1. Mobility: Are we there yet? Critical issues
in the emerging information user ecosystem
Stephen Abram, MLS
Handheld Librarian
Feb. 2, 2012

2. What Changes with Mobile?
Everything and Nothing

3. What doesn’t change?
 The User
 User needs vs. user context
 Content (versus format and display)
 Questions and improving the quality of
questions
 Creativity and human progress
 Stability = fossilization

4. What changes with mobile?
 The Ecosystem
 Communication devices move increasingly
from feature phones to smartphones
 Personal computing moves to a hybrid
environment of laptops and tablets (plus a
few power desktop anchors)
 In libraries the dominant mobile task
environments are based on answers,
communities and e-learning

12. What changes with mobile?
 Content – duh.
 Format and display considerations
 The reading experience (PDF, App, eBook,
Wall, Tweets, etc.)
 The learning experience
 The entertainment experience
 Streaming versus downloading
 Instant and ‘live’ (Bloggie)

13. What changes with mobile?
 Standards
 Apps versus HTML5
 XML
 ePub, Kindle Book, PDF, HTML5, etc.
 Tablets versus e-Reader experience (human
biology does not change quickly)

14. What changes with mobile?
 Concept of Place
 Geo-IP
 Google Maps integration
 Sign in and Authentication
 Rights and permissions management
 Concept of ‘Place’ tied to ‘User’
 Geo-location

15. What changes with mobile?
 Identity
 Personal phone versus home/family phone
 Consequences for library cardholder
management
 Are librarians and library value systems in
conflict with the new ecosystem and market
values?
 Will adults continue to respect and trust
library straitjackets?

16. What changes with mobile?
 Frictionless-ness
 Commerce
 Square (from Jack Dorsey founder of Twitter)
 Embedded e-commerce ecology in
smartphones
 Death of QR codes
 $5/gallon gasoline . . . and the library value
proposition of ‘free’

17. What changes with mobile?
 Frictionless-ness commerce
 In App purchasing and/or seamless buying?
 Commerce in a virtual goods space (start with
$billion market for gaming goods and extend
to other goods
 Other goods are a parallel commercial and
retail environment in ‘goods’ relevant to
libraries – e-books, streaming media, audio
like music MP3, lessons and podcasts, articles,
learning objects, games, tests, etc.

18. What changes with mobile?
 Opportunity
 1. Search personalization (e.g. Google)
 2. Push personalization (e.g. Facebook)
 3. Integration of sound, video, text, mail,
communication, social and business cohorts
 4. Advertising
 5. Major changes in usability: Voice response
like Siri, gesture interfaces, face recognition,
geo-restrictions, sentiment search, semantic,
linked data, data mining, etc.

19. What changes with mobile?
 Business Models
 Pressure on consumer and institutional models as
purchasing agent
 Pressure on retailer model
 Subscription models for e-Content (like Netflix for
entertainment but extended to e-books from
Amazon, 24Symbols or Bookish, etc.)
 On demand and micropayment models
 Author embedded models like Pottermore
 Books as apps or as vehicles for ads & purchases

20. Who to watch?
 Google (Android partners, Motorola acquisition)
 Microsoft (Skype acquisition)
 Facebook (post-IPO)
 eBay
 Apple (iTunes and App Store)
 Twitter (& Square)
 Research in Motion (as an acquisition target?)
 Amazon
 Open Source or any company on the fringes that is
disruptive as a new player or an acquisition target)

23. Who issues must libraries address?
 Living in a parallel world
 Serving a hybrid world
 Changing their strategic planning models to add
more stretch into the environmental scans, creative
thinking and imagination
 Bringing staff and profession along the curve
 12 steps . . .

