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Information provision for HE distance learners using mobile devices

Georgina Parsons
Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of the paper is to investigate the current habits of distance learners in higher education (HE) regarding information access and mobile device use, and their attitudes for future changes to their habits. Design/methodology/approach Distance learning students were surveyed to determine their information access habits, mobile device use, and attitudes towards future changes. A survey was e-mailed to approximately 1,500 distance learners at Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen) as well as an online survey being publicised in the student newsletter, which all students receive. Four weeks were allowed for responses and the survey was highlighted in the newsletter a week after being e-mailed; 62 responses were received. Findings While books and journals were accessed primarily in print, respondents wanted to use them electronically in future; all other learning materials were already available electronically. Laptops and desktops are the main devices for accessing information and, despite most respondents owning a mobile phone and almost half having an mp3 player, remarkably few respondents expressed a desire to use other mobile devices in the future. Reasons range from technological specications to compatibility of material; furthermore, almost half of respondents have bought or would buy mobile devices for education. Practical implications The paper provides empirical evidence for understanding the attitudes of distance learners towards academic library service provision using mobile devices. This research will assist libraries in planning future changes to the delivery of their services. Originality/value The current body of literature lacks direct quantitative feedback from students on their information habits and how they would like to access information in the future. The paper lls some of the gaps. Keywords Academic libraries, Distance learning, Students, Higher education, Mobile communication systems Paper type Research paper

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Received 26 November 2008 Revised 8 March 2009 Accepted 31 March 2009

Introduction With technology developing at a rapid pace, growing enthusiasm for mobile devices, and distance learning becoming ever more popular (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2007), it is timely to consider if and how information access methods are changing, notably whether provision for mobile devices has a place within higher education libraries. Mobile learning, or M-learning, is a strong pedagogical domain and the launch of the m-Libraries conference in November 2007 (The Open University, 2007) demonstrated the importance placed on mobile technology considerations
This paper is based on research carried out in 2007-2008 for a dissertation for a Master of Science in Information and Library Studies, awarded by The Robert Gordon University, UK (RGU).

The Electronic Library Vol. 28 No. 2, 2010 pp. 231-244 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0264-0473 DOI 10.1108/02640471011033594

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specically within libraries. Yet with the eld of mobile technology still relatively new, libraries must now decide how much time and funding they should devote to the development and support of academic library resources in formats that can be accessed on such devices. Evidence is required for policy decisions on whether and how mobile technology is integrated into information provision. This paper explores the user perspective. It investigates the current habits and needs of distance learners regarding information provision by academic libraries, with reference to access using mobile devices. The research aimed to discover what information students access for their education, and the various methods they use to obtain this information, with a focus on how they feel information access could be developed. Identifying what types of information students need to access, and in what formats they want them provided, alongside studying their current and desired use of mobile devices both for pleasure and education, supports decision-making on the potential of mobile devices within libraries service provision. Background to m-learning and mobile devices Since an advertisement in the Boston Gazette in 1728 (Bower and Hardy, 2004) stating that Persons in the country desirous to learn this art, may by having the several lessons sent weekly to them, be as perfectly instructed as those that live in Boston, distance learning has developed on a global scale. In discussing the theory of distance education, Lionarakis notes that there is no single model that can describe the application of distance learning, but that as a exible educational application, distance education is linked to absolute freedom of choice when it comes to the means employed in communicating and conveying information (Lionarakis, 2008). It is this freedom of choice that is core to the concept of distance learning, and in which mobile technologies can play a critical role. Distance education changed from the use of portable hard copy materials to electronic delivery of multimedia content via desktop PC and distance learning thus became electronic learning. However, as students seemed more restricted, tied to their PCs for information access, studying, communication, and assignments, wireless mobile devices are seen as reviving this educational freedom, heralding the next stage in distance learning methods: mobile learning. As the new generations of students expect information access anytime, anywhere (Ally, 2007), m-learning offers the desired exibility and ability to incorporate study into all spare moments and contexts in learners lives. The mobile devices that make this possible are generally dened as units small enough to carry around in a pocket, falling into the categories of PDAs (personal digital assistants), mobile phones, and personal media players. This denition does not include laptops, which are portable but not mobile; however, as fully-functional laptops become ever smaller such as the increasingly popular 700 screen Asus EeePC, the line separating mobile devices from traditional computers will become ever more blurred. The smartphone, a hybrid PDA/mobile phone is also crossing boundaries, and new technology such as Smartpens (Livescribe, 2007) further increases the variety of devices available. Statistics show a high use of mobile technology, with 56 per cent of households in Great Britain having a desktop computer by mid-2006, 30 per cent a laptop and 7 per cent a hand-held computer; in 2005/2006, 79 per cent of UK households had a mobile phone, with use of text and media messaging also increasing (National Statistics Online, 2007). This diversication of functionality on mobile devices is increasing;

