Article: Treasures Move From Library Shelves to the iPhone With New DukeMobile Applications

During the last two days, I attended an online conference on the use of mobile technology in libraries (Handheld Librarian Conference).  The conference was completely virtual with people attending from locations across North America and from other parts of the world.  During the event, one of the presenters mentioned that Duke University allows you do view images from its collection on mobile devices.

With the launch of DukeMobile 1.1, the Duke University Libraries now offers the most comprehensive university digital image collection specifically formatted for an iPhone or iTouch device. It includes thousands of photos and other artifacts that range from early beer advertisements to materials on San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury scene in the 1960s. Although a growing number of scholarly institutions offer images and other material online, Duke is the first to offer collections that take advantage of the iPhone’s design, navigation and other features.

Not only is there an iPhone app, but there is also a site that can be used on mobile browsers. Besides the images, there is other content and information from Duke University that people on the go might want to access.

Below is a video that talks about the app and its use with Duke's image collections.



I really hope more digital collections follow Duke's lead!