Duke Collections on your iPhone: A First!

Reblogged from Duke Today 

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

New applications offer a range of university materials, services

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

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Durham, NC -- Scholarsand students who once had to travel to museums or libraries to viewcollections of historic images can now do so by clicking on theirmobile device instead.

Withthe launch of DukeMobile 1.1, the Duke University Libraries now offersthe most comprehensive university digital image collection specificallyformatted for an iPhone or iTouch device. It includes thousands ofphotos and other artifacts that range from early beer advertisements tomaterials on San Francisco?s Haight-Ashbury scene in the 1960s.Although a growing number of scholarly institutions offer images andother material online, Duke is the first to offer collections that takeadvantage of the iPhone?s design, navigation and other features.

A brief video describing the new gateway to the collections is available here.

Duke at a TouchA demonstration of the Duke University Libraries' Digital Collections iPhone / iPod Touch app interfaceVideo Archives Duke News Multimedia Services

Thecollections are the latest addition to the DukeMobile suite ofapplications, which has also expanded to include several feeds ofuniversity news, along with emergency notifications and IT servicealerts.

DukeUniversity Libraries offers mobile users digital materials from 20collections -- about 32,000 images overall -- covering women?s history,early American sheet music, Duke history and other topics. Thelibraries will add new collections regularly as they become available.

?Makingthese collections available for the iPhone and similar devices isimportant not only to extend access to Duke?s collections, but also asa milestone in the evolution of academic libraries from traditionalprint repositories to institutions that embrace new technology forsharing their rich resources with broader audiences,? said universitylibrarian Deborah Jakubs. ?Duke believes in putting its knowledge inservice to society, and we are making a major commitment to reach wellbeyond our campus by placing our collections literally into people?shands.?

Inaddition to the library collections, DukeMobile?s offerings for theiPhone and other mobile devices now include campus news feeds aboutbusiness, the environment, law, research and other categories, as wellas the latest stories from Duke Today and other campus sources. Thenews section appears under an icon that will turn red to notify usersabout campus emergencies or IT alerts.

?Thisnew application consolidates our news and alerts to be more useful forstudents, alumni, parents or anyone else with an interest in Duke,?said Michael J. Schoenfeld, the university?s vice president for publicaffairs and government relations. ?We want to make it as easy aspossible to find the latest information about Duke, and to make themost of the iPhone?s rich interactive capabilities.?

The DukeMobile Version 1.1 suite of apps also includes an expanded schedule of courses and improvements to the campus map.

Duke?sOffice of Information Technology and Office of Public Affairs andGovernment Relations have developed DukeMobile in partnership withTerriblyClever Design, a California-based web services company. Usersof iPhones and iPod Touch devices can install DukeMobile by visitingthe DukeMobile page in the iTunes App Store. Users of other wireless devices with browsers compatible with WAP 1.0 and 2.0 protocols should point their browsers to http://m.duke.edu.

Ilene Nelson

Director of Communications

T: (919) 660-5816

Email: ilene.nelson@duke.edu

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