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Introduction
In 2011, Long Island University recognized the increasing trend of higher education student use of mobile devices to access the internet. In response, the university, a medium-sized private institution with two main campuses and multiple satellite campuses, initiated an iPad program. The program offered free iPads to full-time undergraduate students and discounted iPads to graduate students. The program's goal was to provide students ubiquitous access to cutting edge mobile devices for classes, research and personal use. To support the iPad program and improve mobile library services, Long Island University Libraries implemented a student survey. The survey consisted of 51 multiple choice and open-ended questions focusing on technology integration, library use, as well as research and study habits. One aspect of the survey results indicated that students were not using their mobile devices as expected. Most students that owned mobile cell phones did not use them to access the Web-based resources on the libraries' site. In addition, the students that took advantage of the free iPads rarely used them for academic work. Subsequently, students indicated that they did value access mobile library resources, as well as help in using them to effectively perform "research on the go".
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the concept of a "mobile library" was relatively new and not clearly defined in the literature. To ensure a well-developed strategy and the greatest return-on-investment of Long Island University resources, a library team used a systematic approach to analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate mobile library interventions. A native productivity application (app) titled Research Plus(TM) was one outcome of the project. The app's purpose was to guide students through basic research steps "on the go" as well as support the students' information literacy needs that align with Association of College and Research (ACRL) standards in a mobile learning environment. Features included choosing a research topic, accessing digital library resources, generating citations and evaluating resources. Students had the ability to save the results of the session in a report and emailing a copy of the report to the library for further assistance. The app was tested internally by librarians and by representative samples of the student populations. At the time of this writing, the prototype app is being implemented for beta testing...