Mobile Learning: Library Research

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Ebsco interface now automatically detects mobile devices and offers an interface optimized for smaller screens.  Ebsco databases you can find articles on general topics (Ebsco Academic Search) or on specific subjects such as agriculture (AGRICOLA and CAB Abstracts), business (Ebsco Business Source Complete), education (ERIC), history, (Historical Abstracts), literature (MLA International), nursing (CINAHL), and psychology (PsycINFO).

Ebsco has also released custom apps for both iPhone / iPad and Android.  To download these:

1. Visit any Ebsco database from your computer. 
2. At the bottom of the screen, click the link to Ebscohost iPhone and Android Applications.
3. You will be prompted to enter your UARK email address. 
4. Access the email instructions from ephost@epnet.com on your phone.  
5. Choose the app you would like to install. 
6. Return to the email and tap the authentication key which will authorize your device to access the UofA Ebsco databases. Be sure to click the authentication key within 24 hours of receiving the email;otherwise, you will have to download a new key by requesting a second email. 
7. The authentication will expire after 7 months and you will need to go through the email process again. 

More information can be found on the Ebsco support site

The Web of Knowledge platform, which includes the Web of Science citation databases, now offers a mobile site, http://m.webofknowledge.com.

The mobile version has the ability to search within individual products (Web of Science, Biological Abstracts, MEDLINE, etc.), as well as, the All Databases Search. Other features include: sort, refine, email, add records to EndNoteWeb or RefWorks, view times cited counts, citation score card, and search history.  

Links to full text articles are not currently available in the mobile version. 

To use the mobile platform, you must first create a personal account at Web of Knowledge.

1. Go to http://webofknowledge.com from an on campus computer. 
2. Click Sign In along the top navigation
3. Click Register to create a new account You will be asked to enter your email address to verify that an account does not already exist for you.
4. If an account does not already exist, you will be prompted to fill in the User Registration page.
5. After the username and password you have entered is verified, it will become active.
6. You are required to log in to Web of Knowledge from an IP authenticated computer or device every six months to verify you are an authorized user.

More about Web of Knowledge Mobile.

Science Direct journals published by Reed Elsevier are available on both paid and free apps for iOS and Android. 

The free app allows you to search for articles, view articles within the UofA subscription and save them for offline viewing, and to share articles via email. 

To use the app. you must first create a personal account at the full Science Direct web site. 

1. Access Science Direct from your computer and click the link in the upper right hand corner to Register.  
2. Complete the registration form; click on the link provided in the confirmation email to activate your account.
3. Download the iOS or Android app to your mobile device.
4. Login with your personal Science Direct username and password, and uark.edu email account.
5. You will receive a confirmation email; open the email on your mobile device and click the link to activate your mobile app authentication.  

Once authenticated, you will be able to search across the entire Science Direct collection and to access subscribed content from your mobile device.  You can also save articles from subscribed journals to your device for offline reading. 

SciFinder, the research interface for articles and patents on chemistry, biochemistry, and related fields, offers a mobile interface that keeps you up-to-date on the latest research, from any location.

With SciFinder Mobile you can perform many of the same functions you use in the full web version:

• Explore by Research Topic
• Explore by Substance ID
• Explore by Author Name
• Explore by Company Name
• Review Keep Me Posted Alerts
• Review Saved Answers

To use SciFinder mobile, you will first need to register for a personal SciFinder account using your uark.edu email address.  More about Scifinder registration.

After creating your SciFinder account, use your mobile device to navigate to http://scifinder.cas.org/mobile and log in with your personal account. 

SciFinder Mobile does not provide links to full text articles. 

The RSC Mobile app for iOS and Android allows you to read summaries and abstracts from The Analyst, Dalton, Faraday Discussions, and Royal Society of Chemistry journals to which the Libraries subscribe.  

In this first release, you can only access RSC content while connected to the UofA Secure Wireless network or via library VPN.  Later releases may allow alternate means of authentication. 

JSTOR has released an updated interfacethat automatically formats content optimized for mobile devices. 

To access library content from your mobile device, you have sevreal options:

• authenticate with your UARK username and password by using / bookmarking our proxied link
• set up an individual JSTOR account from a computer signed into the campus network.
• choose "Get Access" from the top menu bar and then "Login via Institution." 
• Look for University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
• You will be prompted for your UARK username and password. 

More about JSTOR... 

IEEE Xplore Mobile provides a free search of all IEEE Xplore documents directly on your mobile device. You can view up to 10 article abstracts per search.

If you authenticate through the proxy server, or if you use the UA wireless network or library VPN  to connect to IEEE Xplore, you will be able to read PDFs on your phone. Otherwise, you can send the article links to your e-mail address to be read on a computer on the campus network

GeoScienceWorld, the portal to geosciences journal articles, now has a web site optimized for mobile.

When you connect to the GeoScienceWorl site from a mobile device, you will be automatically redirected to http://m.geoscienceworld.org.  Please use our proxied link at http://0-m.geoscienceworld.org.library.uark.edu so that you can be authenticated as a member of the University of Arkansas community. 

The ACS (American Chemical Society) has updated their app for  iOS and Android. And it's now free.  This app allows you to search, read, and save articles from almost 40 ACS research journals. Some of the new features include:

• Automatic saving of abstracts for offline reading
• A "Latest News" feed from Chemical & Engineering News Online
• Interface to full-text article access (via UofA wireless or Library Virtual Private Networks)
• Caching of full-text article PDFs for 48 hours to read offline
• Sharing of links and snippets via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and other options

To access our subscribed content, you will need to be connected to the campus wireless network or the  library VPN. 

Download ACS Mobile at the Apple iTunes Store or Google Play.

More about ACS Mobile. 

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But what's the best mobile research app of all?

It's your PI librarians, of course!

Remember that you can call us, email us, or see us in person for any research help:

If you need additional help feel free to contact our Library staff at:

02-607-5879 Arzanah or

02-607-5802 Habshan

Library

Email: librarian@pi.ac.ae

Librarians are also available to help you through our chat service, 24/7.

BrowZinetmis an iPad app that allows you to browse hundreds of open access journals, saving favorite titles to a personal bookshelf.  You can also send citations from Browzine to the Zotero citation management service.  An Android version is due this year. 

Download the free app at the iTunes store or learn more about BrowZine. 

Highwire Press hosts hundreds of journals from many different publishers, including PNAS, Science,  Sage and Oxford titles, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Pediatrics, and more.

 More than 70 journals on Highwire are completely free to read while many others offer free access to journals after a year or two. 

Highwire journals are optimized for mobile; when you visit a Highwire title with your mobile device, you will be redirected to the mobile version of the page. While some content is free to all, ou will need to be connected to the campus wireless network or the library VPN to view our subscribed content.

There is not a dedicated app for Google Scholar.  When accessed with a mobile device, the site does optimize for mobile. While you can use the general Google mobile app to locate some scholarly materials, there is way to limit your search results to Google Scholar.

The ArticlesSearch app for iOS searches Google Scholar and displays the number of search results; you can then navigate out of ArticleSearch and into the full GoogleScholar site. 

Some additional third-party research organizer apps, such as Papers ($9.99) or Mendeley include search options for Google Scholar.  But these lack an easy way for you to authenticate as a member of of UofA community for remote access to subscribed content.

Maybe you have found a better app and can recommend it to us?  In the meantime, you can access the full Google Scholar site from your phone's browser.  Be sure to use our proxied link to view Find it! links and full text:

http://0-scholar.google.com.library.uark.edu

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