Mobile site stats

[Nina Mchale]

Good morning, all!

For anyone needing to make a case in favor of mobile catalog functions,
have a look at the survey results on slide 14 of this presentation:
http://milehighbrarian.net/?q=auraria-library-goes-mobile Granted, the
survey results are not from a huge sample of users, but catalog
functionality was pretty clearly the first choice to the survey question we
asked, which was, "What would you like to be able to do on your phone or
mobile device on the library's web site?" (Answers were open ended, too,
just a text box form field.) This survey justified the purchase of AirPAC.
Ask your users and see if they say the same thing.

As far as talking with campus IT, they may be IT professionals, but they
really don't understand library technology and library user needs. Library
tech is different, and we have to be advocates for our and our users' needs
when we're receiving support from a parent IT unit. The anecdote I always
use to illustrate this is that the first campus server support person I
worked with at my last job wouldn't let more than a handful of library
staff "touch" the web server, even just to publish or update web pages,
which created a huge editorial bottleneck. When I asked him why, he said it
was a security risk because of all of our patron data on the web site. I
told him that patron data was on the ILS server, under lock and key,
totally separate from the web site. He then let me create and manage staff
web site users to my heart's content, which in turn was beneficial to him
because it was one less thing he had to manage. (Tip: always present the
advantage to THEM that your project will offer.)

The other angle you can always play with is showing them what you know and
what you can take on. When IT hears of new projects (and I've been on both
ends of this, as librarian and IT) that they haven't had a hand in
developing, they panic and say "no" because they worry that they won't be
able to support them if they weren't involved from the get-go. If you can
reassure them that you're taking care of the development, maintenance, and
security (or whatever parts of that you can truly and confidently take on)
of your project, and work out an agreement on who does what, you may be
able to successfully establish what you need and reassure IT.

Finally, see if they'd be willing to be mobile development partners. They
do seem to recognize the value in mobile if they're working on a campus
site; would it save time if you worked library features within that
interface? A single interface, would, after all, be beneficial for your
users. This is tricky because the other thing campus IT folks don't
understand is what library users do on our web sites. They don't know how
many thousands/millions of dollars we spend on electronic resources, and
often don't know that we're offering virtual services like text and IM, not
to mention the sheer numbers of tech vendors and products (ILL, reserves,
catalog, discovery layer, guides) that we're trying to pull together into a
single user interface. So, describing all of that may scare them away and
let you do your own thing. :D

Laura, do you have any usage statistics for your site? Google Analytics has
been tracking mobile data since October 2009, so if you have been tracking
anything since, you'll have *some* numbers. If nothing else, you can use
your stats to show the campus folks what users do on your site, i.e., they
DON'T need a link to the registrar (or really, much of anything else in the
campus site navigation) when they're doing online research.

Good luck!

Nina

Nina McHale, MA/MSLS
milehighbrarian.net
Facebook & Twitter: @ninermac

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 9:31 AM, Carol Hassler <Carol.Hassler at wicourts.gov>wrote:

>  From our Google analytics results, we have seen a massive increase in
> mobile usage. It's risen from around 20 hits per day in early 2010 to
> about 200 hits per day now. It's still a small percentage of total visits
> to our site but it's growing like wildfire.
>
> Our top OS/devices are Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Blackberry.
>
> Carol
>
>
>  Carol Hassler
> Webmaster / Cataloger
> Wisconsin State Law Library
> (608) 261-7558
> http://wilawlibrary.gov/
> >>> Cary Gordon <listuser at CHILLCO.COM> 12/2/2011 10:11 AM >>>
>
> We host Drupal sites mostly for smaller public libraries. I have seen
> mobile user agent numbers for some of those libraries running in
> double digits.
>
> To put it another way, every library we host that uses Google
> Analytics is asking for a mobile site.
>
> I wish that LJ would redo this now almost 2 year old study and
> consider user agents, and not just use of existing mobile specific
> services.
>
> Cary
>
> On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 7:02 AM, Aaron Tay <aarontay at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > How about
> http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/ljinprintcurrentissue/886987-403/gone_mobile_mobile_libraries_survey.html.csp
> > ?
> >
> > There is a "reported percentage of total usage coming from mobile
> > access" table that might be useful. The main problem is that most
> > libraries are not showing very high usage, mean is about 5% for both
> > academic and public libraries. Though we can debate what "high" means
> > in absolute terms?
> >
> >
> > Aaron
> >
> > On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 10:47 PM, Kristi Bryant <kbryant at wellstown.org>
> wrote:
> >> I wish I had data to share, but I wish you luck!  I’m trying to convince
> >> higher level staff of the need to create a mobile III catalog as well
> and
> >> feel your pain!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Best wishes!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Kristi Bryant
> >>
> >> Reference and Technology Librarian
> >>
> >> Wells Public Library
> >>
> >> Wells, Maine  04090
> >>
> >> 207-646-8181 ext. 205
> >>
> >> e-mail:  kbryant at wellstown.org
> >>
> >> web:  www.wellstown.org
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you
> back
> >> the right one."  Neil Gaiman
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> From: Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On
> >> Behalf Of Zusman, Laura
> >> Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 2:19 PM
> >> To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> >> Subject: [WEB4LIB] Mobile site stats
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Hello!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I’m in the situation of having to meet with our college marketing and IT
> >> departments to justify why it is we, the library, need our own mobile
> >> website. We’re planning on using LibraryAnywhere, as I’ve been on a
> trial
> >> for about a month now and think it does everything we need it to do
> (and at
> >> a reasonable price!). After I’d built the initial site, our director
> >> mentioned it to the head of IT, who exclaimed that they are already
> working
> >> on a college site.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> In any case, we’re meeting with these folks next week to show what I’ve
> >> built with the software, and explain why the library is different from
> the
> >> rest of campus (i.e., we’re a III library who’s not going to pay for
> AirPAC,
> >> so our IT department would not be able to get into Millennium for a
> mobile
> >> site, thereby totally leaving out many of the services our patrons would
> >> want).
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I’d love to be able to bring some statistics to the table at this
> meeting,
> >> to show the impact a library mobile site can have. I’ve searched for
> >> articles giving some concrete stats on mobile library usage, but without
> >> much luck. If anyone has implemented a library mobile site and has some
> >> stats (how many hits in a month or year or whatever, time spent on site,
> >> etc… Google Analytics type info) I would be thrilled to have them. It
> >> doesn’t have to be in detail, of course – whatever you’d be willing to
> >> share!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> (And if anyone has any tips on dealing with an IT department that
> doesn’t
> >> understand, I’d welcome that, too J)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Thank you!
> >> Laura
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Laura Zusman
> >>
> >> Electronic Information Librarian
> >>
> >> Rivier College
> >>
> >> Regina Library
> >>
> >> 603.897.8683
> >>
> >> lzusman at rivier.edu
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ============================
> >>
> >> To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib
> >>
> >> Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/
> >>
> >> 2011-12-01
> >>
> >> ============================
> >>
> >> To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib
> >>
> >> Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/
> >>
> >> 2011-12-02
> >
> > ============================
> >
> > To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib
> >
> > Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/
> >
> > 2011-12-02
>
>
>
> --
> Cary Gordon
> The Cherry Hill Company
> http://chillco.com
>
> ============================
>
> To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib
>
> Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/
>
> 2011-12-02
>



-- 
Nina

Nina McHale, MA/MSLS
milehighbrarian.net
Facebook & Twitter: @ninermac

============================

To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib

Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/

2011-12-02
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.nd.edu/pipermail/web4lib/attachments/20111202/2c0c58ec/attachment.htm>