Conclusion

Summary

As mobile devices become more prevalent in society, educational and other organizations have started to make their libraries more mobile-friendly to provide flexible service to learners, educators, researchers and the public. As the subtitle of this book, ‘From devices to people’, suggests, the needs and characteristics of users should be kept in mind when designing services for the user. As the use of mobile technologies in libraries increases, the devices and the user interface have to be user-friendly to facilitate seamless access. This can only be done by conducting research on the use of mobile devices in libraries. The chapters in this book are written by librarians from around the world who are experts in their field and who are leaders in the use of mobile technologies in libraries. The chapters present information and best practices that can be used to provide mobile-friendly service to users.

The shift for providing mobile library services to users is being driven by many forces. The users today, especially the young generations of users, are comfortable using mobile devices and are using the devices for everyday activities and for socialization. As a result, they will expect to access library materials and services using the mobile devices. There is a shift to digitization around the world, in which learning materials and information are being digitized for access by electronic devices. Textbooks and journals are being digitized for delivery on a variety of technologies, including mobile technologies. The internet is becoming more mobile-friendly and organizations are making their websites mobile-friendly. Big data is being created, which makes interpretation of the data more complex. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are being delivered to a large number of learners who are from different backgrounds, cultures, locations, academic levels and disciplines. Most importantly, there is an information explosion because of the increasing use of social media, digitization and user-generated information. The information explosion is a challenge to users, since they have to filter a large amount of information to get the correct information they need. Librarians of the future must take the above trends into consideration when developing mobile-friendly services for users who are mobile.