Student attitudes towards mobile library services for smartphones

Purpose – This paper aims to provide quantitative and qualitative data on students' use of mobile devices and to consider the benefit of academic mobile library services to students.Design/methodology/approach – Initial mobile library research included an online survey that attracted 1,716 participants. This was followed up with two discussion groups of six undergraduate and five postgraduate students. The survey followed‐on from an earlier survey conducted by the University of Edinburgh's Information Services (IS) in March 2010.Findings – The dramatic growth of smartphone ownership among students in an eight‐month period was surprising: a 17 per cent increase between March and November 2010. In addition, 68 per cent of students who plan to change their mobile handset would upgrade to a smartphone.Research limitations/implications – As students were unable to provide feedback on University of Edinburgh's own mobile library services, their feedback is speculative and subject to change.Practical implication...