Chapter 4: Responsive Web Design, Discoverability, and Mobile Challenge

Abstract

Responsive web design is one of the most recent trends that can help libraries meet their patrons’ high expectations in the mobile-first culture of information consumption. Chapter 4 of Library Technology Reports (vol. 49, no. 6) “The Library Mobile Experience: Practices and User Expectations” provides several examples of responsive library websites, discusses some of the pitfalls of responsive web design, and argues for better discoverability of libraries’ mobile (web or native) apps. Whether a library decides to develop a responsive site, a separate mobile site, or a native app, it is only part of the whole library mobile experience. Libraries’ active presence on the mobile Web is now a must, and libraries need to skillfully and creatively adapt themselves to the new information landscape characterized by the abundance of information and the scarcity of human attention.