"Mobile access to libraries: Librarians and users experience for i-mode applications in libraries
1
68th IFLA Council and General
Conference
August 18-24, 2002
Code Number:
105-095-E
Division Number:
VI
Professional Group:
Information Technology
Joint Meeting with:
-
Meeting Number:
95.
Simultaneous Interpretation:
-
Mobile access to libraries: librarians and users experience for "i-mode"
applications in libraries
Masamitsu NEGISHI
National Institute of Informatics (NII)
Tokyo, Japan
Abstract:
Recent penetration of the internet to every aspect of the society is remarkable. Along with various types of
access methods being developed, information contents and services provided through them have also become
to have a broad variety. The mobile phone systems capable of accessing the internet have got a high
popularity in Japan in these three years, and the services dedicated to mobile internet accesses show a rapid
increase. Now library services appear to be within the scope of the mobile internet. The paper summarizes
the development of mobile internet represented by "i-mode" in Japan, making it the number one country in
the world in this scene, and introduces the typical library applications. Statistics are shown to indicate the
trend of usage for "i-mode OPACs" or mobile access services to library catalogs. The expectation for the
future expansion of library applications it the area is considered to formulate the innovative library services
in the new century.
1. Telecommunication and mobile internet access
According to the latest Communication White Paper released in July 2002 by the Japanese government,
internet penetration among Japanese people is showing a remarkable advance in these years.[1] Japan is now
the second biggest country after USA in terms of the internet population. However, in terms of per capita
popularization, Japan is still at the 16th with some 44% of people accessible to the internet. However the
white paper appears to be proud to state that Japan is the most advanced country in the world in "mobile
internet," the internet access through cellar phones.
The mobile internet, started in February 1999, now gets more than 50 million users in these 3 years, and has
51,930,000 contracts as of April 2002. The rate of internet capability in mobile phones has reached 72.3%,
2
which is the top of the world with Korea of 59.1% as the 2nd, followed by Finland of 16.5%. The USA is
ranked at the 6th with that of 7.9%. In this telecommunication environment, various types of services and
businesses are being developed in Japan including ticketing, banking, image downloading, positional
information service, etc. The white paper itself is publicized through mobile internet in a specially formatted
version as well as the normal version for PCs. As is described later, libraries are now going to enter the
world of mobile internet by developing systems fitted to it.
2. Overview of the "i-mode"
The i-mode, the first mobile internet service, is a method to access the internet from mobile phones
developed and operated by NTT DoCoMo since February 1999.[2] NTT DoCoMo is a subsidiary of NTT
(Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) specialized in mobile phone communications. The "i" of i-
mode stands for internet, information, interaction and I, myself. On a i-mode phone you can access to the
internet by just pushing the i-mode button on it (or the icon on the display) and you will see the i-mode menu
prepared by NTT DoCoMo. The menu includes e-mail and various information providing sites, and you will
be able to e-mail or exchange information by selecting those menu items. The information accessible
through the i-mode menu is provided by the companies and banks (information providers) in association
with NTT and those sites are called the "Official Sites." The official sites can operate fee based services
where the fees are collected by NTT DoCoMo together with usual phone charges.
Ordinary web sites are also accessible by specifying URLs. But due to the small screen of mobile phones,
customized web pages are needed for their practical use. NTT DoCoMo announces that the number of the
official sites is 3,018 while the number of general sites dedicated to i-mode is 53,736 as of April 2002. 48%
of accesses are for the official sites and the rest goes to general sites. The typical profile of a user shows that
he or she receives 5.1 mail messages, sends 3.9 of them and looks 8.9 web pages a day.
When the i-mode first appeared in 1999, information specialists were quite skeptical of its future because the
screen on the phone was so small as to display only 48 Japanese characters (96 alphabets) and the ten-key
system is considered so poor for input Japanese characters. However, contrary to the predictions, the i-mode
has very rapidly become popular mainly among young people. Some reasons are assumed to its success.
NTT DoCoMo set a comparably low price level to communication charges and also for information charges
for information providers of the official sites, which was fairly affordable by young people. Here the i-mode
has realized a micro-payment system and has proved its practicality in information services.
