to a tablet PC in August 2011 (Mintel, 2011)… …but the feeling is that tablets will/have killed the netbook surge (with a market for hybrid devices?) • Tablet heavyweights = IoS vs. Android...but watch out for the Kindle Fire! • Future share hard to predict – different surveys suggest different consumer purchasing intentions (Mintel, 2011 = 30% interest; Mintel, 2012d = 13% interest)
Keep taking the tablets: HE/FE trends • Perhaps most marked in the HE sector = predictions from higher education (cf. Kelly, 2012) are that tablets will drastically increase in higher education usage • Various institutions are giving away iPads and Kindles, as well as loaning iPhones and e-book readers
So what does it all mean for libraries? • A user with a device + a user who likes a particular services = a user who wants to use this device to access the services they use • Retrograde service assessment – services can fall behind by not keeping up…extra technology brings extra challenges! (PatriziaSoliani, Flickr)
Ebooks: A tale of two sectors Ebooks in public libraries • Overdrive services in local libraries • The challenge of Kindles and independent e-book lenders Ebooks in academic/special libraries • Dominated by collections • Limited download availability; divergence between service expectations and what is possible?
Mobile technology hits the mainstream • Better devices + greater mainstream appeal = greater ownership and usage • Big developments in mobile/portable functionality…and takeup: • QR/barcode readers • GPS-enabled location services (and indoor GPS?) • Popularity of apps and web-based games • Predictions for ‘the single device’?
‘Mature’ technology - QR codes and location-based services QR codes – examples • Quite established now – University of Bath and trials in institutions such as the University of Huddersfield (cf. Walsh, 2009 onwards) have seen them used in many places, for various tasks. Location-Based Services (e.g. Foursquare) • Minimal take-up by universities (Fletcher, 2011) and less by libraries – not a trend which has caught on, though possible uses remain
Gamification for the nation • Gamification = “the infusion of game design techniques, game mechanics, and/or game style into anything” (Gamification, 2012) • Greater popular impact due to smartphones • Mintel estimate that 567,000 mobile game apps will be downloaded in the UK during 2012 (Mintel, 2012e) • The app market in general was worth $3.7 billion worldwide in September 2011, with a worth of $7.7 billion predicted for 2016 – and this does not include free apps (Mintel, 2012e) • Impact of tablets can only increase popularity
Augmented Reality in the mainstream • Augmented Reality is now being used in Marketing… • Asos Magazines (March 2012) – uses BlipAR to view clothes from all angles • Shreddies: used BlipAR to scan cereal boxes and interact with the ‘Knitting Nanas’ and their pearls of wisdom • Michel Thomas language courses – logo be scanned with Aurasma to access audio samples of each course • And Universities (to a more limited extent; cf. University of Exeter, 2011):
(Miss) Scarlet, in the library, with the smartphone… • University of Manchester: Special Collections using Augmented Reality to Enhance Learning and Teaching (SCARLET; see JISC, 2011) – started June 2011, ends May 2012 - Looking to develop AR for rare books and a toolkit for others to use - Project video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf0KoH0SAcw • The first of many such developments?
Time to consider Augmenting our services? • Excellent use of AR to showcase interactive displays - Kwantlen Polytechnic Institute (Vancouver, Canada) [Junaio] • Click on a poster, take a tour of a venue: the JCDecaux Australia: Museum of Contemporary Art Augmented Reality Experience [Aurasma] • Making paper into a completely interactive portal for Sports Magazine [BlipAR] • There are many ways to create your own! See sites such as Aurasma for more details.
Developing your service • My own HE experience (2010/11): • Serious Games module (final year computing undergraduates) • Embedded into curriculum with design brief supplied – students had 10 weeks to design prototypes • Results included a QR code ‘library quest’ app, with rewards for finding and scanning relevant QR codes • Great idea…but build-in development work afterwards!
Developing your service • In-house expertise, funding applications, beyond… • Anyone for Mashed Libraries?
Conclusion • The minority is becoming the mainstream – with mobile devices becoming largely commonplace, libraries need to be adapting more to serve users with this technology • Ever-changing pace and evolution, but will 2012 finally be the year of the ebook reader and tablet? • What place in the world for AR technology? • Overall, these technologies are still not at the stage where they can be central tenants of a library’s core service…but there are many value-added benefits to be had from them
References • Fletcher, J., 2011. Libraries and location-based software: Where are we now? Multimedia Information and Technology, 37(3), pp.12-14. • Gamification, 2012. Gamification – definition [online]. Available via: http://gamification.org/wiki/Gamification_Definition [Accessed 7 April 2011]. • JISC, 2011. Special Collections using Augmented Reality to Enhance Learning and Teaching (SCARLET) [online]. Available via: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/ltig/scarlet.aspx [Accessed 7 April 2012]. • Kelly, B., 2011. My predictions for 2012 [online]. Available at: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/my-predictions-for-2012/ [Accessed 7 April 2012].
References • Mintel, 2011. Desktop, Laptop and Tablet Computers - UK - August 2011. Mintel [online]. Available at: http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=591378 [Accessed 6 April 2012]. • Mintel, 2012a. Mobile Phones Executive Summary – UK – February 2012. Mintel [online]. Available at: http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=612231 [Accessed 6 April 2012]. • Mintel, 2012b. Mobile Mobile Phones - UK - February 2012; market segment and key performance. Mintel [online]. Available at: http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=612231 [Accessed 6 April 2012].
References • Mintel, 2012c. Mobile phones and network providers - UK - March 2012 – executive summary. Mintel [online]. Available at: http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/new_reports/&list=latest_items/display/id=606100/list/id=606100&type=RCItem&display=abridged [Accessed 6 April 2012]. • Mintel, 2012d. Researching and Buying Technology Executive Summary – UK – January 2012. Mintel [online]. Available at: http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=609213 [Accessed 6 April 2012]. • Mintel, 2012e. Mobile Application Gaming - UK - February 2012. Mintel [online]. Available at: [Accessed 6 April 2012].
References • University of Exeter, 2011. Augmented Reality: A different view of learning [online]. Available at: http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/augmentedreality/ [Accessed 7April]. • Walsh, A., (2009). Quick response codes and libraries.Library Hi Tech News, 26 (5/6). pp.7-9. Available via: http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/5209/ [Accessed 7April].