Open Library in your pocket – Services to meet the needs of on and off campus users

Hassan Sheikh, Susan Eales, Mariano RicoLibrary, The Open University, United Kingdom

Agenda

• About OU and the Library

• Open Library 2.0 project

• M-Open Library 2.0

• What we have done and current work

• Demo

• Designing for mobiles – tips and tricks

• Challenges and issues

• Questions

About Open University

• Largest UK University – 35% UK part-time undergraduates

• 203,000 students/ 74,000 FTE in 04/05• 16% under 25 (median age of new undergrads 32)• 60% of students have 2 A levels or less• Europe and worldwide

About OU Library Services

• 93 staff based in Walton HallHost Library Seminars and other events

• Available to anyone who can come to the building• No document delivery or postal loans to students• Website, digital library and links with other libraries

important

Projects at the Open LibraryStrategic Services Development Group • manage Library projects, including

– Digilab– VOICE– Open Library 2.0

Also involved in University projects• Enterprise Content Management System • OU VLE

– Moodle – Integration of Learning Resources, Federated Search

And external projects – JISC funded PROWE project

Open Library 2.0 Project History• Extensive user consultation in 2004 and 2005

– Task orientated– Easier navigation– Database-driven website

• Literature review in 2006• “The user is not broken”, by K. G. Schneider• Lorcan Dempsey presentation in Edinburgh, 2006• Brainstorming workshop for Library staff• Systems thinking workshop for main university

stakeholders– VLE Director– Central computing services

Open Library 2.0 Phase 1

• Redesigning existing library website– Content redevelopment – 4000 to 120 pages– Database development– Reusing existing CMS and website framework– Writing for the web workshops and guidelines– Better workflow process for updating – Editorial Group to maintain site integrity

Open Library 2.0 Phase 2• Sub projects

– Personalisation

– Mobile Open Library 2.0

– Web services

– Rich media

– Federated search

Mobile Open Library 2.0• Phase 1

(http://library.open.ac.uk)– Auto Detect and Reformat (ADR) implementation and

partnership with Athabasca University– Redesign the interface for mobiles– Customized search engine– more than 600 page hits since we launched in

October 2007– Other departments in OU are interested to join up

• Technical architecture (Diagram)

Mobile Open Library 2.0 – technical architecture

• Diagram

Mobile Open Library 2.0 – demo

• Phase 2 developments• Improve the contents – one version fits all• Conduct users requirement analysis – the key services

users want• Implement personalization. Users choose what services

they want• Web 2.0 oriented services: Users interacting with the

systems by adding reviews, tags and comments to the resources

• SMS based services – e.g. text in ISBN to find out if a book exists in OU Library

Mobile Open Library 2.0 contd …

Designing for mobiles – tips and tricks• Strip out image tags for faster content download (hiding

in CSS doesn’t always work)

• Auto detect the mobile device – users like it!

• But provide an option to switch between mobile and full size version of the website

• Detect once and set a session (or url) variable.

• Include the maximum device models in your detection but the ideal solution would be detecting the device screen size and classifying the templates accordingly

Designing for mobiles – tips and tricks (contd …)• Define smaller size text for the form elements or different

versions of forms for mobiles and PC (e.g. feedback forms)

• Users should be able to resize text size

• Show relevant navigational links rather the whole sections (Example) – OL2.0 sub sections

• Check your web site for standards

Google Mobile Proxy

Windows 2003 based Pocket PC emulator

Designing for mobiles – challenges and issues

– Long contents (one version – fits both?). Write short and to the point

– Large pictures take too long to download – hide pictures or strip out img tag

– What mobile services users are after? Consult users and ask them for their preference

– Thousand of hand held devices – what to do to render contents nicely?

Designing for mobiles – challenges and issues (contd …)

– Flash is not supported by all mobile devices (e.g. Blackberry)

– Use of advanced html featured – not supported by many smart phones

– Multimedia applications – too big and clunky

Questions ??

• Thank you very much for attending

References

• Schneider, K. G. The user is not broken: a meme masquerading as a manifesto. At http://freerangelibrarian.com/2006/06the_user_is_not_broken_a_meme.php. Accessed 18th June 2006

• Dempsey, L. The changing digital library landscape: trends in the world of Web 2.0. Edina is 10, University of Edinburgh, 3rd July 2006.

• Lorcan Dempsey’s blog at http://orweblog.oclc.org/• Tony Hirst – OU academic interested in Libraries, Web

2.0 and search at http://blogs.open.ac.uk/Maths/ajh59/