Concerning the ten-key pad operation on mobile phones, young people had already got the skill in their high
school age, when they were using low cost pagers for communication among friends. At that period mobile
phones are so expensive that they could not afford them, and business use was the main stream. The pagers
can display characters sent by callers who input them using a ten-key pad on public phones. Young people
have acquired the fast inputting skill on ten-key pads while they were exchanging messages through pagers.
The i-mode phones are usually operated only by a thumb. Now the youth adapted to i-mode operation are
called Thumbelina or Le Petit Poucet (Little Thumb) by older people after fairy tales by H. C. Andersen and
Charles Perrault, because they show very fast keying with a thumb on the phone.
3. Bowser phone and mobile internet access
3.1 Browser phone functions and services
The mobile phones capable of internet access are now generally called browser phones, because there
appeared the other two systems operated by new common carriers than i-mode, that is, EZweb by "au"
(KDDI) and J-sky by J-PHONE (now owned by vodafone).[3,4] The browser phones are equipped with a
larger display screen, a ten-key pad and a versatile curser key. As is mentioned earlier, in the first i-mode
phone, the screen was small as to display 8 (16 for alphabets) x 6 characters and was monochrome. The
newest model of 2002 has become to have a 10 (20) characters x 10 lines 64k color display so as to be more
comparable to PDAs. Table 1 depicts a comparison among browser phones, PDAs and mobile PCs.
3
Table 1. Comparison of Browser Phones with PDAs and Mobile PCs
Terminal type
Screen (dots/chars)
Input device
Telecom interface
Weight
Browser phone
120 x 160
(10 x 10)
ten-key pad
built-in telephone
100g
PDA
240 x 320
(16 x 20)
touch screen / hand
writing recognition
PC-card interface for
modem / Ethernet
200g
Mobile PC
1024 x 768
full keyboard
modem / Ethernet
1kg
We can see here that browser phones have the advantage in built-in telecommunication function where the
users do not have to worry about preparation for internet accesses. They will be provided with the internet
and a e-mail address by just buying a mobile phone. Contents / access fees are automatically charged to the
telephone account. Recently in the market there appeared some PDAs and small PCs with built-in PHS
accesses functions. However they are not capable of usual telephone function, and you would have to carry
both a mobile phone and a PC. Thus browser phones have become quite popular and now simple mobile
phones with only telephone function are disappearing in the market. Mobile phones are now synonymous to
browser phones capable of internet access.
In this trend, many companies are establishing information services specialized to browser phone accesses.
The interesting one among them is the download services of melodic ringing tones which notify telephone
calls. Users can download their favorite song for their ringing tone, and change it periodically. The browser
phones are competing with their capability of playing polyphony to make the rings more musical. Same type
of services includes the services of wall papers for the display on the phone which entertain users with
animation characters of weekly changes. In a service, short cartoons like ones on newspapers are dispatched
to browser phones on a daily basis, and people are enjoying them on commuter trains.
The photo transmission function is another function which makes browser phones very popular. It is realized
by the browser phone equipped with a small digital camera. With these phones, you can take a photo and
send it immediately with your voice or mail message to your friends. Now the function is being enhanced so
as to send semi-motion pictures, realizing something like a TV telephone system on mobile phone. Besides
those entertainment oriented services, some business types of services were also developed like latest new
dispatching.
A topical new service is that of purchasing canned drinks on vending machines by browser phones. You can
buy drinks by showing your phone to a specialized vending machine, where charges are added to your
telephone account. The machine is equipped with an optical reader, and it detects a bar-code displayed on
your phone screen, identifying your account. Thus the applications of mobile phone appear to include a wide
range of services, not only for information services but also for various types of commodity sales. The e-
commerce via mobile internet and new business models would be the topical theme for a range of
companies.
3.2 Markup languages and compatibility
Although the i-mode of NTT DoCoMo started the first internet access service through mobile phone and still
is dominating the market, the other telephone companies followed DoCoMo with the other standards than i-
mode's, and now there are three standards: i-mode, EZweb of "au" and J-SKY of J-PHONE. Their
characteristics are compared in Table 2.
