The Handheld Library: Mobile Technology and the Librarian

The Handheld Library: Mobile Technology and the Librarian provides the information and guidance librarians need to adapt themselves and their facilities to the mobile revolution—the fastest, most diffuse worldwide technological innovation in human history.

The book provides an up-to-date survey of how mobile technologies are affecting library use, library services, library systems, librarians, and library users at various types of libraries. The authors cover core topics related to mobile libraries, including mobile reference, eBooks, mobile websites, and QR codes, and address aspects of the mobile revolution less frequently covered in the literature, such as mobile health information services, the use of mobile technologies on archival work, the impact of the mobile revolution on physical libraries, and the ways in which new mobile technologies are creating professional development opportunities within the profession. While this resource is specifically targeted toward librarians who plan and provide services using mobile technologies, academic, public, and other librarians will also find the ideas and information within useful.

Covering topics such as mobile reference, eBooks, mobile websites, and QR codes, this book examines the effects of the global mobile revolution on libraries and library users—critical information all librarians need.

• Contains contributed chapters from active, innovative, respected librarians in the mobile library movement on ideas and trends for mobile libraries

• Addresses aspects of the mobile revolution that are rarely covered, such as the use of tablet computers in archives and the mHealth information services movement

• Provides updated descriptions of innovative mobile library services

• Supplies practical advice and recommendations about mobile library systems and services