Wow. About time.
Those were my two immediate reactions upon seeing the announcment for “The First International m-libraries Conference” that “aims to explore and share work carried out in libraries around the world to deliver services and resources to users ‘on the move,’ via a growing plethora of mobile and hand-held devices … bring together researchers, technical developers, managers and library practitioners to exchange experience and expertise and generate ideas for future developments.”
A quick look around any library, shopping mall, airport, coffeeshop, grocery store, etc. and we see that library users are often on the move with mobile information devices. Yet – most of our resources and services are either place-bound or they are digitally available but assume a computer screen – not a cell phone, blackberry, or PDA. Have you ever looked at a library website through a mobile device web browser? I have. It wasn’t pretty. Forget getting to any of the licensed content.
I hope this is an area of quick and determined action for libraries but, even if not, the conference sessions look intriguing and may spur some new areas of activity.
Good news for those headed to ALA Annual:
Libraries2Go: Library Services for Handhelds
RUSA MARS Hot Topics Discussion Group at ALA Annual 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007, 10:30am – 12:00pm
JW Marriott, Salon IV, Washington D.C .