24. Who issues must libraries address?
 Differential Adoption
 The generations are adopting at much
different rates and for different purposes
 Boomers are the primary adopters of e-
reading
Adult women are a major market for e-gaming
 Students are resisting e-textbook adoption –
for now.
 Tablet adoption (ownership) doubled over
Christmas 2011 (Pew)

25. Who issues must libraries address?
 On the sidelines of a war
 Watching the emerging commercial
battlefield (foundation vs. application)
 Android, RIM, Windows, Apple iOS, other . . .
 The end of the flip phone or feature phone
 At the same time as the end of CD and DVD
and more e-Books and e-content formats
 Dealing with new potential walled gardens
for e-content (app stores, e-formats, single
device stuff, etc.)

26. Who issues must libraries address?
 Differential Behaviors
 The generations have very different attitudes towards
mobile:
 Privacy
 Ownership and access rights
 Information ethics
 e-Commerce
 Reading
 Forced adoption
 Usage tracking
 Government involvement

27. Who issues must libraries address?
 Digital Filtering
 Are we comfortable with content filtering and use
filtering based on:
 age, race, gender, location?
 policy (criticism, definition of porn)?
 the device owner or app store rules and policies?
 adjustment of search algorithm by personal history, behavior
timeline, and user profile?
 Whither freedom to read?
 Ownership, rental, options?
 Balance in the use, read and purchase ecology

28. Who issues must libraries address?
 Address our internal struggles with:
 Fiction versus non-fiction content
 Books versus databases
 Marketing and promotion ecosystem of content
 Historical content (e.g. PDF repositories)
 Printing and end user retro-conversions (hardcopy, 3D,
CD, DVD, USB, etc. - OMG)
 Role of QR Codes, Barcodes, RFID, etc. (plane tickets)
 Mobile will be the dominant personal technology but
never the sole form factor
 Being a valid relationship in the hybrid ecology
 ...

29. Who issues must libraries address?
 Playing with vendor apps
 Developing Library apps – learn by doing
 Most good content vendors have first or second
generation apps to play with and many are free
 Many ILS vendors too including ILS enhancement layers
like Bibliocommons and LibraryThing.
 It’s too early to form anything more than an opinion
and those who don’t play aren’t learning fast enough.
 Use a smartphone.

30. Sample Gale Apps

31. Sample Gale Apps

32. My Humble Recommendations
 Pilot and experiment with mobile social cohorts
in the library
 Clubs
 Classes (mobile training or extended learning)
 Reading cohorts and book clubs
 Associations
 Fundraising
 Meetings
 Teams (business or sport)

34. My Humble Recommendations
 Actively lobby and educate to ensure that the
emerging mobile ecosystem supports the values
and principles of librarianship for balance in the
rights of end users for use, access, learning and
research.
 Support vendors and laws to be as agnostic as
possible by ensuring that, as afar as possible
your services and content offerings support the
widest range of devices, formats, browsers, and
platforms.

35. My Humble Recommendations
 Design for frictionless access using such
opportunities as geo-IP and mobile ready
websites
 Test everything in all browsers – mobile or not.
 Invest in usability research and testing and learn
from it and share your learning.
 Watch key developments in major publishing
spaces – kiddy lit, textbooks, e-learning, fiction,
etc.

36. My Personal Hobby Horses
 This is an evolution not a revolution
 The REAL revolution was the Internet and the
Web.
 The hybrid ecology is winning in the near term
for operating systems and content formats.
 This is good since competition drives innovation.
 Engage in critical thinking not raw criticism. Be
constructive.
 Critical thinking is not part of dogma or religious
fervor or fan boy behavior.

37. My Personal Hobby Horses
 This is an evolution not a revolution
 Perfectionism will not move us forward at this
juncture.
 Really understand the digital divide and remove
your economic and social class blinkers
 Get over library obsession with statistics and
comprehensiveness.
 Get excellent at real measurements, sampling
and understanding impact and satisfaction.
(Analytics, Foresee, Pew)

38. My Personal Hobby Horses
 This is an evolution not a revolution
 We need to revisit the concept of preservation,
archives, repositories, and conservation.
 Check out new publishing models like Flipboard.
 Watch for emerging book enhancements and
other features that will challenge library
metadata, selection policies, and collection
development.