students can already use mobile phones for audio calls, photography, playing music les, watching videos, and locating their position using GPS. Even consoles such as the PlayStation Portable or Nintendo DS are no longer simply for games, with internet access (Playstation, 2008) and e-book reading (The Guardian, 2008) frequent additional functionality. Integrating mobile technology into higher education Despite the rapid growth in use of mobile technology and a reasonable body of research concerning using mobile devices in higher education course provision, there are few studies specically relating to incorporating mobile device provision into the delivery of library resources. The online journal IRRODL (International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning) dedicated an issue (Vol. 8 No. 2) to mobile learning, although even this notes the lack of studies concerning the user of the technology (Ally, 2007) and library resources. The two main UK studies in this domain were led by Kukulska-Hulme at the Open University in the UK: rst, in 2001-2002 studying the use of PDA devices by students on a Masters course in Online and Distance Education (Kukulska-Hulme, 2002), then in 2005 studying the use of mobile devices by students on the same course (Kukulska-Hulme, 2005). The later study provides the only signicant UK data found on users current use and requirements; with a questionnaire and interviews discovering the extent of Masters students use of mobile devices for performing certain functions, including accessing educational materials. PDAs were the device most used by students, and devices in general were reported as used for accessing articles, tables of contents, e-books, and note-taking, with the use of web forums mentioned by a small number of respondents. Mp3 players, notably the iPod, were used also in a very wide range of activities: for e-books, audio courses, podcasts, pre-recorded lectures and conferences, backups of work les, and listening to foreign language material. Other studies tend to focus on web access to library collections; suggesting that library web sites can be modied for easy use on small-screen mobile devices (West et al., 2006), or that Web 2.0 services such as user tagging (PennTags; University of Pennsylvania, 2005) and texting an ISBN to discover availability can enhance library website use in a mobile context (The Open Universitys Library 2.0 project; Sheikh et al., 2007). There is also ongoing development of ADR (auto-detect and reformat) functionality, where a website recognises the device used to access it and delivers the appropriate version of the page (Cau et al., 2006). More focused aspects of technology use have been examined in recent studies, such as library SMS (text messaging) use to exploit mobile phone technology (Goh and Liew, 2009), but there is little material on user needs. Barriers to increasing use of mobile devices While the spread of mobile technology should offer students a new freedom for their education, in practice obstacles to a wide take-up of such devices and new information access habits remain. From the technological aspect, difculties with using mobile devices can be categorised into the specication and usability of the unit, the lifecycle of the devices, and the diversity and lack of standards in this area. Specications have been criticised with regard to screen size, battery life, storage space, and backlighting making use over long periods uncomfortable. Formats such as Flash are not always supported and PDF or graphics may not display clearly on the screens. Input methods are often not user-friendly, although virtual keyboards and

