I'm going out on a limb to say it's so. Here are my observations so far this year:
- DC Public Library launch of the first library iPhone application.
- 2nd m-libraries conference coming up later this year.
- The just-released 2009 Horizon Report suggests that mobile devices are the biggest thing to pay attention to first, with a time-to-adoption horizon of one year or less. (hope to have more thoughts on the whole report at a later date)
- OCLC's just-launched WorldCat Mobile pilot.
- I started an m-libraries page on the libsuccess wiki to track developments and examples of m-library applications. It's very bare bones - please help!
- I'll be attending the m-libraries conference in Vancouver
- By the start of Fall 2009 our website will be optimized for mobile devices
- I hope to have an iPhone app to search our catalogue by the end of 2009
- I've created a new category for m-library blog posts (if that's not proof I don't know what is! ;-)
There was, of course, movement in this direction in 2008, and probably even earlier, but from what I'm seeing, this is the year I think your patrons will begin to expect you to be accessible from their mobile devices.
Let's make it so Apple has to create a separate category in the iTunes App store just for library applications!
Where's my SIRSI mobile-optimized interface, Stephen? Where are the commercial database mobile-optimized interfaces? Who's gonna be first?