Library Web Apps and Mobile Apps

[Noah Kleiman]

+1 for mobile enabled websites 

A more modern approach than redirecting to a mobile optimized site is to have what's called a Responsive Layout on your main site. In essence build your website such that it formats the same pages to display properly on a range of devices, based on discrete screen widths. This has the added bonus of making your website easy to use on a netbook, or in cases where the browser window is sharing screen space with other applications. 

Kind of a cool example of a scholarly publishing system with footnotes browser which implements a responsive design: 
http://www.opensourcery.com/portfolio/projects/railroaded

The screenshots do a good job of showing how the design changes based on screen width.

(disclosure I'm the author of the portfolio article, and work for the firm that built this site.)


Best,

Noah Kleiman
Nonprofit Ambassador
OpenSourcery - Technology for good.

mrnoah at opensourcery.com | direct 503-802-4254
1636 NW Lovejoy St. Portland, Oregon 97209
http://www.opensourcery.com/portfolio


----- Original Message -----
From: "Louise Alcorn" <Louise.Alcorn at WDM.IOWA.GOV>
To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 12:50:08 PM
Subject: Re: [WEB4LIB] Library Web Apps and Mobile Apps

I agree with Leo that it would be better to have mobile-enabled websites, which would auto-detect mobile use and simply swoosh (technical term) people over to a mobile-optimized site for our catalog, online databases, other services, etc.  That is, indeed, our eventual goal.  Realistically, we have a 5-6yo website content management system we're locked into for a bit longer, plus a 10yo ILS which (library gods willing and the creek don't rise) we can update soon.   So "middleware" apps or similar might be an interim solution to keep us from losing patron support.  


Louise E. Alcorn
Reference Technology Librarian
West Des Moines Public Library
4000 Mills Civic Pkwy
West Des Moines IA 50265
(515) 222-3573      louise.alcorn at wdm.iowa.gov 
(note new email domain as of July, 2011)
http://www.wdmlibrary.org   

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2011-11-14