Timothy Babbitt discusses how mobile platforms are expanding research landscapes. He outlines the different types of researchers from students to faculty and their needs. Researchers are using multiple devices for tasks like searching, reading, note-taking and collaboration. While apps provide value for specific workflows, mobile websites have broader reach across devices and platforms. The future is focused on supporting core researcher tasks through integrated cloud-based services rather than individual apps or platforms. Mobile is driving new opportunities but the emphasis is on enabling "Research in a Cloud" across all tools.

1. Expanding Research Landscapes through Mobile Platforms
Frankfurt Book Fair – Hot Spot Mobile
Timothy Babbitt
SVP ProQuest Platforms
October 11, 2012

2. Researcher Continuum
Faculty
Graduate Student
Professional
Pedagogy driven
Undergraduate Domain
specific
General researcher
researcher • Context
9-14 Student • Apply skills • Methods
• Critical • Content
Early thought
Researcher
• Develop
research skills
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3. Researcher “Supply Chain”
R&D
Secondary
Education Workforce Professional
2 YR
The Early Community
Postdoc
College
Researcher
4YR
University/ Masters Doctoral Faculty
College
The Domain
The General Researcher Specific Researcher
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4. Challenges for Early Researcher
 While they value good information, they value more
highly the ease and convenience of the Internet
 They struggle with understanding and valuing source
material
 Timeliness of source
 Authority
 Bias
 Teachers struggle with instructing them on source analysis
 Both teachers and students see the library as intimidating
and inconvenient (accessibility).
 Strong critique from students of extended features of
library databases. They steer toward Google simplicity.
Source: R. McClure and K. Clink 2009
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5. The General Researcher
 Focus is on application of research skills in specific domain
 Learning the domain context
 Advanced tool use
 At college and at work
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6. Faculty Teaching
 Includes teaching; grading papers; preparing courses;
developing new curricula; advising or supervising students
 Undergraduates/Masters
 Lectures
 Seminars
 Doctoral
 Seminars
 Example workflows:
 Undergraduate lecture
 Provide digital materials through CMS/Google docs/class site/faculty site which can include
syllabus, slides, worksheets, code, etc.
 Assign papers or projects which may be individual or team oriented. Printed forms as well as
the digital files are now mainstream approaches for submission.
 Grading of assignments and evaluatives done by self or TAs. For some courses, use of assistive
grading technology is used. Plagarism detection resources (i.e. Plagiarism.org) and open search
engines (i.e. Google) are used on electronic submissions.
 Doctoral seminar (2-7 students)
 Each week assign 3-7 classic/state-of-the-art journal articles/chapters on a theme/topic for
extensive review and discussion. Share annotations, article markup, questions with seminar
members.
 Assign semester topic research papers to individuals or pairs that require literature review,
propositions/hypotheses, and research design. May require limited data collection, analysis
and outcomes. Conclude with seminar presentation.
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7. Faculty Research
 Includes conducting research; reviewing or preparing articles or
books; attending or preparing for professional meetings or
conferences; reviewing proposals; seeking outside funding;
giving performances or exhibitions in the fine or applied arts; or
giving speeches.
 Example workflows:
 Review article
 Editor sends advance copies of an author’s work to faculty member
 They return an evaluation of the work to the editor, noting weaknesses
or problems along with suggestions for improvement. Evaluation reviews
prior work, citations in the work, methodology, research design.
 Seek outside funding
 Search for grant that fits with the needs of the research
 Create proposal document(s) according to grant requirements which
allows the granting agency to inquire about the researcher(s)’s
background, the facilities used, the equipment needed, the time
involved, and the overall potential of the scientific outcome.
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8. Changes in the researcher environment
Multiple device world
“Day by day, the number of devices, platforms,
and browsers that need to work with your site grows.”
Jeffrey Veen – author of "The Art and Science of Web Design“

