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.
Thanks for the screenshots. I am currently monkeying around with url creation for our institution.
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.?
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
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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