By Alan W. Aldrich
- Web-enabled smartphones (and their applications) have converged with cloud computing to change the ways people interact with each other and their environments.
- The academic community has only recently adopted mobile technology, and the few existing studies focus on one or two institutions rather than taking a cross-institutional view of mobile websites.
- The study reported here examined the mobile websites of large research universities and their libraries in the United States and Canada.
- Results found that few functions on university mobile websites clearly addressed educational needs, highlighting an opportunity to provide more educational links and applications.
Table 1. Functions on University Mobile Websites*
Function/Service | Number of Sites with Function/Service | Percentage of sites with Function/Service |
Events Calendar | 18 | 72% |
Directory | 18 | 72% |
News | 17 | 68% |
Campus Maps | 16 | 64% |
Videos | 14 | 56% |
Sports | 12 | 48% |
Images/Photos | 9 | 36% |
Services | 7 | 28% |
Course Catalog | 7 | 28% |
Bus routes and Schedules | 6 | 24% |
Accessories | 5 | 20% |
Student's Schedule | 4 | 16% |
Contact Us | 4 | 16% |
Campus Alerts | 4 | 16% |
Weather | 3 | 12% |
Available Seats in Computer Labs | 2 | 8% |
Dining Choices and Locations | 2 | 8% |
Classified Ads | 2 | 8% |
Website Links | 1 | 4% |
Student Cash Services | 1 | 4% |
Blog | 1 | 4% |
iTunes University | 1 | 4% |
* N = 25
Because users of the mobile web want and need quick access, functions not immediately available from the home page were excluded from these results. For instance, some universities put bus route schedules or information under another link from the home page, so they were excluded from the list.
Several categories need explication. The Accessories category included features such as downloadable wallpaper or images for a smartphone, puzzles, and university fight songs.39 Services included a variety of offerings such as a night escort service for students' safety40 and recreation opportunities available on campus.41 The Videos category often contained links to YouTube or university-hosted videos. Some universities provided real-time webcam images of areas such as food courts or computer labs so that users could see whether the site was crowded.42
Most of the 22 different categories consist of flat information that is accessed passively, requiring no user input. The four categories most commonly found on university mobile websites — Events Calendar, Directory, News, and Campus Maps — are examples of flat information that is useful for the entire university community and that can be provided easily at low cost.
Some of the categories on university mobile websites have the potential to be dynamic (real-time updating of information) and interactive (incorporating user input). Many campus maps are searchable by building name,43 and the seven mobile websites with course catalogs allow searching by course name or subject.44 However, none of the catalog apps allow students to register online for classes. Adding such interactive features is a logical next step in the growth and functionality of university mobile websites. Bus route apps provide interactivity that makes full use of smartphone features such as GPS. MIT and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provide real-time GPS locations of campus buses using the NextBus service. North Carolina State University and the University of Alabama use a competing GPS system, Translocation. Useful transportation information can also be provided using a series of flat menus with static information for individual routes, as done by Indiana University.45
Figure 4 lists the most popular apps on MIT's mobile web during a six-month period in 2009.46

Figure 4. MIT Mobile Website Hits
The Shuttle Bus Schedule was the most accessed app with 3.5 times more hits than the next most popular app, the Campus Map. This is not surprising given the size of the MIT campus and the variability of Boston's weather. The thousands of hits on the Campus Map, People Directory, and Events Calendar apps on the MIT site reflect the general popularity of these apps on many university mobile websites.
The Steller Course Schedule System used at MIT is the third most popular app on the MIT site. The Steller app differs from other popular MIT apps in being student-centric. A closer examination of the categories in Table 1 shows that student-centric services appear in five categories: Course Catalog, Student's Schedules, Available Seats in Computer Labs, Student Cash Services, and iTunes U. A Course Catalog app was found on only seven university mobile web sites (28 percent) and consists of a flat presentation of class schedules. The Student's Schedule app appears on only four mobile websites (16 percent) including MIT's. These results suggest the majority of university mobile websites do not yet strongly support student-centric services even though students are the most likely users of the mobile web.
Library Mobile Websites
Universities and their libraries have multiple options in terms of creating their mobile websites (see Mobile Web Resources). Table 2 lists the functions located on the 24 library mobile web home pages examined in this study.
Table 2. Functions on Library Mobile Websites*
Function/Service | No. of Library Sites Using (Percentage) |
Library Hours | 18 (75%) |
Library Directory | 16 (67%) |
Library Catalog | 16 (67%) |
Contact Us | 12 (50%) |
Main Library Website | 10 (42%) |
Databases | 8 (33%) |
"Ask a Librarian" | 6 (25%) |
Library News & Events | 6 (25%) |
Renew Materials | 5 (21%) |
Library Staff Directory | 5 (21%) |
My Account/Patron Information | 5 (21%) |
Computer Availability | 2 (8%) |
Floor Plans/Maps | 2 (8%) |
Proxy Server Access | 1 (4%) |
Google Scholar | 1 (4%) |
Loan Periods | 1 (4%) |
Reserve Study Rooms | 1 (4%) |
Full Text Article Finder | 1 (4%) |
New Books | 1 (4%) |
Webcams | 1 (4%) |
Podcasts | 1 (4%) |
* N = 24
Access to Library Hours, Library Directories that provide the address and location of all campus libraries, and the Library Catalog were the most common functions on library mobile websites. The mobile web at the University of Texas Libraries includes these functions in the first three links, with library hours found in the Contact/Visit Us link (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. University of Texas Library Mobile Website
The Loan Periods section consists of flat information. The Links section provides connections to the University of Texas mobile web, the Google mobile website, and Google Books for mobile devices.
Users' desire for these common functions was noted in both the Cambridge and Kent State University library surveys. Additional functions such as My Account/Patron Information and Floor Plans/Maps with call number locations were also desired, yet appear on only five and two library mobile websites, respectively. While My Account/Patron Information is an interactive app, library Floor Plans/Maps can be presented in a flat manner. The Rice University Library mobile website includes a very detailed yet user-friendly floor map to help patrons locate materials within the book stacks (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. Rice University Library 2d Floor Map
Offices, furniture, and shelves are clearly marked and help the user pinpoint locations. Putting the first two letters of the call numbers on the shelf ranges allow users to move quickly to the section where their books are located. Users can scroll through the map easily to view the entire floor area as needed. The infrequent listing of desired services such as Account/Patron Information and Floor Plans/Maps on library mobile websites suggests an opportunity to align user needs with services.
Links to online databases, identified in the Kent State study as highly desired, were provided by eight libraries on their mobile websites. Six of these libraries identified their databases as having mobile web-optimized interfaces, as illustrated by the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (see Figure 7) and the University of North Carolina (see Figure 8) library mobile websites.