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eye-tracking input devices may be better developed to become future solutions. The short lifecycle of devices means even with simple interfaces, users must continuously learn new devices and may not have time to exploit the full functionality available. The introduction of XML as a potential replacement for HTML would allow for formatting as content reaches the end-user, and thus better exibility for mobile devices, but nothing has been formally agreed. Combined with an overwhelming amount of standards in terms of hardware and communications protocols such as WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), Wi-Fi (a brand certifying the interoperability of wireless computer networking devices), WiMAX (the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access standard) and others (Roberts, 2006), this is a substantial difculty to overcome. From the user perspective, there is also a potentially confusing choice of mobile devices appearing on the market. With games consoles, smartphones, and ultra-mobile PCs often priced in the hundreds of pounds, cost could be an issue for users, especially given the rapidly changing nature of the technology and short lifecycle of the devices. In the sphere of distance learning, the information providers must also be careful to provide information and support to all learners, necessitating a full understanding of the variety of devices on the market and the particular difculties that each may encounter, for example with regard to data formats accepted or how much technical support they would offer students in their use of such devices. Potential development of mobile device use However, with technological development continuing at a rapid pace, problems with standards, interoperability, and ease of use of mobile devices will surely be resolved in time, and prices should also fall as the market saturates and the technology matures. E-books should be able to offer benets over print books, such as better bookmarking, highlighting, or search, and devices can be better exploited by information providers. Institutions would then need to fully assimilate mobile information provision into their activities. Health and medical libraries have embraced mobile technology more quickly than any other sector, with one possible reason being the homogeneous nature of the users and needs making this simpler (Roberts, 2006); academic organisations do not seem to have incorporated mobile devices so quickly. Academic libraries rst need to ensure materials are in a suitable format for mobile device delivery, and the increasing variety of digitisation projects is a positive sign. Awareness of e-books needs to be enhanced, especially benecial for distance learners with less access to the physical library; and developments, such as novel user interfaces or personalisation opportunities, are necessary to enhance the experience (De Freitas and Levene, 2003), to improve and increase students use of such resources. Methodology and results During a comprehensive literature review on the domain of mobile technology and its integration in higher education and academic libraries, it became apparent that additional quantitative data, on user needs with regard to information access and the use of mobile devices by students, would be of benet to the educational community. The primary research was therefore an empirical study to discover what information students access for their education, and the various methods they use to obtain this information, with a focus on how they feel access to resources could be developed.

A two-page questionnaire was piloted and distributed to distance learners in Higher Education from The Robert Gordon University (RGU), Aberdeen, as an e-mail attachment and also as an online survey accessible through the electronic student newsletter. The sample was not stratied, due to the importance placed on a high number of responses and the impossibility of predicting how many students would reply. Questions covered the types of information students access, including frequency and methods of access, and the types of mobile devices students use, including purpose and place of use; all covering current behaviour and desired future behaviour in order to achieve all objectives of the research. Responses were entered anonymously into a MySQL database for analysis. In total, 53 responses were obtained by e-mail and a further nine from the online version of the questionnaire; a low response rate from the 1,500 students who should have received the e-mailed survey and student newsletter promoting the online questionnaire. 70 per cent of respondents (43) were female, and 77 per cent (48) were aged between 25 and 44, although all age groups from 15-19 to 55-59 were represented. An overview of the results follows. Information types accessed for education Results for the frequency of access of information are summarised in Table I, and show that 50 per cent of respondents (31) access some form of information daily, with access at least several times a week at 81 per cent of respondents for books and journals (50 respondents), 45 per cent for newspapers (29 respondents), and 53 per cent for course and university information (33 respondents). While course information on its own is accessed at least several times a week by 43 respondents compared to 42 for books and 37 for journals combining the latter two as traditional library resources indicates that academic libraries remain intrinsically important to students. The internet Alongside the given choices of information types, there was an other choice, with 18 responses, 13 of which could be classied as the internet (internet, internet searching, web sites, gateways, etc. and so on) that is, mentioned by 21 per cent of respondents. This had not been given as an option as it was not seen as an information type but as a method of access, or format; this attests to the omnipresence of the internet and how it is interpreted as valuable information in its own right, with 69 per cent of those mentioning the internet accessing it at least several times a week (i.e. nine respondents).
Information type Newspapers Books Journals Course information University information Patents Internet Other Daily 13 14 9 13 4 0 5 3 Several times a week 7 28 28 30 11 5 4 1 Several times a month 9 15 20 14 18 7 2 0 Less often 15 4 4 3 17 29 2 1

