Taking Your Library Website Mobile

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Taking Your Library Website Mobile

• Doug Baldwin
• Systems Administrator
• Cranbury Public Library

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How many of you of YOU are using a mobile device
to access the Internet these days?
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Doug Baldwin talking about mobile something or
other. Cant take my eyes off him ? NJLAconf
_at_govchristie
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WaitI thought it was still lunch time?

• Why have mobile website?
• What is wrong with the one I have?
• What are my options?
• Mobile content
• QA

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We librarians love our stats

• Morgan Stanley analysts predict that the mobile
  web will be bigger than desktop Internet usage by
  2015
• There will be 4.6 billion mobile cellular
  subscriptions globally by year end 2009
  (International Telecommunications Union)
• Web visitors using mobile devices increased 34
  from 2008-09. Interestingly, the largest
  demographic to increase usage over that period
  were teens and seniors. (Nielson Media)
• The number of US households using mobile devices
  to access news and information more than doubled
  (to 63.2 million) between 2008-2009
  (Comscore.com)
• Among those users, 35 did so on a daily basis,
  more than double the number from the year before

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Oh yes, cant get enough stats!!

• 1/3 of US residents have used a cellular or smart
  phone to access the Internet for emailing, IM, or
  information seeking
• One a given day, 19 of Americans use the
  Internet on a mobile device. This an increase of
  43 from 2007
• Among those using phones to access the Internet,
  46 say mobile access is very important for
  getting information online.
• Information taken from 2009 Pew Internet and
  American Life study entitled,
• Wireless Internet Usage

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What is wrong with my current website Mr. Know
It All?

• Nothing!! I am sure it is fine but,
• Web users are inpatient, so size matters
• What is lost in the resizing of a site?
• We design for the hardware, but the hardware is
  changing
• We are in the user experience business!
• What can I do about it, I do not code for mobile
  and I do not have time?!?

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How does my current site look to the mobile
world

• Instant Mobilizer
• http//instantmobilizer.com
• W3C Mobile Checker
• http//validator.w3.org/mobile/
• DotMobi Emulator
• http//mtld.mobi/emulator.php 
• Mobiready
• http//mobiready.com
• User Agent Switcher for Firefox
• https//addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59
  

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Mobilizing Current Site Tips and Tricks

• Conditional style sheet (not very easy)
• Use percents, not absolute values
• Use smaller images, link out to the larger ones
  (or no images at all!)
• Simplify your design
• One column layout
• Limit multi-media, widgets, and dynamic elements
  (link out)
• Short links
• Make content easy to find (navigation)
• Singular navigation
• Most used content at the top
• Click to call link
• lta href"tel[phone]gt1-888-888-8888lt/agt

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Creating a mobile website

• Prioritize your content
• Make the tough choices
• Right content for the right medium
• Provide services that make mobile sense
• Decide on your platform and hosting
• Vendor hosting vs. third party hosting
• Editor vs. hand coding
• Test, test, test !!!!
• Patrons and staff
• Promote, promote, promote !!!
• Flyers, website badge, bookmarks, social networks
• Think about maintaining content and editing

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Wirenode.com

• Very easy WYSWYG editor
• Low learning curve
• Limited customization (color, template)
• Integration of RSS, Twitter, one-click call,
  Google maps, forms, and images
• Ad supported for free version
• Create multiple sites / mobilize blog
• Remote hosting
• Stat tracking
• Test Drive / Live Site

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Wapple.net

• Remote hosted (no export available)
• Highly customizable (styles, content)
• Content is modular
• One size fits all (customized to multiple mobile
  devices)
• Higher learning curve than Wirenode
• User statistics
• RSS, comments, and other dynamic content
  available as modules
• Test Drive / Live Site

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UNC Mobile Site Generator

• Developed by Chad Haefele at the Univ. of North
  Carolina
• Uses online form to create tiered navigation for
  your site (a shell for the site)
• Gives you framework for the site, content is
  provided by you in coding environment
• REQUIRES working knowledge of HTML
• Highest level of flexibility and customization
• Must host the site yourself
• V1.1 allows integration of RSS feeds (still in
  testing phase though)
• You will want to plan you site layout B4 you use
  the tool!
• Test Drive / Live Site

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How to we get users to our mobile site?

• Link on your website
• Conditional CSS
• Redirect via user agent string
• Detects whether user is on a mobile device or not
  and directs them to appropriate site (mobile or
  non-mobile)

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Is there a shortcut, Yes for some..

• Using Wordpress?
• WPtouch
• WP Mobile Edition
• WPTap
• Using Joomla?
• MobileBot
• Using Drupal
• Mobile for Drupal

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And if your really in a pinch

• Try Google Mobile Optimizer
• http//www.google.com/gwt/n
• Try Mippin
• http//mippinmaker.com

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Providing mobile content
Can you think of any others???
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Questions
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I would have skipped my own wedding for this..
Love that Doug Baldwin ? NJLAconf _at_govchristie
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Cited Resources

• http//www.itu.int/newsroom/press_release/2009/39.
  html
• http//blog.nielson.com/nielsonwire/online_mobile/
  mobile-web-up-34-percent-july-09
• http//www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Release
  s/2009/3/Daily_Mobile_Internet_Usage_Grows
• http//www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/12-Wireles
  s-Internet-Use.aspx
• http//mashable.com/2010/04/13/mobile-web-stats/

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Contact Info

• Doug Baldwin
• Systems Administrator
• Cranbury Public Library
• baldwin_at_cranburypubliclibrary.org
• Twitter / _at_baldwind1976
• Facebook / http//facebook.com/cranburypl
• Linked In / http//www.linkedin.com/in/db1976
• Square 2 / http//tinyurl.com/sq2doug
• 609-655-0555
• Presentation, links, and resources can be found
  at
• http//tinyurl.com/mobilelib