Introduction

Mobile devices are now ubiquitous. From the humble analogue mobile phone that appeared in the 1980s (for the general public), and which was thought amazing at the time, mobile phones have developed now into handheld, pocketsized, superslim, multitouchscreen computers. Mobile phones are now devices with hundreds of times more computational power than anyone could have imagined in the 1980s, even in a personal computer; and then there is all the other technology available in them – digital camera, GPS, connectivity capabilities (Bluetooth, WiFi).

But the use of these mobile devices raises specific issues when usability comes into consideration. As W3C has argued:

What does the mobile environment mean for digital libraries (DLs)? In their chapter on ‘Mobile Access to Cultural Information Resources’, Ross et al. (2004) outlined innovative uses of mobile devices, particularly in the museum environment. A recent study provided evidence on the growing number of users who are willing to use library services via handheld devices: ‘A total of 58.4 percent of respondents who own a webenabled handheld device indicate that they would use small screen devices, such as PDAs or webenabled cell phones to search a library OPAC’ (Cummings et al., 2010).

But how well is the growing community of DL users addressed when information resources are designed? With every new feature come more ideas about what can be integrated into mobile devices, as well as about how to use them, including in the domain of cultural heritage applications.