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Table I. Frequency of access of information types (number of respondents)

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Methods of access of information Students were asked how they access the information they need, whether in print or electronically. Books are accessed signicantly more in print than on a computer (76 per cent of respondents using books access them in print, i.e. 59 of 78 responses), whereas journals show the opposite (77 per cent of journal users access on a computer, 60 of 78 responses). Newspapers are only accessed slightly more frequently in print than on a computer (55 per cent (35 responses) accessing in print, 45 per cent (29) on a computer), whereas course and university information appear almost always accessed on a computer (92 per cent using a computer, i.e. 56 of 60 respondents). There is some overlap where students access a resource both in print and electronically. The full breakdown of how students currently access information, and desire to do so in the future, is expressed in Figure 1. Six respondents (10 per cent) said they would like to access journals in print in the future, with eight respondents overall expressing a desire to access information in paper-based form in the future. Those eight respondents can be broken down by age to compare with the postulation by Radford and Connaway (2007) that screenagers have no difculty reading in electronic form: one was in the 15-19 range, and the other seven were indeed over 30. Electronic access could appear to be becoming more accepted, although with the small sample size, strong conclusions cannot be drawn. The survey did not allow for fuller information to be gathered on this subject, but further research would be interesting in this area. Newspapers were accessed by 47 per cent of respondents (29) on a computer, and 18 per cent (11) would like to do so in the future. Remarkably few respondents expressed a

Figure 1. Number of respondents using each access method for each information type, with future intentions

desire to access any materials on a different mobile device in the future, with only three distinct respondents interested, all in the 25-29 age range. Students use of mobile devices Every respondent answered that they use either a desktop or a laptop (or both), although whether they own or simply have access to these devices is unspecied. Most use is for education, but almost as much use for general interest or communication with friends. The mini-computer is also multi-purpose but with a much lower current use. The mobile phone is still used mostly for communication with friends (52 respondents), although 11 respondents also chose general interest as a use and eight other (intended as a category for more specic uses not listed; respondents did not specify examples of the use); totalling these, while communication with friends seems signicantly higher than other purposes, it only accounts for 64 per cent of responses. Figure 2 illustrates how many students use each device and the range of purposes. Every respondent in this research uses either a desktop PC or a laptop and 87 per cent (54 respondents) use a mobile phone; the mp3 player, used by 45 per cent of respondents (28), seems poorly used in comparison. Yet, while computers are used by almost all respondents for various tasks including education, the mobile phone is only used by 11 per cent of respondents (seven) for educational purposes. Even the PDA is only used for education by half of the respondents using this device, and while mp3 players and PSP (PlayStation Portable) devices are relatively widely used, none of the nine users of a PSP use it for education. Location of use The results determined that the most common location to use devices is at home (51 respondents), followed by work (32 respondents) then during travel (18 respondents). Figure 3 shows the number of respondents who currently use devices at each location, and the number of respondents who would like to use devices in the future in a location where they do not currently use them. It indicates that few people see their use of

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Figure 2. Number of respondents using each device, broken down by purpose

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Figure 3. Where respondents would additionally like to use devices in the future