Table 2. Markup Languages Adopted by the Three Mobile Internet Systems
Service
Markup Language
Characteristics
Number of Users as
of May 2002 [5]
i-mode
C-HTML (Compact HTML)
A simplified version of HTML
designed by NTT
32,988,000
EZweb
HDML (Handheld Device ML)
(now switching to XHTML-
basic)
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
based. Incompatible with HTML
10,251,100
J-SKY
MML (Mobile ML)
Similar to C-HTML
10,475,500
4
As the standards are incompatible with each other, the server sites have to establish the three kinds of
homepages fitted to each of them. This forces some troubles to those who wish to open a mobile service site,
but the labor to cope with them do not seem to be so big. Now most of the sites are compatible with any of
the three mobile phone systems. As W3C has formulated a simplified version of XHTML suitable for mobile
phones (XHTML-basic), the above three services might adopt XHTML-basic as their standards in the future.
4. Library applications for mobile internet
4.1 "i-mode OPAC" or mobile access to library catalog databases
The first application of i-mode to OPAC (Open Public Access Catalog) services is developed at TOYAMA
University Library in September 2000.[6] One of the conditions for the development is the high popularity
of mobile phones among students. A survey by the university for its students in 1999 showed that more than
90% of them owned mobile phones, most of which are browser phones. Thus the mobile phone was
considered an effective communication tool between the university and the students.
By that time, some universities had begun news services of administrative affairs like cancellation of classes,
where students could know the news in their home before coming to the campus. Those news services could
be realized fairly easier that library applications, because they only include a small amount of short
messages, which could easily be accessed by a simple menu system with straightforward curser movements.
In library applications, database retrieval like OPACs should naturally be included, and this requires special
developments to cope with the small screen and input process with the ten-key pad on browser phones. Thus
many of the libraries who service mobile accesses still providing only news and guides for libraries
excluding catalog related information services.
5
(1) Main Menu
Select a service by pushing a numeric button.
(Tentative English translation is given by the
author on the right for explanation)
4.2 Toyama University Library I-BOOK SERIVICE
The followings are the menu and sample screens of Toyama University Library's I-Book Service.
(2) Users Guide
The guide gives opening hours, lending
policy, etc. The long text can be seen by
scrolling down the display window on the
browser phone.
(3) Catalog Search
Selecting Item 2 (Library Catalogs) on
the menu gives this screen, where you can
select a search field like title, author, etc.
(4) Input a Search Term (Author)
Selecting Item 2 in the (3) screen
gives the above input screen. In this
case the author name (M Negishi) was
input. Inputting Japanese characters
with a ten-key pad requires some skill
as a Thumbelina or Little Thumb.
Clicking <Submit> activates search
process.
6
(6) List of Holdings
Selecting an item in the (5) screen gives the
locations with their call numbers. The above
sample shows the holdings for the item 2 in
(5).
(5) Search Results
Bibliographic information on searched items is
listed.
(7) Detailed information display on an ordinary web
browser for the item 2 in (5). Techniques are required to
make data fitted to the small screen on browser phones. (cf.
(5), (6))
7
4.3 Utilization of i-mode OPACs
Statistics of mobile accesses to Toyama University Library are shown in Table 3. Regrettably, they do not
seem to show a distinct growth. The other statistics are for Tokyo University Library shown in Table 4 and
Figure 1.[7] Here, we see a steady growth of mobile access after its inauguration in May 2001, though the
counts are quite small compared to those of ordinary internet access of hundreds of thousand. Moreover we
observe that the percentage of mobile accesses to usual accesses is increasing. This makes us to expect
further growth of mobile accesses to library information. Because the spread of mobile phones among
students is already adequate, the future developments are depending mainly on the improvement of
functionality of browser phones including the size of screen and transmission speed.
