Earlier this week, Safari Books Online launched a mobile interface to their product at http://m.safaribooksonline.com. The University of Calgary has an institutional subscription to Safari Books Online via ProQuest, and I naively assumed after we threw this new URL into our ezproxy configuration I'd be able to access the new site via my iPhone.
Nope. When I get to the site I'm asked for a login and password. I contacted ProQuest Technical Support and was told "The Mobile version of Safari Online is not available with an institutional account. I can send this on to the Product Manager as an enhancement but would not be able to give a time frame for when or even if it would be implemented." Sigh.
So I've also sent a request to [email protected] and to [email protected]. This is something I'd like to use to promote the innovation that's going on in the library world to our techie users. In fact I'm already on the agenda to present about this to our campus Information Technology Advisory Group (see naively assumed above). Don't you think ProQuest would like to be able to advertise they're the first to offer a major database specifically formatted for the mobile platform? Or maybe they're not - are you aware of any others?
C'mon ProQuest, take the lead on this one! (my presentation is scheduled for April 17th - can you let me know before then please?)