mobile devices changing, although travelling is the most notable addition to where devices may be used. Increasing educational use of devices Respondents were asked what would make them more likely to use mobile devices for educational purposes. There were 49 responses from 44 respondents (ve respondents giving two different reasons). Internet/wireless connections were mentioned by seven respondents, with speed the particular problem for four of these (not specifying whether this meant speed of download, speed of response, or other aspect). The ease of accessing the information needed, was mentioned by 17 respondents, nine of these explicitly stating the resources they need, are not in a compatible format. Cost was only a factor for ve respondents, just 8 per cent of the sample. Seven students said there was nothing that could make them use the devices more, interpreted in the sense of the devices being useful enough now; example answers here include nothing really, use what I have to the full and I already do. A further 18 respondents gave no answer, which could be interpreted as falling into this category but cannot be assumed. The seven uncoded responses were: (1) Need. (2) Learning and study. (3) Self interest if it makes the studying easier, then Ill use it (also if it makes the studying harder, but is fun to use! (4) A better PC at home! (5) Due to the fact that I am a part time student and I do most of my study at home. (6) Mobile phone could be useful, e.g. for forums, contact with tutors, etc.. (7) It is an essential means of access to the information I require. Purchasing devices for education Almost half of respondents have bought or would buy devices for education, 23 (37 per cent) answering yes, and ve (8 per cent) I already have. An additional 11 respondents

(18 per cent) would buy devices depending on certain factors. Of these 11 responses, two were simple maybes, four specied cost as the factor, four value (comparing benets, including cost), and one elucidated: In the far future I can imagine owning an e-book reader for educational and recreational purposes, but only once technology has matured to make it signicantly more convenient and comfortable to use than a laptop, and less expensive. Another response suggested gadgets were simply fun: Self interest if it makes the studying easier, then Ill use it (also if it makes the studying harder, but is fun to use!). Discussion of results A general theme throughout the results was that students are keen to use more electronic resources rather than print materials, but it also appeared that mobile devices have not made a great impact on their educational information habits. Mobile technology use for learning is not developing as rapidly as might have been expected, according to this research. Information types accessed for education Books and journals combined appear the most frequently accessed information type, indicating that academic libraries remain intrinsically important to students. The reason for the other information types not being accessed as frequently is unlikely to be accessibility, as distance learners have less immediate access to their academic libraries for using print books and journals, and it has been shown that e-books are still not fully integrated into resource delivery. This is in contrast to the accessibility of newspapers, readily available in both print and electronic format, but still not demonstrating high levels of use in this survey. It may simply be that courses explicitly provide a reading list of books and the most important journals for the subject, and students do not explore much further due to either lack of enthusiasm, knowledge of other resources, or lack of time. The library could play a role by recommending other sources, in literacy training or resource discovery and evaluation training, and playing a stronger role as information aggregator in providing better direct access to other resources. The addition of the internet as an information type conrms the frequent feeling that the internet is now almost always used as the rst point for nding information. The library may need to reposition itself to be seen as a more valuable initial step, although it may never be as pervasive. As purchasing models evolve into electronic licensing models, the library is becoming less of a physical collection, and this may make it easier for the library to act more as a gateway. As users turn to the internet, seen as giving access to all electronic resources, the librarys internet presence is crucial, and it is possible that once this aspect is resolved, mobile device use for accessing educational resources will follow. Distance learners may also not benet as much from information literacy inductions in libraries to consider benets of the use of academic resources rather than (or alongside) the internet. Methods of access of information The high amount of print book use corresponds with results of the literature review, in that e-books have not yet successfully integrated themselves into higher education, for example with only 5 per cent of the library collection found to be e-books in 2006 (Blummer, 2006). While only 31 per cent of respondents already access books on a

