NASIG 29th Annual Conference Taking Stock and Taming New Frontiers May 1-4, 2014 Ft. Worth, Texas
Established in 1985, the North American Serials Interest Group, Inc. (NASIG) is an independent organization that promotes communication, information, and continuing education about serials and the broader issues of scholarly communication. NASIG welcomes anyone interested in the serials information chain. Inspired by the United Kingdom Serials Group (UKSG), NASIG held its first conference at Bryn Mawr College in June 1986. The annual conference, usually held in late May or June, offers a premier opportunity to meet others representing the diverse interests of the serials community and to hear speakers who are on the cutting edge of scholarly communication.
It has been predicted that by 2016, 9 out of 10 college students will own a smartphone. In order to connect with students where they are most likely beginning their information searches, it increasingly important for libraries to make library collections discoverable via a mobile platform and to create an effective mobile search environment for library resources. This program would highlight some of the mobile applications available for and in use by libraries. Examples of library-oriented applications include Browzine and Boopsie, as well as commercially available apps from vendors such as ebrary.
This program could be presented in a couple of different ways. One option is to present various mobile applications in a more informational fashion: highlighting various mobile services, describing how they services are set up, detailing the services they provide, and providing examples of institutions that are currently using them.
Another option would be to make this more of a case study, focusing on my own institution's implementations of Browzine and Boopsie. (We set up Browzine this fall, and will be implementing Boopsie in the spring.) Such a presentation could address the institutional needs that lead us to the acquisition of these services, the ins and outs of the implementation, any challenges involved in the set up, marketing and user education, how the applications were received and used once they were set up, and whether or not we saw a change in use statistics after implementation.