Figure 7. University of Nebraska at Lincoln Library Database Page

Figure 8. University of North Carolina Library Database Page
The University of Nebraska mobile website provides access to a basic assortment of databases that cover the needs of patrons doing general research (EBSCOhost Mobile), technology research (IEEE Xplore), and medical research (PubMed). Citation support is available through RefWorks Mobile. This assortment of mobile web-optimized databases, although limited, meets the needs of patrons taking a quick look to see if research is available that will support their information needs. The University of North Carolina has an extensive offering of mobile-enabled databases organized into an A-Z list. As more database vendors make their offerings mobile web friendly, libraries will be able to expand their database services and provide interactive information at minimal cost while further aligning their mobile websites with the needs of their patrons.
Discussion
The mobile web is ubiquitous and digital in orientation. The features that make it ubiquitous, such as instant access anywhere, smartphone portability, and increasingly sophisticated apps, make it useful for universities, libraries, and users. These features also require close attention to issues of mobile web design (see Design Issues).
The digital orientation of the mobile web has interesting ramifications. People appear to be ambidextrous in their use of digital and analog orientations, selecting the orientation that makes sense given their physical situation and information needs. In particular, people seem to be orienting themselves before expending energy in longer term analog processes. This raises the following questions:
- If people are ambidextrous in how they use digital and analog orientations:
- What conditions favor using one orientation over the other?
- When doing research, is a digital orientation used first followed by an analog orientation?
- Are we creating digital dependencies or over-reliance on prepackaged information through apps or search engine results with reduced content?
New devices such as Apple's iPad challenge the digital orientation associated with smartphones because users can easily perform activities on the iPad using either a digital or analog orientation. Further research on the tensions between digital and analog orientations is needed to understand the impact of the mobile web.
Student-Centric, Interactive Apps
Universities need to identify and provide more student-centric services on their mobile websites. Many student centric services are best achieved using interactive information. Since interactive services are more complex and costly to develop then passive services, universities can identify student-centric information that can be supplied initially using passive or flat formats, such as course catalogs. Interactive components can then be developed later.
Interactive app design provides challenges along with opportunities for universities. Student ID cards, for example, are commonly used for identification, checking out books, and paying for goods and services on and around campus. Students also frequently lose or damage their ID cards. Many ID card functions could be incorporated into students' smartphones, including the student's picture, transcripts, campus cash, etc. Savings in producing and delivering ID cards could offset development costs of the interactive application, as could charging a fee for students who download the ID card app onto their smartphones.
Academic Functions
Education is the primary function of universities, yet few of the functions observed on university mobile websites clearly addressed educational needs. The video category found on 14 university library mobile websites often contained a mix of educational videos and news/entertainment videos. One school provided a link to iTunes University on its mobile website. Universities can and should be doing more in terms of educational links and apps as part of their mobile web development.
Libraries provide some education-focused resources via the mobile web, such as databases and course reserve materials. Libraries often have tutorials or videos providing instruction on how to use databases, how to do basic research, and how to cite articles using standard citation formats. Many of these educational items could be delivered via the mobile web so that students doing research on a PC could access this information using their smartphones without interrupting their research process. Issues such as instructional design for the mobile web are avenues for further research.
Accessibility
Universities and their libraries have yet to address mobile web access for people with disabilities. Providing access will require creativity and a synergy between schools and the commercial/open-source sectors. Voice-activated menu systems are already incorporated into many smartphones to enable hands-free use, and database vendors are making the content of some articles available in audio formats. As a result, access to the visually oriented mobile web does not have to be limited to the visual. Other access issues can also be addressed through creative synergies.
Conclusion
This study provided an initial look at how universities and their libraries are moving toward the mobile web. While universities and their libraries engage in the technical aspects of developing and launching mobile websites, higher order questions highlighted by the digital-analog tension remain to be addressed:
- Is a digital literacy developing alongside mobile web development such that it can be measured, taught, and used?
- How does a digital orientation influence our thinking and our behaviors over time?
Addressing epistemological questions such as these is important to understanding mobile web development. The ecology of the mobile web, like all ecologies, is constantly changing. What makes the mobile web different and interesting is its rate of evolution. Studies like the one reported here become more valuable when further analysis is done over time, adding to our comprehension of the changes.