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computer, 35 per cent would like to do so in the future, so substantial work in developing e-book collections must continue for their potential to be exploited and to meet these student needs. However, the major newspapers are already available online and can be cross-searched using services such as Lexis-Nexis. Further knowledge of information access, methods and facilities therefore seems necessary to resolve this; perhaps there is a need for libraries to better publicise the full range of resources they make available, to increase awareness of those, such as newspaper sources, that are not being fully exploited. Students use of mobile devices While the mobile revolution should be enhancing the freedom offered by distance learning (Keegan, 2002), this potential shift is not seen in the research results, with desktops and laptops the main educational devices, not the more portable mobile devices that can be more easily used outside the home. This may suggest a need for better marketing. Students are using devices without exploiting their full capability, but where this responsibility for educating users lies is an area of debate. Should the students discover how they could use their devices according to their personal learning styles, should the providers of the device include better education on their full functionality, or should the library or educational institution develop materials or instructions themselves? For example, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created a library tour in mp3 format, because of extensive use of mp3 players by their students (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007); it may take additional encouragement by libraries for mobile devices to become better used in education. Given that all respondents use a PC or laptop, and the high, rising, computer ownership statistics, it is interesting to note that respondents still use mobile devices at home rather than their fully-functional computers. As reasons were not required in the questionnaire, no factual conclusions can be drawn, and research could be developed in this area. Yet if students are learning at home, there is no urgent need to move to using mobile devices; further, as the current range of mobile devices is not as ideally suited to accessing library resources, it is no surprise that mobile technology is integrating very slowly into education. Technological advances making resources as easily accessible on mobile devices as laptops could encourage users to begin studying more outside the home, but this does not yet appear a strong trend. Future information access and mobile device use One signicant result from the survey was the number of respondents wanting to access books and newspapers on a computer. The literature review did not discover in detail investigations into the use of newspapers electronically, so this is an interesting result; it cannot be assumed that students will nd the resources in the format they need without guidance, but libraries must assist and market the materials that are available. Focusing this guidance for distance learners with little access to the library and therefore needing remote assistance will be a challenge but of strong benet. Until students are fully exploiting the electronic resources available to them (at least in the areas where they have expressed a desire to do so), a necessity for the development of efcient uses of mobile devices in education, such technology is unlikely to integrate rapidly into information access.

There was no such statement of desired change concerning locations; although eight respondents would also like to use mobile devices when travelling. For full-time workers who are also distance learners, commuting to work may be an important example of the anytime, anywhere maxim of mobile learning. The location of use is perhaps not as important as accessibility by various devices and the exibility of choice that should be provided by the library. Few respondents expressed an interest in using mobile devices to access library resources in the future when asked directly only three currently do so and only three would like to. If students primarily use mobile devices at home, and do not express a desire to use mobile devices more, perhaps the need for mobile technology provision by academic libraries is not signicant. There are benets from educational materials being available in multiple formats but there is no strong evidence that students have a desire to access resources, for example, from a PSP on a bus. While the technological developments make this area very open to educational changes, caution may be advised when investing in this new area, until it is proven in practice that it is what students want, need, and would benet from. One of the most important outcomes of the research is the expression of reasons for which students do not use mobile devices for education currently. While many technical reasons are out of academic libraries control and will be resolved by inevitable technological advances, some are in their control and must be faced in order to take advantage of mobile information delivery. Availability of materials in a suitable format are good examples of this; libraries must focus on information type and format and ensure they are not restricting students use of such devices, which may be a strong factor slowing the integration of mobile technology into higher education. This may take investment in digitisation or reformatting, but if mobile device use is to be encouraged, the issues need to be recognised and overcome. Mobile device purchasing and provision Almost half of respondents have bought or would buy devices for education; this is a signicant number and perhaps demonstrates the fact that studying costs have moved from book purchasing to the purchase of a computer and the cost of internet access, more valuable in the current information climate. Universities now frequently loan devices such as laptops, but this is not a suitable solution for distance learners. While a willingness to purchase devices for education is apparent, as costs of studying rise, and the research shows mobile devices are still not perfectly suited to information access, it could be concluded that many students would not choose these mobile devices for educational purposes. However, will libraries invest signicantly enough in mobile device provision, given the results that mobile devices are not yet exploited for information access? There may need to be a strong rst step by one party to encourage the use of mobile technology in education. Conclusion The research aimed to discover from a sample of higher education distance learners how they currently use library resources and mobile devices, and their desires for future information access; the objective being to assist libraries in developing their resource provision by providing evidence of expressed student needs. Ideally such research would be carried out on a larger scale and at regular intervals to determine how mobile device use changes over time. This research contributes to the literature on

