EBSCOhost goes mobile
Marie Kennedy on Nov 10th 2009
if what you’re after is a clean interface for on-the-go database searching, ebscohost mobile’s got you covered.
seriously. simple. interface.
i’ll paste three screen shots. that’s all it took to get to a full-text pdf of an article.
screen shot #1, the search interface, arrived at via the url http://0-search.ebscohost.com.linus.lmu.edu/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=mobile&defaultdb=a9h. (note that the url we’re using contains our proxy snippet. if you’re not affiliated with loyola marymount university this link won’t work for you.) our default database to begin a search is academic search complete. if you want to begin your search in a different database, choose the hyperlink “choose databases” from this initial search page.
the search box
screen shot #2, the results page for my search phrase “electronic resources”. note the relevancy bar in green.
results of a search for "electronic resources"
screen shot #3. from the results page i touched “pdf full text” and it opened the pdf in the native iphone pdf viewer.
the pdf of the full text
from this point i can click on the + (plus) sign at the bottom of my screen and email myself or a colleague a link to the direct article.
Filed in e-resource mgmt,images,library | 5 responses so far|
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How'd you get it set up, Marie? I could find no documentation.
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gimme a sec. i'll hook you up with a link. note that it has to be enabled in ebscoadmin before you can haz mobile.
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http://www.ebscohost.com/thisTopic.php?marketID=1&topicID=1336 and http://support.epnet.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?id=4431 might be enuf to get you started. let me know if not.
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So did you just go in and set it up, or was there a big "omg should we do this" discussion? Cuz my library's leaning toward the latter.
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we set it up w/i 10 minutes of getting the alert that it was available. i'm curious to know what the possible drawbacks for enabling it are?
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It's an organizational culture thing, not a practical or patron thing.
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@davidlrothman If you create a new profile in Ebsco Admin, Mobile Smartphone is an interface option - that sets it up
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Yeah, I now I just have to get admin access restored.
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we just set it up, but now I can't access it via Ipod Touch. the website keeps timing out.
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So mobile CINAHL, then?Must see if we've enabled this.
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We just set it up and our iPhone-enabled dude down in Instructional Tech says it's working. The mobile version looks like crap in Firefox, though, so I can't tell one way or the other.
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I can see it working in Firefox, but my mobile browser says 'Safari could not open the page because the server stopped responding" maybe I'll call a coworker to have them test it.
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yes, rachel, cinahl should be an option. you can set which dbs are enabled via mobile and you can set which is the default db at that initial search page.
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Whoops, must have been a momentary blip. Mobile version looks fine in Firefox now.
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Got mine working on my iPod Touch today...pretty nice!
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Got Academic search complete to work from our mobile page for the time being (http://mysite.du.edu/~jokraus/test/m.html). The email records formatting is way off. Does anyone have an openURL linker resolver working with their mobile page?
5 Responses to “EBSCOhost goes mobile”
dial_m Nov 10th 2009 at 09:49 am 1
Thanks for the screenshots. I am currently monkeying around with url creation for our institution.
Jill Nov 10th 2009 at 11:28 am 2
I’m curious to hear how people are going to promote this to their patrons. After the initial easy set up, where did you go from there? Did you place a link on the library homepage (seems easiest for mobile users to reach, no?), databases page, etc.?
Marie Nov 10th 2009 at 12:14 pm 3
Jill,
We haven’t yet promoted to patrons. We did enable it as a New Feature item within EBSCOadmin so that when patrons click on New Features from the Web version of EBSCOhost they’ll see there is a mobile option.
I like all of the options you listed and will get those up and rolling.
Are you enabling the feature at your institution? How will you be promoting it there?
-Marie
Jill Nov 12th 2009 at 10:37 am 4
We have enabled it, but are right now looking into the question of user authentication. Our users will never be coming through our IP on their mobile devices. I’m investigating whether each user would need to create an individual login/password (this has been the case with other mobile products we provide access to), or if we can create one that all users can utilize. Should have an answer back on that soon.
For promotion, we will likely put up the posters around campus, send an announcement email to campus users (we’re lucky we can do that!). Link placement is still up in the air for us though. We have very little control over our website, unfortunately, so this could be interesting.
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