Table 3. Statistics of mobile access to Toyama University Library (Apr 2001 - Mar 2002)
Apr
Ma
y
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar Total
OPAC
205
143
134
202
55
76
82
79
87
119
84
13
1279
New
Arrivals
144
89
51
44
32
45
51
61
24
48
29
14
632
Total
349
232
185
246
87
121
133
140
111
167
113
27
1991
Table 4. Statistics of mobile and wired access to Tokyo University Library Catalog (May 2001 - Jun 2002)
(%= i-mode / Wired)
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
i-mode
-
124
381
405
292
318
462
894
437
715
783 586
1274 1296 1148
Wired 170368 250201 262151 306251 381999 364135 518832 527155 430552 480037 441878 341940 530567 620656 612040
%
-
0.05
0.15
0.13
0.08
0.09
0.09
0.17
0.10
0.15
0.18
0.17
0.24
0.21
0.19
Figure 1. Trends of mobile and wired access to Tokyo University Library Catalog (cf. Table 4)
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
Apr
May Jun
Jul
Aug Sep Oct
Nov Dec Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May Jun
2001 - 2002
(
W
i
r
ed)
i-mode
Wired
% of i-mode
4.4 Future developments of mobile access in library applications
Mobile access to library services currently includes general guides, news and OPACs. For the moment, the
mobile services are expected to include reservations and overdue notices. Many libraries have already
become to accept reservations of material by clients via e-mail. However, the overdue notices of lending are
still put on notice boards and/or sent via conventional mail. Now almost all universities give e-mail
addresses to their students upon their entrance, and it makes the notices via e-mail quite practical. When the
students set forwarding of e-mails at university servers to their mobile phones, they would receive the notice
8
on mobile scenes. Thus mobile applications to library services are to be developed to include various types
of services. Same framework could be applied to public libraries because people increasingly get e-mail
addresses and also mobile phones.
4.5 Mobile ASP services, a type of solutions for libraries
In view of this situation, several software companies have begun the services of mobile access systems for
libraries as ASPs (Application Service Providers). They provide specialized gateways which connects
libraries' databases and users' browser phones. In this type of services, no additional work is required at the
library sides, as all of the data conversions from catalog databases to mobile compliant data are done at the
gateways. Thus libraries are being encouraged to have mobile internet services together with the continuing
increase in mobile internet users.
5. Libraries in a mobile internet society
The Japanese government established the "e-Japan Program" in 2001, in which the society with the
ubiquitous information network was put in the agenda.[8] The program aims to make Japan the most IT
advanced country in the world within 5 years. Although realization of ubiquitous network includes types of
networking systems like FTTH (Fiber To The Home) and wireless LAN, internet access through high speed
mobile phones is considered to one of the most important systems, because Japan is leading the area from
view points of technology and business.
Library services are facing a dramatic change in the digital age, which is typically represented by the rapid
progress of electronic journals. In the network environment we could expect popularization of high speed
wireless connections as well as wired network. As mobile access to library services just started, we should
formulate an ambitious service plan to attract users in the digital age by utilizing evolving mobile internet
systems. Libraries should redraw their future image in view of upcoming developments in the contents side
and the network side.
Acknowledgments:
The author's sincere thanks go to Mr. Ikuo SASAKAWA (Associate Director, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Library; Former Associate Director, Toyama University Library), Ms. Rio MODEKI (NII), Mr. Kiyoshi
FUNATOGAWA (NII) and Ms. Michiyo YANASE (Mita Media Center, Keio University) who provided
essential information for this paper.
[1] "2002 WHITE PAPER: Information and Communications in Japan,"
The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications [in Japanese]
http://www.johotsusintokei.soumu.go.jp/whitepaper/ja/cover/index.htm
[2] NTT DoCoMo http://www.nttdocomo.com http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/
[3] au (KDDI): http://www.au.kddi.com/ezweb/index_i.html
[4] J-PHONE: http://www.j-phone.com/h-e/index.html
[5] TCA: the Telecommunications Carriers Association:
http://www.tca.or.jp/ http://www.tca.or.jp/index-e.html
[6] Toyama University Library: http://www.toyama-u.ac.jp/tya/library/
i-mode: http://www.lib.toyama-u.ac.jp/i/
J-SKY: http://www.lib.toyama-u.ac.jp/j/
EZweb: http://www.lib.toyama-u.ac.jp/ez/
[7] Tokyo University Library: http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
i-mode: http://mg.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/opac/i/
http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/dl/toukei/index.html
[8] "e-Japan Strategy," IT Strategy Headquarters, The Cabinet, January 22, 2001
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/it/network/0122full_e.html
68th IFLA Council and General
Conference
August 18-24, 2002
Code Number:
105-095-E
Division Number:
VI
Professional Group:
Information Technology
Joint Meeting with:
-
Meeting Number:
95.
