McGettigan, Liz

Nová generace knihoven a informačních služeb v Edinburku

Edinburgh’s next generation Libraries and Information Services

Since 1997 there has been a transformation in the way that people communicate. In 1987, in America alone over a million people had mobile phones. In 1997, the figure was 55 million[1]. The International Telecommunication Union estimated[2]that there will be 5.9 billion mobile subscriptions by the end of 2011, which is equivalent to some 87 percent of the world population (79 % in developing countries).

Accessing the internet from mobiles is increasingly the norm, not just in countries such as Egypt, India and Kenya where over 50 percent only access the web from their mobiles, but also in the US where 25% of web users only access from mobile devices[3]. This has had a remarkable effect upon people’s lives and the way people learn, work and play and the next ten years will see even more profound changes.