iLibraries: Maintaining Relevancy in a Mobile World

Though the wealth of opportunities mobile technologies provide to libraries is widely acknowledged, some libraries continue to experience challenges when incorporating these technologies. These challenges include technological illiteracy, prohibitive cost, and the effect of these technologies on the traditional library environment. An examination of a variety of current literature and studies related to the incorporation of mobile technologies is necessary to determine how best to tackle these challenges, and suggests several methods of incorporating mobile technologies into academic libraries. Such methods include exploring technical blogs or classes, learning from technologically savvy peers, including tablets or other mobile devices in the circulating collection, and adjusting library policies in order to accommodate an increasing demand for mobile-friendly libraries. A larger implication of these measures to incorporate mobile technology is the need to maintain the relevance and currency of libraries in an increasingly mobile-centric world