The New Frontier of Mobile Library Services in the Digital Age

Abstract

Developments in digital mobile technologies have demonstrated their great potentials for educational use. Revolutionized by smartphones with increasingly versatile computing capabilities and performance that are comparable to a desktop computer, we have discovered that much of the daily information needs and learning habits amongst students have undergone drastic changes. Indeed, mobile technologies are becoming increasingly prominent amongst the lives of university students. Therefore, universities in different parts of the world are also attempting to adopt such mobile technologies for various teaching and learning purposes. In our first phase of study, mixed methods with combination of online questionnaire surveys and qualitative interviews with students at a number of universities located in different countries were used, with the aim of examining the different learning behaviors and information needs amongst students across different academic disciplines and cultures. Further, we look at students at the sub-degree level, as well as other specialize tertiary institutions such as performing arts academies, as well as visual art and design schools. We also highlight our ongoing research of university-wide studies in our second phase. As a result of globalization, rapid technological advancements, and ever-expanding user information needs and changing expectations, comparative research in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) published in the last decade reflected a wide spectrum of backgrounds, interests, issues, as well as agendas (socioeconomically, culturally, and geographically, etc.). Undoubtedly, comparative librarianship studies broaden the understanding of different issues and problems by offering an opportunity to look at both theories and practices of LIS in different countries. The potentials for exchanges of information and knowledge through international and comparative librarianship would no doubt be beneficial to a wide range of stakeholders, such as but not limited to librarians, educators, researchers, learners, policy makers, and general public users, etc. Before we conclude, we also briefly introduce our recent and ongoing comparative researches in the other LIS and education-related topics.