Simultaneous Interpretation:
-
Mobile access to libraries: librarians and users experience for "i-mode"
applications in libraries
Masamitsu NEGISHI
National Institute of Informatics (NII)
Tokyo, Japan
Abstract:
Recent penetration of the internet to every aspect of the society is remarkable. Along with various types of
access methods being developed, information contents and services provided through them have also become
to have a broad variety. The mobile phone systems capable of accessing the internet have got a high
popularity in Japan in these three years, and the services dedicated to mobile internet accesses show a rapid
increase. Now library services appear to be within the scope of the mobile internet. The paper summarizes
the development of mobile internet represented by "i-mode" in Japan, making it the number one country in
the world in this scene, and introduces the typical library applications. Statistics are shown to indicate the
trend of usage for "i-mode OPACs" or mobile access services to library catalogs. The expectation for the
future expansion of library applications it the area is considered to formulate the innovative library services
in the new century.
1. Telecommunication and mobile internet access
According to the latest Communication White Paper released in July 2002 by the Japanese government,
internet penetration among Japanese people is showing a remarkable advance in these years.[1] Japan is now
the second biggest country after USA in terms of the internet population. However, in terms of per capita
popularization, Japan is still at the 16th with some 44% of people accessible to the internet. However the
white paper appears to be proud to state that Japan is the most advanced country in the world in "mobile
internet," the internet access through cellar phones.
The mobile internet, started in February 1999, now gets more than 50 million users in these 3 years, and has
51,930,000 contracts as of April 2002. The rate of internet capability in mobile phones has reached 72.3%,
2
which is the top of the world with Korea of 59.1% as the 2nd, followed by Finland of 16.5%. The USA is
ranked at the 6th with that of 7.9%. In this telecommunication environment, various types of services and
businesses are being developed in Japan including ticketing, banking, image downloading, positional
information service, etc. The white paper itself is publicized through mobile internet in a specially formatted
version as well as the normal version for PCs. As is described later, libraries are now going to enter the
world of mobile internet by developing systems fitted to it.
2. Overview of the "i-mode"
The i-mode, the first mobile internet service, is a method to access the internet from mobile phones
developed and operated by NTT DoCoMo since February 1999.[2] NTT DoCoMo is a subsidiary of NTT
(Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) specialized in mobile phone communications. The "i" of i-
mode stands for internet, information, interaction and I, myself. On a i-mode phone you can access to the
internet by just pushing the i-mode button on it (or the icon on the display) and you will see the i-mode menu
prepared by NTT DoCoMo. The menu includes e-mail and various information providing sites, and you will
be able to e-mail or exchange information by selecting those menu items. The information accessible
through the i-mode menu is provided by the companies and banks (information providers) in association
with NTT and those sites are called the "Official Sites." The official sites can operate fee based services
where the fees are collected by NTT DoCoMo together with usual phone charges.
Ordinary web sites are also accessible by specifying URLs. But due to the small screen of mobile phones,
customized web pages are needed for their practical use. NTT DoCoMo announces that the number of the
official sites is 3,018 while the number of general sites dedicated to i-mode is 53,736 as of April 2002. 48%
of accesses are for the official sites and the rest goes to general sites. The typical profile of a user shows that
he or she receives 5.1 mail messages, sends 3.9 of them and looks 8.9 web pages a day.
When the i-mode first appeared in 1999, information specialists were quite skeptical of its future because the
screen on the phone was so small as to display only 48 Japanese characters (96 alphabets) and the ten-key
system is considered so poor for input Japanese characters. However, contrary to the predictions, the i-mode
has very rapidly become popular mainly among young people. Some reasons are assumed to its success.
NTT DoCoMo set a comparably low price level to communication charges and also for information charges
for information providers of the official sites, which was fairly affordable by young people. Here the i-mode
has realized a micro-payment system and has proved its practicality in information services.
