Bibliographic management on mobile devices
Transcript of Bibliographic management on mobile devices
IT Services R&D
Using emerging learning and research technologies to enable excellence
m-biblioBibliographic management on mobile devices
Mike Jones, Senior Technical Researcher
#mbiblio
IT Services R&D / ILRT
Background
•Investigate the use of mobile devices as a tool to collecting and managing bibliographic data
•Collaboration between the Library and IT Services at the University of Bristol
•JISC-funded project in the m-library innovationprogramme (1 November 2011 to 31 July 2012)
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Devices have lots of sensors and connectivity ...
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Camera Accelerometer
GPS Compass Network Access
Near Field Communication(on some recent Android devices)
... what can we use in capturingbibliographic data and usage information?
Can we provide something useful?
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Design a useful tool for students ...4
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Design a useful tool for students ...4
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... but also provides the Library with statistics5
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Student Survey and Workshop6
•User experience expert ran a survey and workshop
•67 students responded to the survey
•10 students attended a 2 hour workshop. Mix of subject areas (undergraduate, taught post graduate and research postgraduate)
•Students not initially told about the aims of them-biblio project
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Approximately how many references do you put in your essays?
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36%
42%
18%
4%1-55-1010-20> 20
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What tends to be the approximate ratio of books to journal articles in your reference list?
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6%
19%
19%
20%
36%25% Books / 75% Articles50% Books / 50% Journals75 % Books / 25% Journal ArticlesPretty much all journal articlesVaries too much to say
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How do you usually find your references?9
4%
17%
24%31%
23%
Online citation databases (e.g. Web of Knowledge)Google ScholarUniversity library systemReading lists provided by lecturersOther
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Where do you store your references?10
1%7%
17%
16%
58%
In word processor format (e.g. Word)Using bibliographic software (e.g. EndNote)In a hand-written notebookI don’t store my referencesOther
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What’s your biggest frustration about managing references?
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“Citing the reference in the correct format”
“Copying the reference format easily from a paper”
“Different lecturers have different preferences for style of referencing, so its difficult to know what style to choose.”
Inputting the data into Endnote
“Having to put them all in the exact harvard style of referencing”“Time-consuming”
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If you could design a simple piece of software to help you manage your references better, what would it do?
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“Compile them, format them to the desired style and alphabetise”
“It would automatically put them in alphabetically order and split them into the types of references they are e.g. books, journals etc”
“Quick and easy to learn, will format in necessary style”
“Take the journals and books you’ve read and write them in the correct format”
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Response from Library Staff13
“It is interesting that EndNote / EndNote Web can deliver on most of the requirements given in 6. However, making the students aware of this and encouraging them to make use of it is another thing.”
Very sad to see that only 14% are using Endnote, yet almost all of them want something that has the capabilities of Endnote! Attendance this year at Endnote Web sessions was very low, so we are clearly not getting to all those who need it.
IT Services R&D / ILRT
Workshop - Pain Points14
•Lack of uniformity - different lecturers in the same department have different requirements
•Students used a range of methods for collectingreferences - pen and paper to Endnote
•Software didn’t work as the students expected
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Workshop - Ideas for using mobile devices15
•Scan barcodes
•OCR text for references
•Format references to commonformats - customisable
•Manage reference lists
•Export references to text/PDF and Word
•Share references via email, textand store in the Cloud
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To develop something useful ...16
•It needs to help the students create accurate references easily
•It needs to be simple and intuitive to use
•It should fit within theirworkflow - export to Endnote or Word
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Architecture17
Web Service
Aleph
COPAC
CrossRef
Statistics
Query
Results
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Technologies18
Server-side•Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS)
•Simple API for XML (SAX)
•Marc4J
Client-side
•iOS 5.1(iPhone 3GS/4/4S, iPod Touch 2nd/3rd generation, iPad)
•Core Data (local database)
•ZBar bar code reader API
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Near Field Communication19
•NFC is a set of standards that allow devices to establish radio communication when in close contact
•Standards cover protocols and data exchange formats and are based upon RFID
•Bristol City Council are looking at initiatives to promote the use of NFC in the city
•It would be great if we could readLibrary RFID tags with a phone ...
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NFC/RFID and the Library20
•The Library piloted using RFID in the Chemistry branch Library
•Plans to put RFID tags in stock across all branches
•However ... the tags used by our Library can’t be read by NFC capable devices :-(
Project has requested that NFC and recent RFID Library standards be considered by the Library
RFID project
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Camera21
•Use the camera to scan barcodes
•Use OCR to scan for Digital Object Identifierson a page
•You need a camera thatcan auto focus:(iPhone 3GS/4/4S and 3rd generation iPad)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coffeegeek/3198844118
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Barcodes22
•The Library uses Telepen for stock management - not supported ‘out of the box’ by open source libraries
•Needed to write a decoder so Telepen was supported
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Fallback input for barcodes23
•For devices that don’t have a camera
• Or a camera can’t read the barcode (damaged, poor light etc.)
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Examples of data Issues24
•Missing information - issue numbers, volume numbers, page numbers
•Typos in data
•Titles and names all in upper case or lower case
•Author or editor?
We can help improve accuracy but some curation is needed by the user of the app
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Demo25
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Further Details26
Developer:Mike Jones ([email protected])@MrJ1971
Project Manager:Dave Kilbey ([email protected])
http://mbiblio.ilrt.bris.ac.uk