may12b.indd


C&RL News May 2012  256

Smartphones are fast becoming standard-issue equipment for university students. 
Regardless of whether they choose devices 
running Android, iOS, or one of the other 
operating systems vying for a piece of the 
mobile pie, 
students are 
increasingly 
a c c e s s i n g 
the Internet 
through mo-
bile devices. 
The 2011 Ho-
rizon Report 
h i g h l i g h t e d 
the rising im-
portance of 
mobile tech-
nology in ed-
ucation, and 
predicted the 
m a i n s t r e a m 
adoption of 
mobiles for 
teaching and learning within a year.1

Libraries have of course responded to 
this emerging trend. Given the critical im-
portance of the library Web site as a gateway 
to the entirety of a library’s collections and 
services, much attention has been paid to 
the creation of mobile versions that allow 
smartphone users to conveniently access this 
vital resource. In a recent article, Brendan 
Ryan provided a thorough overview of how 
a library can develop a mobile Web site and 
useful advice on areas such as HTML and 
CSS coding.2 He further emphasized the 
importance of code validation to ensure the 

site displays properly on the wide range of 
devices available.

Such efforts to provide an excellent mo-
bile experience for library users are to be ap-
plauded. However, smaller academic librar-

ies often do 
not have the 
required ex-
p e r t i s e  o r 
r e s o u r c e s 
available to 
approach the 
c r e a t i o n  o f 
mobile sites in 
this way. It is 
nevertheless 
still necessary 
for them to 
provide the 
m o b i l e  a c -
cess that their 
users are in-
c r e a s i n g l y 
d e m a n d i n g , 

however. Here I will describe how one 
academic library built a quality mobile Web 
site in a way that required little technical 
expertise on the part of its staff and a rela-
tively minimal outlay of resources.

Going mobile at HKBU Library
The Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) 
is a government-funded institution with ap-

Christopher Chan is information services librarian at 
Hong Kong Baptist University Library, e-mail: chancp@
hkbu.edu.hk
© 2012 Christopher Chan

Christopher Chan

Mobile sites made simple
Solutions for smaller academic libraries

Figure 1. Mobile Site Builder interface.

ACRL TechConnect



May 2012  257 C&RL News

proximately 8,400 students 
enrolled in programs of all 
levels. Early in 2011, HKBU 
Library began to consider 
the creation of a mobile li-
brary Web site tailored for 
smartphones. Although only 
anecdotal observations had 
been made, it appeared that 
an increasing number of our 
students (perhaps even a ma-
jority) owned smartphones. 
The number was expected 
to continue to rise, as cut-
throat competition has made 
both devices and data plans 
relatively affordable in Hong 
Kong.

There was also some indication that stu-
dents were already using their devices to 
access the library’s online services and re-
sources. Our Web analytics statistics showed 
that the library Web site was 
receiving a substantial num-
ber of visits from mobile de-
vices, despite the fact it was 
difficult to navigate on a small 
screen. Taking this evidence 
in conjunction with the wider 
trends reported in the litera-
ture, a decision was made to 
prioritize the creation of a 
mobile version of the HKBU 
Library Web site.

As a relatively small aca-
demic library, HKBU Library 
does not have a full-time per-
son or department dedicated 
to the Web site. The project 
was assigned to the library’s 
Web team, which is drawn 
from staff of various different departments. 
Since team members would be working 
concurrently on other projects as well as 
their routine departmental duties, effort was 
made to reduce the additional workload that 
the mobile Web site project would create. 
Although the team would have likely been 
capable of producing a mobile site from 

scratch, we tried to identify 
ways to reduce the time and 
effort spent without compro-
mising on the quality of the 
final product.

Mobile Site Builder
By happy coincidence, at 
around the time the team 
began work on the project, 
Springshare (a company best 
known for its LibGuides plat-
form) released a new tool 
called Mobile Site Builder. 
LibGuides is very mobile-
friendly, to the extent that 
some libraries have adapted 
it for the creation of mobile 

Web sites.3 It is therefore unsurprising that 
the company launched a product for the 
specific purpose of mobile site creation. 
After examining the features of Mobile Site 

Builder, several advantages 
relevant to HKBU Library’s 
needs became apparent:

• A simple point-and-
click interface for Web site 
construction, which does 
not require any specialized 
technical expertise. Changes 
and updates to the site can be 
made easily via the browser-
based administrator tools. At 
the same time, customization 
of the HTML and CSS code is 
possible (within limitations).

