PhoneBooth shows impact of
mobile technology in education

The Charles Booth Maps, Descriptive of London Poverty and selected police notebooks, which record eye-witness descriptions of London street-by-street, are a significant and well-used resource at the London School of Economics (LSE) Digital library.

In partnership with LSE, a prototype mobile web app and native Android app were developed by EDINA using open-source technologies. These have been incorporated into the LSE Digital Library for delivery of the Booth maps and are used within taught courses. EDINA staff trained LSE staff in mobile and geospatial technologies, providing the foundations for future digital library service developments.

The application was piloted by a current course cohort and the project investigated the extent to which mobile delivery has changed perceptions of the role of the content and the library in the teaching process.

The project pointed to the conclusion that the ‘mobilisation’ of library-owned content can have a significant impact on pedagogical method, that mobile and geospatial delivery provide the basis for innovative library service evelopment, and that mobile technology skills are becoming an essential component of the modern library. PhoneBooth was funded under the mobile libraries strand of the JISC Digital Infrastructure Portfolio 12/11.

PhoneBooth at LSE