Concerning the ten-key pad operation on mobile phones, young people had already got the skill in their high
school age, when they were using low cost pagers for communication among friends. At that period mobile
phones are so expensive that they could not afford them, and business use was the main stream. The pagers
can display characters sent by callers who input them using a ten-key pad on public phones. Young people
have acquired the fast inputting skill on ten-key pads while they were exchanging messages through pagers.
The i-mode phones are usually operated only by a thumb. Now the youth adapted to i-mode operation are
called Thumbelina or Le Petit Poucet (Little Thumb) by older people after fairy tales by H. C. Andersen and
Charles Perrault, because they show very fast keying with a thumb on the phone.
3. Bowser phone and mobile internet access
3.1 Browser phone functions and services
The mobile phones capable of internet access are now generally called browser phones, because there
appeared the other two systems operated by new common carriers than i-mode, that is, EZweb by "au"
(KDDI) and J-sky by J-PHONE (now owned by vodafone).[3,4] The browser phones are equipped with a
larger display screen, a ten-key pad and a versatile curser key. As is mentioned earlier, in the first i-mode
phone, the screen was small as to display 8 (16 for alphabets) x 6 characters and was monochrome. The
newest model of 2002 has become to have a 10 (20) characters x 10 lines 64k color display so as to be more
comparable to PDAs. Table 1 depicts a comparison among browser phones, PDAs and mobile PCs.
3
Table 1. Comparison of Browser Phones with PDAs and Mobile PCs
Terminal type
Screen (dots/chars)
Input device
Telecom interface
Weight
Browser phone
120 x 160
(10 x 10)
ten-key pad
built-in telephone
100g
PDA
240 x 320
(16 x 20)
touch screen / hand
writing recognition
PC-card interface for
modem / Ethernet
200g
Mobile PC
1024 x 768
full keyboard
modem / Ethernet
1kg
We can see here that browser phones have the advantage in built-in telecommunication function where the
users do not have to worry about preparation for internet accesses. They will be provided with the internet
and a e-mail address by just buying a mobile phone. Contents / access fees are automatically charged to the
telephone account. Recently in the market there appeared some PDAs and small PCs with built-in PHS
accesses functions. However they are not capable of usual telephone function, and you would have to carry
both a mobile phone and a PC. Thus browser phones have become quite popular and now simple mobile
phones with only telephone function are disappearing in the market. Mobile phones are now synonymous to
browser phones capable of internet access.
In this trend, many companies are establishing information services specialized to browser phone accesses.
The interesting one among them is the download services of melodic ringing tones which notify telephone
calls. Users can download their favorite song for their ringing tone, and change it periodically. The browser
phones are competing with their capability of playing polyphony to make the rings more musical. Same type
of services includes the services of wall papers for the display on the phone which entertain users with
animation characters of weekly changes. In a service, short cartoons like ones on newspapers are dispatched
to browser phones on a daily basis, and people are enjoying them on commuter trains.
The photo transmission function is another function which makes browser phones very popular. It is realized
by the browser phone equipped with a small digital camera. With these phones, you can take a photo and
send it immediately with your voice or mail message to your friends. Now the function is being enhanced so
as to send semi-motion pictures, realizing something like a TV telephone system on mobile phone. Besides
those entertainment oriented services, some business types of services were also developed like latest new
dispatching.
A topical new service is that of purchasing canned drinks on vending machines by browser phones. You can
buy drinks by showing your phone to a specialized vending machine, where charges are added to your
telephone account. The machine is equipped with an optical reader, and it detects a bar-code displayed on
your phone screen, identifying your account. Thus the applications of mobile phone appear to include a wide
range of services, not only for information services but also for various types of commodity sales. The e-
commerce via mobile internet and new business models would be the topical theme for a range of
companies.
3.2 Markup languages and compatibility
Although the i-mode of NTT DoCoMo started the first internet access service through mobile phone and still
is dominating the market, the other telephone companies followed DoCoMo with the other standards than i-
mode's, and now there are three standards: i-mode, EZweb of "au" and J-SKY of J-PHONE. Their
characteristics are compared in Table 2.
