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albinoflea's review
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Originally published in The Journal of Academic Librarianship, May 2009, Vol. 35 Issue 3, p282
"Can you believe that we can text, e-mail, surf the internet, even update your Facebook status, right from the palm of your hand?" asks Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint, in a recent television commercial. The looming question for libraries is what happens when our patrons decide they want to check the availability of an item, obtain reference help, or track down a citation, right from the palm of their hand? While twenty years ago these devices would have seemed more the product of a James Bond film or Dick Tracy cartoon than something a majority of us would actually own, there is little doubt that the evolution of mobile technology is a phenomenon that libraries will need to come to terms with in the near future, and this book demonstrates how some libraries have already taken up the struggle.
The concept of m-libraries is a complement to the concept of m-learning, or mobile learning, itself a specialized offshoot of e-learning and distance education. As John Traxler describes it in the introduction to his article, "the relationship between these two communities is itself interesting since the mobile learning community and the m-library communicate to deliver or support some types of learning and also each deliver or support other types of learning alone. The mobile learning community has a focus on teaching and interaction, whereas the m-library community has a greater focus on services and content."
The core of this volume is a series of articles presented at the First International M-Libraries Conference, which was held at the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, in 2007, supplemented by additional articles, a foreword by Lorcan Dempsey, and a conclusion consisting of speculation on the future impact of mobile technology on libraries from pioneers in the m-learning and m-library communities. The articles themselves are organized into a framework of four parts: The Changing Landscape, Mobile Technology for Development, Initiatives, Innovations and Challenges, and Practice Perspectives, so that the book generally follows a trajectory from theory to practice
Given the rapid progress in the advancement and adoption of mobile devices in the past 2 years, some of the articles understandably no longer conjure a cutting-edge feel; consider that Apple’s expectation-raising iPhone has been available for less than two years. That being said, the projects that are described in the articles are truly international in scope, and describe a broad spectrum of efforts to come to grip with and exploit the proliferation of mobile devices. Several of the articles relate projects undertaken in developing countries where the infrastructure for mobile phones has outpaced the expansion of traditional land-based communications infrastructure, where mobile learning plays a more critical role than the niche role it currently plays in more developed countries.
The value of this book lies in its ability to give an overview of the manner in which mobile technology can be harnessed to better serve patrons and students. It is not a how-to guide, or a book that outlines specific steps needed to begin serving mobile content. Its value to libraries with limited resources, or that cannot afford the luxury of experimentation, is likely somewhat limited. Those libraries that are partnered to campuses with strong m-learning initiatives, or those libraries looking to deliver up content in innovative ways, will find the book a welcome assistant as they decide upon what content and services to offer in mobile format.
"Can you believe that we can text, e-mail, surf the internet, even update your Facebook status, right from the palm of your hand?" asks Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint, in a recent television commercial. The looming question for libraries is what happens when our patrons decide they want to check the availability of an item, obtain reference help, or track down a citation, right from the palm of their hand? While twenty years ago these devices would have seemed more the product of a James Bond film or Dick Tracy cartoon than something a majority of us would actually own, there is little doubt that the evolution of mobile technology is a phenomenon that libraries will need to come to terms with in the near future, and this book demonstrates how some libraries have already taken up the struggle.
The concept of m-libraries is a complement to the concept of m-learning, or mobile learning, itself a specialized offshoot of e-learning and distance education. As John Traxler describes it in the introduction to his article, "the relationship between these two communities is itself interesting since the mobile learning community and the m-library communicate to deliver or support some types of learning and also each deliver or support other types of learning alone. The mobile learning community has a focus on teaching and interaction, whereas the m-library community has a greater focus on services and content."
The core of this volume is a series of articles presented at the First International M-Libraries Conference, which was held at the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, in 2007, supplemented by additional articles, a foreword by Lorcan Dempsey, and a conclusion consisting of speculation on the future impact of mobile technology on libraries from pioneers in the m-learning and m-library communities. The articles themselves are organized into a framework of four parts: The Changing Landscape, Mobile Technology for Development, Initiatives, Innovations and Challenges, and Practice Perspectives, so that the book generally follows a trajectory from theory to practice
Given the rapid progress in the advancement and adoption of mobile devices in the past 2 years, some of the articles understandably no longer conjure a cutting-edge feel; consider that Apple’s expectation-raising iPhone has been available for less than two years. That being said, the projects that are described in the articles are truly international in scope, and describe a broad spectrum of efforts to come to grip with and exploit the proliferation of mobile devices. Several of the articles relate projects undertaken in developing countries where the infrastructure for mobile phones has outpaced the expansion of traditional land-based communications infrastructure, where mobile learning plays a more critical role than the niche role it currently plays in more developed countries.
The value of this book lies in its ability to give an overview of the manner in which mobile technology can be harnessed to better serve patrons and students. It is not a how-to guide, or a book that outlines specific steps needed to begin serving mobile content. Its value to libraries with limited resources, or that cannot afford the luxury of experimentation, is likely somewhat limited. Those libraries that are partnered to campuses with strong m-learning initiatives, or those libraries looking to deliver up content in innovative ways, will find the book a welcome assistant as they decide upon what content and services to offer in mobile format.