This book is a compilation of papers delivered at the Third International M‐libraries Conference in Brisbane, Australia between the 11th and 13th of May 2011 at the University of Southern Queensland. There are 206 pages and 21 separate chapters on mobile technologies and libraries. A call to arms (foreword) by Stephen Abram opens the book by saying we only have “two real choices; create the future or be a victim of it”. Stephen delivered the keynote to the conference which is on his blog Stephen's Lighthouse as a Slideshare.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in mobile technology in libraries. Whilst much of the discussion is by university or government librarians, the problems and issues raised by mobile technologies has implications across all sectors of the library ecology.
What I really liked about this book was that so much of the content was presented by people involved in the development and marketing of mobile services to users. As such, you get a good understanding of what programs worked and what did not. All the authors write in a clear jargon‐free style delivering an easy to read journey through the development of mobile libraries, the editors did a great job in marshalling such a diverse group of authors.
The editors have divided the 26 chapters into three themes. Part 1 of the book is on Developing Mobile Services; Part 2 is on People and Skills; and finally Part 3 Focuses on Technology.
I really enjoyed reading the chapters on the challenges faced with the development of m‐libraries at international universities. The book has a chapter on the development of mobile technologies at the University of South Africa (Unisa), which is the world's fifth largest open distance learning institution. Unisa is introducing mobile access to a wide range of services such as the catalogue, the research service and mobile access to e‐collections. The information equity issues raised in the chapter on the University of South Pacific as they try and find some way to connect and develop m‐libraries in a multi campus library, with limited access to fast mobile connection was particularly thought provoking.
The chapters on the development of m‐libraries in the economic powerhouses of Asia; China and India, leaves me breathless with anticipation. For example in India the “total number of mobile subscribers as of July 2010 was 652.42 million” and in China the National Library of China is developing services for the “303 million phone netizens”. In these two countries the challenges are immense but the opportunities seem limitless.
The chapter by Vahideh Zarea Gavgani on the delivery of health care services by mobile phone in Iran was also very interesting. Her study revealed that patients in Iran “are very interested in receiving health information and information prescriptions via mobile phones”. Hopefully we have a similar study conducted in Australia.
I live in a house with three university students; the m‐libraries discussion around the dinner table was interesting. The younger two attend city campuses in Sydney, and when I ask them about mobile devices and the library they seem very interested in accessing books, databases and course notes on mobile devices. But as yet none have used the mobile phone to access the library resources. The third student is attending externally after a number of years away from university and the idea of using the mobile to read or look up the catalogue is simply too foreign to contemplate at this stage. I suppose this is the challenge for m‐libraries; to not only provide mobile services, but also educate users about the benefits of mobile learning.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, well done everybody involved.
M‐Libraries has a Facebook page a Twitter page the 2012 Conference has a page at www.m‐libraries.org, all very mobile. Hopefully the next edition of M‐libraries will be in eBook format.