Table 2. Markup Languages Adopted by the Three Mobile Internet Systems
Service
Markup Language
Characteristics
Number of Users as
of May 2002 [5]
i-mode
C-HTML (Compact HTML)
A simplified version of HTML
designed by NTT
32,988,000
EZweb
HDML (Handheld Device ML)
(now switching to XHTML-
basic)
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
based. Incompatible with HTML
10,251,100
J-SKY
MML (Mobile ML)
Similar to C-HTML
10,475,500
4
As the standards are incompatible with each other, the server sites have to establish the three kinds of
homepages fitted to each of them. This forces some troubles to those who wish to open a mobile service site,
but the labor to cope with them do not seem to be so big. Now most of the sites are compatible with any of
the three mobile phone systems. As W3C has formulated a simplified version of XHTML suitable for mobile
phones (XHTML-basic), the above three services might adopt XHTML-basic as their standards in the future.
4. Library applications for mobile internet
4.1 "i-mode OPAC" or mobile access to library catalog databases
The first application of i-mode to OPAC (Open Public Access Catalog) services is developed at TOYAMA
University Library in September 2000.[6] One of the conditions for the development is the high popularity
of mobile phones among students. A survey by the university for its students in 1999 showed that more than
90% of them owned mobile phones, most of which are browser phones. Thus the mobile phone was
considered an effective communication tool between the university and the students.
By that time, some universities had begun news services of administrative affairs like cancellation of classes,
where students could know the news in their home before coming to the campus. Those news services could
be realized fairly easier that library applications, because they only include a small amount of short
messages, which could easily be accessed by a simple menu system with straightforward curser movements.
In library applications, database retrieval like OPACs should naturally be included, and this requires special
developments to cope with the small screen and input process with the ten-key pad on browser phones. Thus
many of the libraries who service mobile accesses still providing only news and guides for libraries
excluding catalog related information services.
5
(1) Main Menu
Select a service by pushing a numeric button.
(Tentative English translation is given by the
author on the right for explanation)
4.2 Toyama University Library I-BOOK SERIVICE
The followings are the menu and sample screens of Toyama University Library's I-Book Service.
(2) Users Guide
The guide gives opening hours, lending
policy, etc. The long text can be seen by
scrolling down the display window on the
browser phone.
(3) Catalog Search
Selecting Item 2 (Library Catalogs) on
the menu gives this screen, where you can
select a search field like title, author, etc.
(4) Input a Search Term (Author)
Selecting Item 2 in the (3) screen
gives the above input screen. In this
case the author name (M Negishi) was
input. Inputting Japanese characters
with a ten-key pad requires some skill
as a Thumbelina or Little Thumb.
Clicking <Submit> activates search
process.
6
(6) List of Holdings
Selecting an item in the (5) screen gives the
locations with their call numbers. The above
sample shows the holdings for the item 2 in
(5).
(5) Search Results
Bibliographic information on searched items is
listed.
(7) Detailed information display on an ordinary web
browser for the item 2 in (5). Techniques are required to
make data fitted to the small screen on browser phones. (cf.
(5), (6))
7
4.3 Utilization of i-mode OPACs
Statistics of mobile accesses to Toyama University Library are shown in Table 3. Regrettably, they do not
seem to show a distinct growth. The other statistics are for Tokyo University Library shown in Table 4 and
Figure 1.[7] Here, we see a steady growth of mobile access after its inauguration in May 2001, though the
counts are quite small compared to those of ordinary internet access of hundreds of thousand. Moreover we
observe that the percentage of mobile accesses to usual accesses is increasing. This makes us to expect
further growth of mobile accesses to library information. Because the spread of mobile phones among
students is already adequate, the future developments are depending mainly on the improvement of
functionality of browser phones including the size of screen and transmission speed.