9. Each device has it’s own place and use
Researchers are consistently moving between different devices
Desktops Tablets
• Still present in libraries , schools, and offices • High level of portability
• Good for tasks requiring high processing speed • Good for consumption and interaction –
and memory – content and work product searches, email, document viewing, social and
creation professional networks
Laptops
• Portable creation and production Smartphones
• Large screen and keyboard • Most portable device
• Most popular tool among all types of • Good for reading, light information
researchers consumption, social and professional networks
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10. Device Proliferation
User Expectations – Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
 Professionals, researchers, and
students are increasingly expecting
that their personally owned devices
will connect to their institutions
resources as well as their own
personal tools (aka BYOD)
 Google’s Android operating system
has increased the number of device
options for users – expanding the
BYOD trend
 More than 800 Android devices in market
today
 250% year on year growth
 850K devices activated each day
*Source: 2012 Android World Congress -
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2012/02/androidmobile-world-congress-
its-all.html
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11. Mobile Internet Access Adoption
Key Findings
 Consumers are shifting
from feature phones to
smartphones and are
increasingly using their
smartphones for Internet
access.
 However, smartphone
owners are continuing to
get online on their
computers
 Consumers are embracing
tablets as the fourth
screen. Tablet usage
increased across all five
countries with the highest
*Source: Google Mobile Internet & Smartphone Adoption Study (2011)
penetration in the US. http://services.google.com/fh/files/blogs/Final_Mobile_Internet_Smartphone_Adoption_Insights_201
1v3.pdf
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12. Global Mobile Phone Reach

13. Device Ownership and Usage - Students
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14. Knowledge Worker Adoption
% of Knowledge Workers Using Mobile devices
*Source: Outsell’s Information Markets & Users Database, January 2011 Survey
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15. Mobile Websites at Universities
Universities see mobile websites as a strategic imperative.
Source: The State of Mobile Web Report (February 2012) by Karine Joly
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16. Google Patterns of Mobile Behavior
 Repetitive Now. The user is someone checking for the
same piece of information over and over again, like
checking the same stock quotes or weather.
 Bored Now. They are users who have time on their hands.
People on trains or waiting in airports or sitting in cafes.
Mobile users in this behavior group look a lot more like
casual Web surfers without much user input since mobile
devices still suck at that.
 Urgent Now. These are requests to find something
specific fast, like the location of a bakery or directions to
the airport.

17. How do researchers use mobile devices for
research?
As a component of their overall research environment along
with other devices…
 Quick search and document viewing – Urgent Now
 Look up an author’s work or a document citation – Urgent Now
 Save a document for later reading – possibly offline – Bored Now
 Retrieve previously saved documents and citations from cloud based
repositories (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud) – Urgent Now
 Take quick notes and save for later review – Urgent Now
 Share documents, notes, or citations with colleagues, classmates,
network – Urgent Now
 Receive updates on new research – Repetitive Now
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18. Google Study: The mobile movement
 Among the findings:
 Short timeframe. 88% of smartphone users took
action on a search result within a day
 Continue research. 67% continue research from a
search. 53% carried on more research on their
computer.
 Not “on the go”. 33% of smartphone users used the
mobile internet from their couch. 93% used it from
home.

19. Mobile Landscape – current solution space
Dedicated Apps Mobile Websites
 Specific applications targeting content  Websites that are optimized for use
sets, workflows, devices and platforms across a wide spectrum of mobile
 Available from domain specific devices and platforms (iOS, Android,
publishers and a smaller number of Blackberry)
aggregator services  Available from some aggregators and
 General support for basic search, larger publishers
saving content, sharing via email, and  General support for basic searching,
some use of location services viewing documents, and sharing via
email
ProQuest
ProQuest
Mobile
ebrary App
Website
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20. App Explosion – consumer market
 Google Android has nearly 500K apps – up from 150K in 2011
 Apple iOS has almost 700K apps in 2012
(*Source: 148apps http://148apps.biz/app-store-metrics/)
 Consumer frustration is building with the overuse of App “push” updates
Source: Techcrunch, App Developers: Stop Abusing Push! http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/19/app-developers-stop-abusing-push/
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21. Researcher Apps – Siloed Access Model
Research Store Cite Create Collaborate
Researchers are presented with a complicated mix of apps – often siloed apart from
one another

