Open Library in your pocket – Services to meet the needs of on and off campus users Hassan Sheikh, Susan Eales, Mariano Rico Library, 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 Hall Host 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 Library Strategic 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 ( – 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 oken_a_meme.php. Accessed 18th June oken_a_meme.php Dempsey, L. The changing digital library landscape: trends in the world of Web 2.0. Edina is 10, University of Edinburgh, 3 rd July Lorcan Dempsey’s blog at Tony Hirst – OU academic interested in Libraries, Web 2.0 and search at