39. Mobility Evolution

40. Evolution

41. Very Big Secret
The Elephant in the Room

43. HOW MANY MOONS ARE THERE IN
OUR SOLAR SYSTEM?

44. 146 Moons plus 23 provisional moons
 Earth 37. Euporie 76. Tarvos 115. Mab 2. S/2003 J3
1. Earth's Moon 38. Orthosie 77. Ijiraq 116. Belinda 3. S/2003 J4
39. Sponde 78. Suttungr 117. Perdita 4. S/2003 J5
Mars 40. Kale 79. Mundilfari 118. Puck 5. S/2003 J9
2. Phobos 41. Pasithee 80. Albiorix 119. Cupid 6. S/2003 J10
3. Deimos 42. Hegemone 81. Skathi 120. Miranda 7. S/2003 J12
43. Mneme 82. Siarnaq 121. Francisco 8. S/2003 J15
Jupiter 44. Aoede 83. Thrymr 122. Ariel 9. S/2003 J16
4. Io 45. Thelxinoe 84. Narvi 123. Umbriel 10. S/2003 J18
5. Europa 46. Arche 85. Methone 124. Titania 11. S/2003 J19
6. Ganymede 47. Kallichore 86. Pallene 125. Oberon 12. S/2003 J23
7. Callisto 48. Helike 87. Polydeuces 126. Caliban 13. S/2010 J 1
8. Amalthea 49. Carpo 88. Daphnis 127. Stephano 14. S/2010 J 2
9. Himalia 50. Eukelade 89. Aegir 128. Trinculo
10. Elara 51. Cyllene 90. Bebhionn 129. Sycorax Saturn
11. Pasiphae 52. Kore 91. Bergelmir 130. Margaret 15. S/2004 S7
12. Sinope 53. Herse 92. Bestla 131. Prospero 16. S/2004 S12
13. Lysithea 93. Farbauti 132. Setebos 17. S/2004 S13
14. Carme Saturn 94. Fenrir 133. Ferdinand 18. S/2004 S17
15. Ananke 54. Mimas 95. Fornjot 19. S/2006 S1
16. Leda 55. Enceladus 96. Hati Neptune 20. S/2006 S3
17. Thebe 56. Tethys 97. Hyrrokkin 134. Triton 21. S/2007 S2
18. Adrastea 57. Dione 98. Kari 135. Nereid 22. S/2007 S3
19. Metis 58. Rhea 99. Loge 136. Naiad 23. S/2009 S1
20. Callirrhoe 59. Titan 100. Skoll 137. Thalassa
21. Themisto 60. Hyperion 101. Surtur 138. Despina
22. Megaclite 61. Iapetus 102. Greip 139. Galatea
23. Taygete 62. Erriapus 103. Jarnsaxa 140. Larissa
24. Chaldene 63. Phoebe 104. Tarqeq 141. Proteus
25. Harpalyke 64. Janus 105. Anthe 142. Halimede
26. Kalyke 65. Epimetheus 106. Aegaeon 143. Psamathe
27. Iocaste 66. Helene 144. Sao
28. Erinome 67. Telesto Uranus 145. Laomedeia
29. Isonoe 68. Calypso 107. Cordelia 146. Neso
30. Praxidike 69. Kiviuq 108. Ophelia
31. Autonoe 70. Atlas 109. Bianca
32. Thyone 71. Prometheus 110. Cressida
33. Hermippe 72. Pandora 111. Desdemona  Provisional Moons
34. Aitne 73. Pan 112. Juliet 
35. Eurydome 74. Ymir 113. Portia  Jupiter
36. Euanthe 75. Paaliaq 114. Rosalind 1. S/2003 J2

46. Be More Open to the Users’ Paths -
Filtering

48. Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
VP strategic partnerships and markets
Cengage Learning (Gale)
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@cengage.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
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