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mobile technology integration into libraries, providing institutions with an overview of the current use of devices and how distance learners access information, although is limited by the small sample size. Using this information alongside other studies they will be better able to prioritise developments according to what students most need or are most likely to be open to; for example, regarding the better promotion and integration of e-books into library provision. The results of the survey suggest that distance learners are moving signicantly from using print materials to accessing electronic materials, are visiting libraries infrequently in person, but are not yet using mobile devices in education, instead primarily using laptops and desktop PCs. The integration of mobile technology into Higher Education has been gradual and many barriers and obstacles have been described that are all slowing this integration. Furthermore, an eagerness to use electronic formats more often in education was demonstrated, yet there was much less enthusiasm expressed for using mobile devices. While some reasons for the lack of mobile device use are purely technological, and advances may overcome these, change will depend on students better exploiting the full capabilities of their mobile devices, and libraries raising awareness of resources format availability, and investing in rendering more resources available in a suitable format and method. Yet as the results were not overwhelmingly in favour of developments of library resource provision for mobile devices, this area should be approached with some caution. Establishments should continue to experiment with mobile device use and assess how students may be willing or able to incorporate it into their study routines before signicant investment in the many possibilities new technologies offer. As this research aimed to provide an overview, rather than an in-depth analysis, of students reasons and opinions on mobile devices, conclusions should be reached cautiously. Contradictory opinions were expressed; one user spends nine hours on a PC at work so just wants to read real books for studying, whereas another would use mobile devices for studying even if they made studying harder if they were fun to use. Attitudes towards technology are likely always to vary and without larger-scale studies on the realistic attitudes towards, and potential uses of, mobile devices in education, it could be recommended that libraries do not invest signicantly in every new opportunity. Evidence is not yet strong enough that students want to use mobile devices for education. Yet, equally, many respondents do use mobile devices widely, notably mp3 players, which are not used for education. The task may lie with the institution to exploit these, so that once students have the opportunities to try using mobile devices for information access, in a more efcient way than is currently possible, this incorporation of mobile technology may then become more appreciated and desired. Academic libraries must always be aware of concern over a potential digital divide and access to information for all, so the key must be equal access and exibility of information provision, not just in print and electronically, but in various print formats (on-site, inter-library loans, large print, for some examples) and various electronic formats (various formats for various devices). With such evolution, mobile technology use may follow more naturally. With the rate of technological advances increasing and peoples habits changing to incorporate new technology into their lives, it is imperative for libraries to keep up with the needs of their users. As distance learning offers freedom of choice for students, the exibility of increased electronic resources and access on mobile devices

complementing computer or print access should appear a signicant development. However, this research has not uncovered strong desires for increased mobile device use in education, but the area of mobile technology is a rapidly changing one, and research must continue to monitor this area, to help libraries decide how much to invest to satisfy the changing needs of their students. Whether the academic needs to take the rst step to encourage mobile device use to show students the potential benets of such technology will need to be decided, and students reception of such advances analysed carefully, without assuming that students will be happy changing their study habits in this way. Knowing how much to invest in developing realistic and affordable long-term methods for incorporating mobile devices into resource provision is difcult given the current lack of research in the area, but the possibilities are exciting.
References Ally, M. (2007), Guest editorial: mobile learning, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol. 8 No. 2. Blummer, B. (2006), E-books revisited: the adoption of electronic books by special, academic, and public libraries, Internet Quarterly Review, Vol. 11 No. 2. Bower, B.L. and Hardy, K.P. (2004), From correspondence to cyberspace: changes and challenges in distance education, New Directions for Community Colleges, Vol. 128, pp. 5-12. Cau, Y., Tin, T., McGreal, R., Aly, M. and Coffey, S. (2006), The Athabasca University Mobile Library Project: increasing the boundaries of anytime and anywhere learning for students, Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, Vancouver, British Columbia, 3-6 July, ACM Press, New York, NY, pp. 1289-94, available at http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1143549.1143808 (accessed 24 March 2008). De Freitas, S. and Levene, M. (2003), Evaluating the development of wearable devices, personal data assistants and the use of other mobile devices in further and higher education institutions, TechWatch Report, available at www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/tsw_ 03-05.pdf (accessed 5 November 2007). Goh, T.T. and Liew, C.L. (2009), SMS-based library catalogue system: a preliminary investigation of user acceptance, The Electronic Library, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 394-408. (The) Guardian (2008), Games console launches great books package, available at: www. guardian.co.uk/books/2008/dec/09/nintendo-ds-classic-books (accessed 22 February 2009). Higher Education Statistics Agency (2007), Higher education student enrolments and qualications obtained at higher education institutions in the United Kingdom for the academic year 2005/2006, Higher Education Statistics Agency, Cheltenham, available at: www.hesa.ac.uk/sfrs/sfr107/sfr107.htm (accessed 26 March). Keegan, D. (2002), The future of learning: from eLearning to mLearning, available at http:// learning.ericsson.net/mlearning2/project_one/book.html (accessed 17 November 2007). Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2002), Cognitive, ergonomic, and affective aspects of PDA use for learning, paper presented at 2002 European Workshop on Mobile and Contextual Learning, 20-21 June. Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2005), Current uses of wireless and mobile learning: landscape study on the use of mobile and wireless technologies for teaching and learning in the post-16 sector, available at: www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/Current%20Uses%20FINAL% 202005.doc (accessed 17 November 2007).

