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NYPL Mobile

Congrats to NYPL for the beta release of a fantastic NYPL mobile website!

They call it a “very rough beta” but I didn’t see anything rough about it. Not only does it do a great job in providing key information (browse events, contact information, library locations, hours, & directions) in an easily navigable way but it also has a mobile-friendly way to begin a search of the collections (they’re still working on making all of their catalogs mobile-friendly). I particularly like that they managed to include branding and style that is consistent with the rest of their web presence… just because something is scaled down doesn’t mean it can’t have style.

See the NYPL Labs blog post by Michael Lascarides for more information about the interface and some of the work that went into it.

DCPL iPhone app

I’m also late in congratulating the DCPL on their cool Catalog iPhone application. You can read more about it at Aaron Schmidt’s walking paper blog and the DCPL Labs iphone page.

See also my flickr collection of mobile library interfaces.

The latest Horizon Report has just been released.

The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium (NMC)’s Horizon Project, a long-running qualitative research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations.

I always enjoy reading these reports but I found this one especially in sync with my current interest and work concerning mobile technologies. The report lists mobile technology as one of the technologies that will become much more integrated into learning environments within the next year. It’s not new news that mobile devices are ubiquitous on campus and beyond, but with the recent improvements in the technology (faster networks, GPS, integration of more multi-functionality), we will likely seen more and more mobile-friendly websites and services specifically designed for mobile users.

About the project | CommentPress version | PDF

The new bad usability calendar is out for 2009.

http://www.badusability.com/