Reference Chat Del Mar College Library’s experience implementing LibraryH3lp for real-time online reference assistance

The Past, c.2000

Concerns  Privacy for the Patron  Privacy for the Library Staff  Cost to Maintain  Ease of Maintenance  Service to All Users  Not Platform Specific

Benefits of LibraryH3lp  Inexpensive  Easy to Set Up  Remotely Hosted by LibraryH3lp  Local hosting is an option  Flexible  Good Features  Transfers  Transcripts  Report Module

Pricing Models Library H3lp My Customer Cloud

Challenges  A little clunky  Especially in administration side  OK for patron and librarian  Documentation  Getting better as company matures  Customer Support  This isn’t their day job

Ref Chat Products Library H3lp Products  Library H3lp The original Designed for Library Reference Modest annual fees  My Customer Cloud Designed for Small Business, but sold to libraries that prefer a per- use pricing model Competition  Ref Chatter From Altarama  Text A Librarian

Options Gateways integrate public IM identities  AIM  Yahoo!  MSN  ICQ  Meebo Me  GoogleTalk  SMS Text

Create an account

Users & Queues

Create a Custom Widget

Generate Widget Code

Next Steps  Embed widget code in webpage(s)  Install Pidgin app  Configure Pidgin with user info

Pidgin Config

Activate Your Queue

Ready to Chat!

Chat in Action

Try it live now You’ll be in the patron role… /scuugchat.html Or

Outcomes  initial issues with unanswered chats  537 chats in initial year  prices increased but still reasonable

Mobile Web Design Del Mar College Library’s experience developing a mobile-friendly web presence

Overview  Why Go Mobile?  Why Did DMC Go Mobile?  Issues With Content  App vs. Web  Tool or Two  What’s Next for DMC?

Why Go Mobile? Billion Cell Phones According to Wolfram Alpha Photo courtesy

Why Go Mobile? Nearly 300 Million in US

Why Go Mobile? 4.1 Billion SMS Texts Daily in US In 2009 according to Gizmodo

Smartphones 61.6 million sold in Q2 of 2010 According to Gartner Majority cell phones by 12/2011 According to Nielsen

Smartphones A smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary basic feature phone. ~Andrew Nusca

Del Mar College Over 12,000 students Nearly 400,000 library visits Mature web presence Generally not leading edge tech Slow to adopt social media Library has own tech dept 1 librarian, 3 FT techs, 2 PT techs

Philosophy for Mobile Web

Mobile-Friendly Databases EbscoHost Encyclopedia Britannica (concise ed.) Stat!Ref WorldCat Google Books American Chemical Society (iPhone)

Four approaches  Create one simple version of site  Design multiple versions for devices  Use Content Adaptation  Create one high end version or app design-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

Apps vs Web Mobile Apps Customized by platform Programming experience More time to develop Works only on some phones Fees to participate in phone app distribution service Mobile Web Adjustment by browser HTML/CSS experience Less time to develop Works on web-enabled devices No additional cost*

Q Smartphone Global Sales by OS According to Gartner via Wikipedia

Mobile Site vs. Mobile CSS Mobile Site Write separate website Redirector for site Separate URL (redirect to) OR Maintenance after build Good for complex sites Shows just mobile- friendly content* Mobile CSS Write separate CSS Redirector for CSS No need for added URL No maintenance after build Good for sites using CMS Shows all content in a mobile-friendly format*

Redirect to page <!-- if (screen.width <= 699) { document.location = "m/index.html"; } //-->

Redirect CSS <link media=“only screen and (max-device-width: 480px)” href=“mobile.css” type=“text/css” rel=“stylesheet” />

Redirect by OS, Device, or Browser Detect Mobile Browsers at Detecting Smartphones Using Javascript mobile-javascript.htm

Mobile Optimizer Google’s Mobile Optimizer Skweezer**** IYHY (still avail?) Usable Assistive

Creating A Mobile Site Using Dreamweaver CS3 Click File > New Under page type: select HTML Under doctype: select XHTML Mobile 1.0 Create page. (The page is automatically formatted for a mobile device.)

Mobile Template Untitled Document

Validation

Testing

HTML 5.0 ?

Marketing

So what about SirsiDynix? Ed Smith to present on Web Services and BookMyne Tomorrow at 1:30 PM

LibraryThing Anywhere Price List! We key off buildings and locations, to be as dead- simple as possible. It’s an annual subscription fee. Schools $150, plus $50 for each additional location Public libraries $350 for main library, plus $50 per branch Two and four-year colleges $750, plus $150 for each additional library building Universities $1,000, plus $150 for each additional library building From

Outcomes  Continuing to develop  Over 1200 views in less than 6 mos.

What’s Next for DMC?