Re: [IUG] new "mobile catalogs"

[Bob Duncan <duncanr at lafayette dot edu>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Connie Keller" <keller at elon dot edu>
> To: innopac at innovativeusers dot org
> Sent: Friday, October 22, 2010 8:36:52 AM
> Subject: [IUG] new "mobile catalogs"

> Has anyone had experience with the new "mobile catalogs" such as
> Library Anywhere announced at ALA last week or Gale's AccessMyLibrary College
> Edition?

We beta tested the LibraryAnywhere product and found it severely flawed as a mobile interface to an academic Innovative catalog (might be not so bad for publics).  YMMV.

The Gale product you mention isn't a mobile catalog -- it's a severely useless (IMNSHO) mobile app for Gale databases to which you subscribe.  It's conceivable that it's changed since first launched, but when I installed it, all you got was a start screen with nice buttons for each of your Gale databases, but when you went into a database, you just got the regular Web browser interface, which on a mobile device was way too small to be of any use.  The only possible use I can see is that your users can use the databases without a proxy because Gale emails your main Gale password to anyone who requests it from their institutional email address.  (Guess they don't care about restricting access once the patron is no longer a patron.  Go figure.)

Bob Duncan

-- 

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~ 
Robert E. Duncan
Systems Librarian
Editor of IT Communications
David Bishop Skillman Library
Lafayette College
Easton, PA 18042
http://library.lafayette.edu/
duncanr at lafayette dot edu

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