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Lionarakis, A. (2008), The theory of distance education and its complexity, European Journal of Open, available at: www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2008/Lionarakis.htm (accessed 5 March 2009). Livescribe (2007), The Livescribe Smartpen. Never miss a word, available at: www.livescribe. com/smartpen/index.html (accessed 27 December). National Statistics Online (2007), Use of ICT at home, available at: www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/ nugget.asp?id1710 (accessed 26 March). (The) Open University (2007), About the OU: History of the OU, available at: www.open.ac.uk/ about/ou/p3.shtml (accessed 20 October). Playstation (2008), PSP online, available at: http://uk.playstation.com/psp/hardware/features/ detail/item95241/PSP-online/ (accessed 22 February 2009). Radford, M.L. and Connaway, L.S. (2007), Screenagers and live chat reference: living up to the promise, Scan, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 31-9. Roberts, G. (2006), So many mobile devices, so little time, Computers in Libraries, Vol. 26 No. 4. Sheikh, H., Eales, S. and Rico, M. (2007), Open Library in your pocket services to meet the needs of on and off campus users, available at: www.google.com/search?q cache:c0vKLkv7Q8sJ:library.open.ac.uk/mLibraries/presentations/OL2_mLibraries.ppt& hlen&ctclnk&cd2&gluk&clientrefox-a (accessed 24 March 2008). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2007), Tours of the Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, available at: www.library.uiuc.edu/learn/instruction/ tours.html (accessed 18 November). University of Pennsylvania (2005), PennTags/help, University of Pennsylvania, Philadephia, PA, available at: http://tags.library.upenn.edu/help/ (accessed 27 December 2007). West, M.A., Hafner, A.W. and Faust, B.D. (2006), Expanding access to library collections and services using small-screen devices, Information Technology and Libraries, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 103-7. Further reading Adams, A. and Blandford, A. (2005), Digital libraries support for the users information journey, Proceedings of ACM/IEEE Joint Conference of Digital Libraries, 7-11 June, Colorado, available at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1145/1065385.1065424 (accessed 27 December 2007). JISC (2007), National e-books observatory project, available at: www.jiscebooksproject.org/ overview/ (accessed 6 November). About the author Georgina Parsons is Systems Librarian at Brunel University in West London, UK. She gained an MSc in Information and Library Studies, distance learning, from the Robert Gordon University while working at the Open University UK and SirsiDynix, library management system provider. Her interests focus on libraries use of technology and in particular provisions for mobile devices. Georgina Parsons can be contacted at: georgina.parsons@brunel.ac.uk

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