Mobile Device Applications in the Digital Library

In order to facilitate the discovery and synthesis of scientific information, mobile device applications and services are needed for use in the digital library by researchers and scientists to instantly locate data. During Phase I of this effort IIa will perform a requirements analysis, identifying the types of services currently provided by Governmental digital libraries (e.g., DOE OSTI) or new services specific for a mobile environment. As mentioned above, we are aware of existing initiatives and tools that might be leveraged to provide these services, including Twitter Applications, Facebook Mobile, YouTube Mobile, Mobile Bloglines RSS aggregator, and Open Notebook Science. We will examine these and identify other instances as needed to learn how to best utilize existing tools to disseminate digital library services to a mobile community. We will analyze how researchers and scientists prefer to utilize existing digital library services in a mobile environment and what additional services might lend themselves to this structure. In this Phase we will also consider the body of related work that has been done, catalog that research, and evaluate it in the context of the DOE STI information and the OSTI Digital Library. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The prototype tool developed under Phase I will clearly show the feasibility of providing mobile device applications and services for digital library services. Phase I will provide research and develop a prototype; Phase II is planned to provide a more robust mobile application platform; Phase III is planned to provide a commercially available product. This cycle would optimize mobile applications and services for public and government researchers, professionals and casual users. True success in the market place would require maximum reuse of the product with minimal rework for crossing into different specialized areas. Government agencies, particularly those tasked with the responsibility to manage specialized information including large scientific and technical databases, could benefit greatly by increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of those users searching their respective data and by providing users with resources that were currently unavailable in mobile format. Included within their responsibility to manage the information is the responsibility of making the data user friendly and readily available. These mobile device applications, services and related information should be well received by the specialized search user community. An additional benefit is accelerated knowledge discovery. Having the ability to instantly locate data and use digital library services on mobile devices would facilitate the discovery and synthesis of scientific information. In addition to traditional government research agencies, this concept is applicable to universities, pharmaceutical companies and all organizations involved in scientific research