Mobile Access: Brief Reviews: EBSCOhost Mobile and Summon Mobile from Serials Solutions
By Gary Price, Senior Editor
As we mentioned last week, both EBSCOhost and Summon for Serial Solutions have officially been released. We’ve had only a short time to use both and for the most part were very impressed. Let’s review each news release and share a few comments. Btw, we used the Safari browser on an iPhone 3G to visit these mobile sites.
Summon
IMPORTANT: The news release is a bit misleading. To use Summon for mobile you do NOT have to download any app or software to your phone/smartphone.
… [users] simply key a term in the Summon search box and instantly retrieve relevant results that span the gamut from print to digital. It’s the latest innovation from the rapidly-developing and pioneering service, which is the first and only available web-scale technology that enables single searchbox access to the breadth of the library’s content – from books and videos to e-resources at the article leve
This is where it gets a little tricky. Summon is an information “discovery” service and accessing the actual content (full text articles for example, on a mobile device, can only take place if the underlying database is outputting it’s content for mobile devices or in some cases, users don’t mind moving around the screen to see the material. If that’s not possible (or you don’t want to do it), users can select results and then mail them back to themselves (or anyone else for that matter). Later, when their using a “regular” web browser, they can then get the links and and access the material be it a full article or a book citation from that particular library.
Interested in taking a look at Summon Mobile with the caveat that you can only see results pages, not the actual content?
Head to the following URL from Grand Valley State University in Michigan: http://gvsu.summon.serialssolutions.com/
The URL will work on a non-mobile browser and it’s worth a look to see what the full Summon service looks like but it’s not the mobile version we’re talking about today. Remember, you’ll be able to view the citations but to get to the actual content you’ll need a Grand Valley logon/password.
The mobile version has the “Google-like” search box on its home page. It’s simple and clean. Enter your search terms and hit go.
Here’s where Summon Mobile needs a bit more work (and they are aware of it). All of the results for the search “Michigan” only contain a one word and that word is Michigan. Not very helpful. Summon needs to extend the entry title information beyond one or two words. Obviously, if you enter more terms you’ll get more precise results but many users still only use one or two terms. Even when doing a know-item search it’s possible to run into problems. No matter what type of search you’re doing, you have to click again to see the full title, the source, and if available, an abstract.
You’re also able to click the plus button the sign next to each result listing and save it to a folder you can send to yourself later.
Also, on the mobile home page take note of the “Refine Search” button near the top of the page. Click here and your provided with numerous options to “refine” your search results including to full text only material; content type; language, library location, and subject terms. If searchers use this feature is very useful. We ran a known item search for the book by JFK, “Profiles in Courage” and first came up with numerous journal articles. Refining to only books returned only 15 results and we then would have to to go through each one to find the actual book. The search “Profiles in Courage Kennedy” got results down to seven but again, we needed to check each result for the actual book.
It would also be helpful to be able to see the limits you’ve selected as you look at your results perhaps directly below the search box. It’s great to see that Summon does offer a spell check feature since mobile typing can often be a challenge.
Overall. Summon Mobile is off to a solid start and with a few tweaks it will become even more useful. However, don’t forget that the underlying content (e.g. full text articles) can only be able to be read in a mobile-friendly environment if the underlying database is offering it’s content in a mobile-friendly format. However, with a little persistence, and some scrolling around the page you might be able to get to some material even if the underlying database is not serving content that works with mobile browsers.
More After a Click
Today, also marks the official release of EBSCOhost Mobile with the publication of this news release.
Fast Facts from the Release:
+ All databases and services currently available on the EBSCOhost platform will be available via EBSCOhost Mobile.
+ Many of the existing EBSCOhost features such as search modes, limiting to full text, date ranges, peer-reviewed content or by publication are available. Users will also be able to search images from their mobile devices.
+ The result list is scrollable and available data includes citations, Image Quick View™ and access to full text article.
+ The interface has been designed with a lower resolution, simplifying the interface by removing folders and some other more advanced features for increased speed and user convenience.
+ In addition to providing access to smartphone users, EBSCOhost Mobile will also work on desktops helping libraries with low bandwidth since it uses only a fraction of the bytes compared to a traditional EBSCOhost search. EBSCOhost Mobile will also open up access to research databases to researchers in remote locations who are only able to access via satellite links.
We’ve been using EBSCOhost Mobile with the Academic Search Complete along with three other databases and we are impressed.
Like we mentioned in our Summon overview, the home page is clean and offers the single search box look. Here users can select from the databases that their libraries make available and also click to use an image database (if available). Another link takes you to a full page of search options (even with our bad eyes we found then very easy to read), and even a page of filed codes for the most sophisticated of mobile searchers. (-:
Results pages are straightforward with each showing entry showing title/source article, a relevancy ranking, and links to access the article either as text document or a PDF file. Of course, what formats are available depends on several factors including the arrangements EBSCO has with each publisher. You can also mail 10 results (the number on a results page) to yourself or anyone else. It would be useful it users could pick and choose which results to send.
An actual listing for an article provides an “envelope” icon to mail the article, links to the versions of the article that are available (text or PDF for the most part) and other bibliographic info including hypertext subject headings. Very impressive. You’ll even find drop down menu to mechanically translate the page.
One thing we did find missing was a spell check. We searched for Obamma, Eengland, Booston and at no time did we see a spelling correction.
One very mpressive debut from EBSCO. We hope subsequent releases continue to increase the usability of this product.
One final time, let’s be clear. EBSCOhost and Summon are two different types of products. One is an information discovery service (Summon) while EBSCOhost offers full text content. directly from its own database. It will interesting to see if library’s using Summon Mobile and have EBSCOhost subscriptions will be able to link to EBSCOhost Mobile for their mobile users.
Finally, the big question is who is going to use these resources. This is what Gerry McKiernan pondered last week when he said to LJ:
“At this point [mobile-specific searches] are supplemental, or impulse, such that if you’re on the road and you want to search a particular resource … you could do that,” he said. But, he added, “The mobile phone is becoming an all-in-one tool for a variety of functions,” and as that happens, users will come to expect some kind of mobile interface to the tools they’re grown accustomed to using.
I agree with Gerry 100% and will go a bit further to say after spending some time with both of these services (especially EBSCOhost, at this point) I am more sure than ever that a mobile device (from an eBook reader to a Palm Pre to a Droid to a iPhone) can be powerful research tools in their own right. Perhaps the most important issue is how much promotion/marketing will EBSCO and the libraries that use EBSCO give to the new mobile interface? Like we always say, people can’t use what they don’t know about.
Stay tuned!
Postscript: Here are Two Screenshots of the EBSCOhost Mobile Interface 1 ||| 2
Postscript 2: Gerry McKiernan Has Posted, http://mobile-libraries.blogspot.com/2009/11/httptinyurl.html“>“How To Configure EBSCOhost Mobile.” Share it with your systems librarian.
Hat Tip: Gerry M.
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on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 and is filed under Information Industry, Wireless Web and Search.
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