Mobile Devices

So I was going to post about something completely different when I saw this article. The gist of the article is that "Cyber University, [Japan]'s only university to offer all classes only on the Internet, began offering a class on mobile phones Wednesday on the mysteries of the pyramids."

How crazy is that? In this country you're starting to see a proliferation of online courses, programs, and degrees from larger institutions, not just places like the University of Phoenix or Devry. That is, places where you can earn liberal arts degrees, as opposed to technical or trade degrees are offering online coursework.

And now you can take a class on your ubiquitous mobile device. So what does your library offer for the mobile device? You could already tailor your library's web design for mobile devices through CSS. OK, so maybe that's a little ambitious for most of us.

What about the ILS providers? It would be great if they create a mobile version of your online catalog so that people could recheck a book's call number while they were out in the stacks.

Of course there's always text/SMS reference. There are a few places that have already started doing this, even as far back as 2005!

Or what about text messages/images sent to patrons about new items in the catalog or perhaps even existing catalog items that are relevant to current events? Places like ESPN already have dedicated mobile device content, why not a library?