• The tool takes the prob-
lem of ensuring that the site 
works on all different types 
of devices out of the library’s 
hands. From previous experi-

ence with viewing LibGuides pages on mo-
bile devices, we knew that the vendor was 
able to deliver attractive pages on a variety 
of different smartphones.

• The site itself is hosted on Springshare’s 
servers, relieving the library of associated 
technical and maintenance responsibilities.

By removing much of the complexity 

Figure 2. HKBU Library mobile 
homepage 

Figure 3. Mobile Ask a Librarian 
online form 



C&RL News May 2012  258

involved in putting together a mobile Web 
site, it was believed that Mobile Site Builder 
would enable the fairly swift completion of a 
mobile Web site. An additional attraction was 
that the cost was quite reasonable, given the 
amount of staff time that it would save. An 
order was therefore placed for the product, 
which was quickly enabled as a module of 
our existing LibGuides system.

With Mobile Site Builder in place, the 
team was able to focus on site content. When 
approaching this task, it is better to deter-
mine what mobile users would want from 
the site, rather than simply reproducing the 
desktop Web site for the small screen.4 For 
this, we relied primarily on our own under-
standing of the needs of our 
users in the mobile context. 
Team members agreed that 
items like library opening 
hours, contact information, 
and access to their library 
accounts would all be things 
that users would expect from 
a mobile library Web site. 
Useful insights were also 
gleaned from the statistics for 
our full site, which revealed 
that the top destination for 
mobile visitors was the online 
room booking system. This 
was duly included on the list 
of content for our mobile site.

Based on this initial plan, Mobile Site 
Builder was then used to put together 
the site. The site creation interface is very 
simple, with just two tabs: “Set Up” and 
“Customize” (see Figure 1). The “Set Up” 
tab is where the structure and content of the 
mobile site is configured. On the “Custom-
ize” tab, options for changing the color of 
the site and adding a custom banner can be 
found. Additionally, custom <HEAD> code 
can be added here, this was used to embed 
our Web analytics tracking code into the 
pages of the mobile site.

We were quickly able to construct a mo-
bile homepage consisting of ten top-level 
items (see Figure 2). Items on the homep-

age can link to content boxes, secondary 
menus, or to external resources. Appropriate 
icons were added to make the page more 
attractive. To further save staff time, these 
were obtained from free sources on the Web 
instead of being designed in-house. Care 
was taken to use only those graphics clearly 
marked as being licensed for such use.

As previously mentioned, all of this 
content is hosted on the vendor’s servers. 
However, we did decide to create and host 
one page of the mobile site on the library’s 
own server. This was the online form 
through which users can submit questions 
to the library’s e-mail inquiry service. As 
this requires users to disclose their personal 

information, the library was 
more comfortable with this 
page remaining within the 
university network. To ensure 
seamless integration, the form 
was designed to mimic the 
appearance of the mobile site 
(see Figure 3).

While our experience with 
Mobile Site Builder was large-
ly positive, it should be noted 
that the tool places some 
significant limitations on what 
designers can accomplish. 
The design and layout of the 
site, consisting of stacked 
rows of menu options, is es-

sentially fixed. No alternative schemes (for 
example, rows of icons in the style of an 
iOS/Android home screen) are provided. For 
content boxes, as well, it is sometimes dif-
ficult to customize certain elements exactly 
to the designer’s liking.

In the end, sacrificing complete control 
over the design and appearance of the Web 
site was well worth the time and effort saved. 
However, Mobile Site Builder could not help 
with a major hurdle for the project—the 
OPAC. The experience of other libraries 
reported in the literature indicated to us that 
a mobile catalog is an essential feature for 
any library mobile Web site.5 Merely link-
ing to the full version of the catalog and 

Figure 4. AirPAC main screen 



May 2012  259 C&RL News

expecting users to navigate that interface 
on their smartphone screens was deemed 
unacceptably detrimental to the user experi-
ence. How best for a small academic library 
to approach this problem?

AirPAC
Larger university libraries have been able to 
develop their own mo-
bile catalogs in-house, 
and have enjoyed suc-
cess in doing so.6 For 
smaller institutions, even 
if the expertise is avail-
able, the demands of 
other projects and time 
constraints may make 
this approach unfea-
sible. The only other 
solution is to implement 
a vendor-supplied mobile 
version of the catalog. 
Given the importance placed on the in-
clusion of the catalog on the mobile site, 
HKBU Library decided to purchase the rel-
evant add-on module from its ILMS vendor 
(Innovative Interfaces, Inc). This module, 
called AirPAC, allows patrons to browse the 
catalog, check due dates, and request/renew 
library material on their smartphones.

