[Sig-bwp] Mobile Access: Brief Reviews: EBSCOhost Mobile and Summon Mobile from Serials Solutions

[gerrymck]

Colleagues/

Posted On Behalf Of Gary Price >>>

/Gerry

Mobile Access: Brief Reviews: EBSCOhost Mobile and Summon Mobile from
Serials Solutions / By Gary Price, Senior Editor

As we mentioned last week, both EBSCOhost and Summon for Serial
Solutions have officially been released. We’ve had only a short time
to use both and for the most part were very impressed. Let’s review
each news release and share a few comments. Btw, we used the Safari
browser on an iPhone 3G to visit these mobile sites.

Summon

IMPORTANT: The news release is a bit misleading. To use Summon for
mobile you do NOT have to download any app or software to your
phone/smartphone.

>From the News Release

… [users] simply key a term in the Summon search box and instantly
retrieve relevant results that span the gamut from print to digital.
It’s the latest innovation from the rapidly-developing and pioneering
service, which is the first and only available web-scale technology
that enables single searchbox access to the breadth of the library’s
content – from books and videos to e-resources at the article level.

This is where it gets a little tricky. Summon is an information
“discovery” service and accessing the actual content (full text
articles for example, on a mobile device, can only take place IF the
underlying database is outputting it’s content for mobile devices or
in some cases, users don’t mind moving around the screen to see the
material. If that’s not possible (or you don’t want to do it), users
can select results and then mail them back to themselves (or anyone
else for that matter). Later, when their using a “regular” web
browser, they can then get the links and and access the material be it
a full article or a book citation from that particular library.

Interested in taking a look at Summon Mobile with the caveat that you
can only see results pages, not the actual content?
Head to the following URL from Grand Valley State University in
Michigan: http://gvsu.summon.serialssolutions.com/
The URL will work on a non-mobile browser and it’s worth a look to see
what the full Summon service looks like but it’s not the mobile
version we’re talking about today. Remember, you’ll be able to view
the citations but to get to the actual content you’ll need a Grand
Valley logon/password.

The mobile version has the “Google-like” search box on its home page.
It’s simple and clean. Enter your search terms and hit go.

Here’s where Summon Mobile needs a bit more work (and they are aware
of it). All of the results for the search “Michigan” only contain a
one word and that word is Michigan. Not very helpful. Summon needs to
extend the entry title information beyond one or two words. Obviously,
if you enter more terms you’ll get more precise results but many users
still only use one or two terms. Even when doing a know-item search
it’s possible to run into problems. No matter what type of search
you’re doing, you have to click again to see the full title, the
source, and if available, an abstract.

You’re also able to click the plus button the sign next to each result
listing and save it to a folder you can send to yourself later.
Also, on the mobile home page take note of the “Refine Search” button
near the top of the page. Click here and your provided with numerous
options to “refine” your search results including to full text only
material; content type; language, library location, and subject terms.
If searchers use this feature is very useful. We ran a known item
search for the book by JFK, “Profiles in Courage” and first came up
with numerous journal articles. Refining to only books returned only
15 results and we then would have to to go through each one to find
the actual book. The search “Profiles in Courage Kennedy” got results
down to seven but again, we needed to check each result for the actual
book.

It would also be helpful to be able to see the limits you’ve selected
as you look at your results perhaps directly below the search box.
It’s great to see that Summon does offer a spell check feature since
mobile typing can often be a challenge.
Overall. Summon Mobile is off to a solid start and with a few tweaks
it will become even more useful. However, don’t forget that the
underlying content (e.g. full text articles) can only be able to be
read in a mobile-friendly environment if the underlying database is
offering it’s content in a mobile-friendly format. However, with a
little persistence, and some scrolling around the page you might be
able to get to some material even if the underlying database is not
serving content that works with mobile browsers.

Today, also marks the official release of EBSCOhost Mobile with the
publication of this news release.

Fast Facts from the Release:

+ All databases and services currently available on the EBSCOhost
platform will be available via EBSCOhost Mobile.
+ Many of the existing EBSCOhost features such as search modes,
limiting to full text, date ranges, peer-reviewed content or by
publication are available. Users will also be able to search images
from their mobile devices.
+ The result list is scrollable and available data includes citations,
Image Quick View™ and access to full text article.
+ The interface has been designed with a lower resolution, simplifying
the interface by removing folders and some other more advanced
features for increased speed and user convenience.
+ In addition to providing access to smartphone users, EBSCOhost
Mobile will also work on desktops helping libraries with low
bandwidths since it uses only a fraction of the bytes compared to a
traditional EBSCOhost search. EBSCOhost Mobile will also open up
access to research databases to researchers in remote locations who
are only able to access via satellite links.

We’ve been using EBSCOhost Mobile with the Academic Search Complete
along with three other databases and we are impressed.

Like we mentioned in our Summon overview, the home page is clean and
offers the single search box look. Here users can select from the
databases that their libraries make available and also click to use an
image database (if available). Another link takes you to a full page
of search options (even with our bad eyes we found then very easy to
read), and even a page of filed codes for the most sophisticated of
mobile searchers. (-:

Results pages are straightforward with each showing entry showing
title/source article, a relevancy ranking, and links to access the
article either as text document or a PDF file. Of course, what formats
are available depends on several factors including the arrangements
EBSCO has with each publisher. You can also mail 10 results (the
number on a results page) to yourself or anyone else. It would be
useful it users could pick and choose which results to send.

An actual listing for an article provides an “envelope” icon to mail
the article, links to the versions of the article that are available
(text or PDF for the most part) and other bibliographic info including
hypertext subject headings. Very impressive. You’ll even find drop
down menu to mechanically translate the page.

One thing we did find missing was a spell check. We searched for
Obamma, Eengland, Booston and at no time did we see a spelling
correction.

One very mpressive debut from EBSCO. We hope subsequent releases
continue to increase the usability of this product.

One final time, let’s be clear. EBSCOhost and Summon are two different
types of products. One is an information discovery service (Summon)
while EBSCOhost offers full text content. directly from its own
database. It will interesting to see if library’s using Summon Mobile
and have EBSCOhost subscriptions will be able to link to EBSCOhost
Mobile for their mobile users.

Finally, the big question is who is going to use these resources. This
is what Gerry McKiernan pondered last week when he said to LJ:

“At this point [mobile-specific searches] are supplemental, or
impulse, such that if you’re on the road and you want to search a
particular resource … you could do that,” he said. But, he added, “The
mobile phone is becoming an all-in-one tool for a variety of
functions,” and as that happens, users will come to expect some kind
of mobile interface to the tools they’re grown accustomed to using.

I agree with Gerry 100% and will go a bit further to say after
spending some time with both of these services (especially EBSCOhost,
at this point) I am more sure than ever that a mobile device (from an
eBook reader to a Palm Pre to a Droid to a iPhone) can be powerful
research tools in their own right. Perhaps the most important issue is
how much promotion/marketing will EBSCO and the libraries that use
EBSCO give to the new mobile interface? Like we always say, people
can’t use what they don’t know about.

Stay tuned!

Postscript: Here are Two Screenshots of the EBSCOhost Mobile Interface 1 ||| 2

Postscript 2: Gerry McKiernan Has Posted, “How To Configure The
EBSCOhost Mobile.” Share it with your systems librarian.

Source

[ http://bit.ly/3GpX6w  ]

Enjoy !

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011
gerrymck at iastate.edu

There Is No Answer, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying

The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed
Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspacery