Chad Mairn, CTO of Novare, publishes a chapter on Mobile-Optimized Library Resources and Services

Chad Mairn, Chief Technology Officer at Novare Library Services and St. Petersburg College Librarian, wrote a chapter titled ‘Acquiring, Promoting, and Using Mobile-Optimized Library Resources and Services,’ which will be published this month in “E-Reference Context and Discoverability in Libraries: Issues and Concepts” edited by Sue Polanka.  You can take advantage of IGI Global’s pre-publication pricing today or read a summarized version of Chad’s chapter from Advances in Library Information Science’s newsletter here. You can also read the first few pages of the chapter here.   

Here is the abstract:

Although the reasons vary, it is apparent that the majority of library users prefer electronic reference content primarily because information provided in that format is easier to find and use; plus, much of this content is accessed via mobile devices. This chapter will discuss best practices for acquiring, promoting, and using mobile-optimized library resources and services including reference content -- although most Ready Reference print collections have disappeared because of the ease of finding factual information thanks to Google, Wikipedia, and others. A report on mobile library surveys and vendor usage statistics regarding the use and future aspects of mobile-optimized library reference resources and services will also be discussed in order to provide a snapshot of what is working in this emerging technology that is impacting most everyone today. The chapter also will attempt to answer questions to determine if promoting mobile-optimized content is helping users discover oftentimes hidden library reference content while they are on the go.