The biggest issue HKBU Library had with 
this approach was the financial expense 
associated with the module, which was 
considerably greater than that of Mobile Site 
Builder. This was exacerbated by a glaring 
lack of customization options. The only real 

visual change that could be made was the 
addition of a customized logo to the top bar 
(see Figure 4). Even the color scheme cannot 
be altered. These issues were subjected to 
considerable deliberation, but ultimately the 
fact that AirPAC would allow us to hasten 
the release of the mobile Web site was the 
deciding factor.

Once the vendor had installed the 
module, it was a straightforward matter to 
provide links to it on the mobile Web site. 
We also instructed the vendor to remove the 
“Library Information” page that comes as 
standard on AirPAC, and to replace it with a 
link back to the mobile Web site. In this way 
the mobile site and AirPAC were integrated 
in a similar manner to the full Web site and 
the OPAC.

Launch and reception
At the time of writing, HKBU Library Mobile 

has been live for about 
three months following 
its official launch on  
January 9, 2012. It is 
obviously early days, 
but the usage data that 
we have collected so far 
have been encouraging. 
Figures 5 and 6 summa-
rize the web analytics 
data collected for the 
mobile site and AirPAC 

respectively (these are 
recorded separately for 

statistical purposes). We recorded over 
4,400 unique visitors to the mobile site in 
the period from January 9 to April 10. This 
is quite a significant level of use given the 
size of the student and faculty population 
at HKBU. 

As described in the preceding section, 
it is necessary for users to go through the 
mobile site in order to access AirPAC. It is 
thus interesting to note that the number of 
visits to AirPAC (9,324) is very close to the 
number of visits to the mobile site (10,314), 
suggesting that the vast majority of visitors 
make use of AirPAC. This lends support to 

Figure 5. HKBU Library mobile usage data 
(January 9 to April 10)

Figure 6. HKBU Library AirPAC usage data 
(January 9 to April 10)



C&RL News May 2012  260

the prevailing view that a mobile catalog is an 
essential feature for a library mobile Web site.

While these data provide a useful start-
ing point, we intend to conduct a more 
fulsome evaluation of the project in the 
near future. This will include the gather-
ing of qualitative feedback from our users.

Conclusion
Purchasing mobile products from vendors is 
not a perfect solution for all academic libraries 
in addressing the mobile needs of their users. 
There is far less scope for customization, and 
larger libraries with in-house programming 
capabilities may find that they can better 
serve their users by developing their own 
mobile offerings from scratch. However, for 
those libraries where the time, resources, and 
expertise to create innovative mobile appli-
cations are simply not available, the vendor 
approach allows for the rapid deployment of 
a robust Web site to meet user demand for 
mobile library services.

Notes
1. L. Johnson, R. Smith, H. Willis, A. 

Levine, and K. Haywood, 2011 Horizon 
Report (Austin, TX: The New Media Con-
sortium, 2011).

2. Brendan Ryan, “Developing Library 
Websites Optimized for Mobile Devices,” 
Reference Librarian 52, no. 1 (2011): 128–35.

3. Tiffini Travis and Aaron Tay, “Design-
ing Low-Cost Mobile Websites for Libraries,” 
Bulletin of the American Society for Infor-
mation Science and Technology 38, no. 1 
(2011): 24–29.

4. Cindi Trainor, “Planning for a Mobile 
Site,” American Libraries 41, no. 4 (2010): 26. 

5. Chad Haefele, “One Block at a Time: 
Building a Mobile Site Step by Step,” Refer-
ence Librarian 52, no. 1 (2011): 117–27. 

6. Laurie Bridges, Hannah Gascho Rem-
pel, and Kimberly Griggs, “Making the 
Case for a Fully Mobile Library Web Site: 
From Floor Maps to the Catalog,” Reference 
Services Review 38, no. 2 (2010): 309–20. 

Visit www.atlas-sys.com to sign up for a demo.

We play nice with others

Now with more customization and addon capabilities for greater 
integration with other library and campus systems.

4.0

Se
e 

A
re

s 4
.0 a

t ALA Annual

BOO
TH

#220
6