22. App Challenges for Libraries
Outsell states that there is a…
Great desire to make content available for mobile – 9% have an
app but…
 Too many unique solutions – each publisher and vendor is different
 Dependent on database vendors
 Must adapt to each new content set
 Replication of effort for tool development or selection
 App development is not a library’s core competency
 Insufficient funding
*Source: Outsell Mobile in STM: Case Studies of Accelerating Change – May 24, 2012
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23. Do apps still make sense for researchers?
Apps DO make sense for researchers for:
 Addressing the work flow of professionals in specific markets
 Fully-contained resource for specific users and use cases (e.g.
drug reference)
 Premier publications and media – esp. that can’t be found
anywhere else
*Source: Outsell Mobile in STM: Case Studies of Accelerating Change – May 24, 2012
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24. ebrary – Why a Mobile App?
Customized to the unique workflows for E-book consumption
and distribution
• Integration with the library’s E-book acquisition model
• Workflows and features for handling this specific type of media which
has different use cases – e.g. large file downloads

25. ebrary Mobile App
Available Now
• Online and offline reading
• Seamless downloading of full titles
• Sign-in with Facebook user name and password
• Simple and advanced search
• Table of contents with relevancy rankings
• Early check-in of ebrary’s e-books
• Copy and paste with automatic citation (offline)
• User configurable download size warnings
• Import and use documents from other sources
• Available on the iPhone®, iPad®, iPod Touch® and
Android™

26. What about Mobile Websites?
 Jason Grigsby, @grigs
 “Not every mobile device will have your app on it but every
mobile device will have a browser.”
 “Links don’t open apps.”
 search + links = mobile web first

27. ProQuest – Why a Mobile Website?
Beta Fall 2012
 Broadest reach – everyone has a
browser on their phone
 Connects to mobile university sites
 Nothing to download or install
 Device and platform independent
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28. Responsive Web Design – Device continuum
Publishers and solution providers are being encouraged to
respond to user demand by adhering to the principles of
Responsive Web Design (RWD) – deliver solutions across all
devices and platforms
The US based newspaper “The Boston Globe” is
considered an example of full RWD deployment.

29. How Can We Improve the Researcher
Environment with Mobile?
 Develop Apps when they provide value and enhance
workflows
 Subject specific apps – government, news, scientific research
 Workflow specific apps – ebooks, document and reference
management, social/professional networks
 Provide integrated views of content and services through
mobile web sites
 Journals > ebooks > Reference Management > Collaboration >
Personalized Research Spaces
 Focus on the researcher workflows and not the device or
platform
 Ensure portability of research across multiple devices (not just
mobile) through cloud based services
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30. Not really about mobile, but about cloud…
Desktop
/Laptop
Research in a
cloud
Tablet
Research, Store, Cite,
Document, and
Collaborate
E-reader
E-reader
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31. Summary
 Mobile is a driving force in expanding the research experience
 The use of mobile devices for research tasks have been and will continue to
rise globally but “traditional” devices continue to be used – Think personal
research assistant
 The use of mobile devices is increasingly being seen in professional and
research settings
 The App vs. Mobile Website debate remains but the app landscape is
complicated and siloed
 When the researcher landscape is analyzed we see that there a core group of
tasks that users want to accomplish regardless of device or platform – a
challenge, but good
 The future of mobile development should be focused on these workflows and
determining how “mobile” plays a role in accomplishing the tasks of
researchers
 It’s not really about mobile, but “Research in a Cloud”
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32. Thank you!
Questions?
Tim Babbitt
SVP ProQuest Platforms
timothy.babbitt@proquest.com
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