Mobile Web Apps for Library

Exhibits

Cory Lown

NCSU Libraries

Code4Lib 2011

February 2011

http://go.ncsu.edu/4hexhibit

Opportunity

•! Increased power and popularity of

mobile devices

•! Digital special collections are now

easier to repurpose and reuse

(Thank you Solr & Djatoka image server)

http://go.ncsu.edu/4hexhibit

Project Goals

•! Establish a set of tools for creating

mobile web applications to supplement

temporary exhibits in the library

•! Keep development time/cost low

•! Make use of existing digital special

collections content

http://go.ncsu.edu/4hexhibit

4-H & NC State

Exhibit with mobile supplement

http://go.ncsu.edu/4hexhibit

Untitled Image Layout

Untitled Image Layout

Untitled Image Layout

Untitled Image Layout

Untitled Image Layout

http://go.ncsu.edu/

4health

Untitled Image Layout

Untitled Image Layout

Tools we used

•! Web App:

•! Ruby on Rails

•! Data:

•! Solr index of image

metadata

•! The user interface:

•! jQuery Mobile – lightly

customized css

Tools we used

•! Serve images from Djatoka Image

Server:

•! 1st request: served on the fly by Djatoka

(any size and crop) and cached locally by

rails (slow)

•! 2nd request: Apache serves image cached

by rails (fast)

Lessons learned

•! Exhibit designer hand selected the

images for the mobile supplement.

•! jQuery Mobile and Djatoka are very

useful

Future plans

•! Package rails app as an engine gem for

re-use for future mobile supplements to

exhibits

•! Build an admin interface so exhibit

designer can manage themes and

associated images

Thanks!

Cory Lown

Digital Technologies Development Librarian

NCSU Libraries

cory_lown@ncsu.edu

The mobile site: http://go.ncsu.edu/4hexhibit

About the project: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/dli/projects/mobileexhibits/