Table 3. Statistics of mobile access to Toyama University Library (Apr 2001 - Mar 2002)
Apr
Ma
y
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar Total
OPAC
205
143
134
202
55
76
82
79
87
119
84
13
1279
New
Arrivals
144
89
51
44
32
45
51
61
24
48
29
14
632
Total
349
232
185
246
87
121
133
140
111
167
113
27
1991
Table 4. Statistics of mobile and wired access to Tokyo University Library Catalog (May 2001 - Jun 2002)
(%= i-mode / Wired)
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
i-mode
-
124
381
405
292
318
462
894
437
715
783 586
1274 1296 1148
Wired 170368 250201 262151 306251 381999 364135 518832 527155 430552 480037 441878 341940 530567 620656 612040
%
-
0.05
0.15
0.13
0.08
0.09
0.09
0.17
0.10
0.15
0.18
0.17
0.24
0.21
0.19
Figure 1. Trends of mobile and wired access to Tokyo University Library Catalog (cf. Table 4)
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
Apr
May Jun
Jul
Aug Sep Oct
Nov Dec Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May Jun
2001 - 2002
(
W
i
r
ed)
i-mode
Wired
% of i-mode
4.4 Future developments of mobile access in library applications
Mobile access to library services currently includes general guides, news and OPACs. For the moment, the
mobile services are expected to include reservations and overdue notices. Many libraries have already
become to accept reservations of material by clients via e-mail. However, the overdue notices of lending are
still put on notice boards and/or sent via conventional mail. Now almost all universities give e-mail
addresses to their students upon their entrance, and it makes the notices via e-mail quite practical. When the
students set forwarding of e-mails at university servers to their mobile phones, they would receive the notice
8
on mobile scenes. Thus mobile applications to library services are to be developed to include various types
of services. Same framework could be applied to public libraries because people increasingly get e-mail
addresses and also mobile phones.
4.5 Mobile ASP services, a type of solutions for libraries
In view of this situation, several software companies have begun the services of mobile access systems for
libraries as ASPs (Application Service Providers). They provide specialized gateways which connects
libraries' databases and users' browser phones. In this type of services, no additional work is required at the
library sides, as all of the data conversions from catalog databases to mobile compliant data are done at the
gateways. Thus libraries are being encouraged to have mobile internet services together with the continuing
increase in mobile internet users.
5. Libraries in a mobile internet society
The Japanese government established the "e-Japan Program" in 2001, in which the society with the
ubiquitous information network was put in the agenda.[8] The program aims to make Japan the most IT
advanced country in the world within 5 years. Although realization of ubiquitous network includes types of
networking systems like FTTH (Fiber To The Home) and wireless LAN, internet access through high speed
mobile phones is considered to one of the most important systems, because Japan is leading the area from
view points of technology and business.
Library services are facing a dramatic change in the digital age, which is typically represented by the rapid
progress of electronic journals. In the network environment we could expect popularization of high speed
wireless connections as well as wired network. As mobile access to library services just started, we should
formulate an ambitious service plan to attract users in the digital age by utilizing evolving mobile internet
systems. Libraries should redraw their future image in view of upcoming developments in the contents side
and the network side.
Acknowledgments:
The author's sincere thanks go to Mr. Ikuo SASAKAWA (Associate Director, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Library; Former Associate Director, Toyama University Library), Ms. Rio MODEKI (NII), Mr. Kiyoshi
FUNATOGAWA (NII) and Ms. Michiyo YANASE (Mita Media Center, Keio University) who provided
essential information for this paper.
[1] "2002 WHITE PAPER: Information and Communications in Japan,"
The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications [in Japanese]
http://www.johotsusintokei.soumu.go.jp/whitepaper/ja/cover/index.htm
[2] NTT DoCoMo http://www.nttdocomo.com http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/
[3] au (KDDI): http://www.au.kddi.com/ezweb/index_i.html
[4] J-PHONE: http://www.j-phone.com/h-e/index.html
[5] TCA: the Telecommunications Carriers Association:
http://www.tca.or.jp/ http://www.tca.or.jp/index-e.html
[6] Toyama University Library: http://www.toyama-u.ac.jp/tya/library/
i-mode: http://www.lib.toyama-u.ac.jp/i/
J-SKY: http://www.lib.toyama-u.ac.jp/j/
EZweb: http://www.lib.toyama-u.ac.jp/ez/
[7] Tokyo University Library: http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
i-mode: http://mg.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/opac/i/
http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/dl/toukei/index.html
[8] "e-Japan Strategy," IT Strategy Headquarters, The Cabinet, January 22, 2001
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/it/network/0122full_e.html