The list below has all the mobile library catalogs that I’m able to find now. The link for each library goes to the mobile version of the catalog, if it’s linkable — Some (e.g. NCSU) apparently don’t have a direct link, in which case the link is to a more general page that has a link. I’ve taken screenshots on my iPod Touch of the search, list of retrievals, and complete record screens, for all catalogs on the list, that I’ve put in a Flickr set (tag for each library linked on the list). Pictures for five representative samples are below the list (indicated by an asterisk*). The combined screen Flickr pictures for all libraries, in the same format as the samples below, are here. (Catalogs added after this article first published, as labelled, have No Flickr pictures, for now.)
| Boulder [Flickr] Brig Young [Flickr] California St Univ [No Flickr] Curtin U (AU) [No Flickr] Duke Univ [Flickr] Iowa City* [Flickr] Jönköping U (SE) [No Flickr] LINCCweb [Flickr] |
Miami Univ [Flickr] MS State [Flickr] NCSU* [Flickr] Orange Co [Flickr] Oreg State [Flickr] Oxford [Flickr] Stark Co [Flickr] Texas Chr U* [Flickr] |
Tri-College* [Flickr] U Amsterdam [No Flickr] U Brit Col [Flickr] U Gent (BE) [No Flickr] U Minnesota [No Flickr] U No Carol [Flickr] U Rochester [Flickr] U Virginia* [Flickr] UCoL (NZ) [No Flickr] |
The screenshots for each catalog are color coded — Red is the beginning search screen, yellow is the list of retrievals, and green is the complete record. The Flickr set has separate, larger screenshots for each screen, and the color is maintained in those to make it easier to pick out different screen types.
Iowa City Publ Lib [Flickr] is one of four AIRPAC mobile catalogs from Innovative Interfaces (Boulder, ICPL, Orange Co, & Stark Co tagged together in Flickr set), all of which have similar look & feel.
NCSU [Flickr] is one of the first mobile catalogs, and still an excellent design.
Texas Christian (TCU) [Flickr] is notable because it has only a list of brief records for retrievals, with no links to a more complete record for each one.
Tri-College [Flickr] is interesting because it has a brief “drop down” complete record, that opens while keeping the context of the list of other retrieved items.
I chose Univ Virginia [Flickr] because I like its pleasing, simple design.
If you know of other mobile catalogs, send them in, via comment or email.
Eric Rumsey is at: eric-rumseytemp AttSign uiowa dott edu and on Twitter @ericrumseytemp
Thanks, nice overview. However, almost all examples are north american, except for Oxford. There are other non-american mobile library apps, for instance find some here: http://delicious.com/lukask/mobile
Lukas, Thanks, I’ve added the mobile catalog links from your list. I’m not adding Flickr pictures now — Let me know if these are valuable enough to justify a bit more work 😉
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Nice post! Was wondering do we know what systems i.e LMS these mobile catalogues are using? Or is it all homebrew?
Coincidentally, I just blogged – What are mobile friendly library sites offering? A survey – This covers every other aspect of mobile libraries (with images) EXCEPT the catalogue. So it goes nicely with your post.
Aaron, Thanks. Your overview/survey of mobile friendly library sites is excellent, and it does, indeed go well with this post on mobile catalogs!
As far as what systems are used for mobile library catalogs, four of the ones I covered are Innovative/AIRPAC. I don’t know about the others.
We have launched our own mobile web site for the Library of the Univerity of Amsterdam now: http://m.uba.uva.nl
With a mobile Aleph OPAC.
Lukas, Thanks – Your site is on the list – The first mobile Aleph OPAC I’ve seen, I think – I like it’s simple design.
We have a fully functional mobile version of our Ex Libris Voyager catalog at http://voyager.csumb.edu/vwebv/searchBasic?sk=mobile that is based on the excellent work done by Tom Pasley at Universal College of Learning http://libcat.ucol.ac.nz/vwebv/searchBasic?sk=mobile in New Zealand. I had originally put together a mobile interface to our catalog using WAP/WML and Z39.50 about 2-1/2 years ago and it ran just fine on very simple phone browsers, however Tom Pasley’s version enables full functionality within the mobile interface.
Steve Watkins
California State University, Monterey Bay, Library
swatkins at csumb.edu
I found a similar list here at http://userslib.com/2008/09/03/mobile-library-catalogs/.
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