Using PDAs in libraries: a how-to-do-it manual

Does your library already offer services and resources for users of personal digital assistants (PDAs)?Or are you at a point where you need to find the time to learn about handheld computers, since more and more of your patrons are carrying them?Whether you are a mobile informatics expert or a PDA newbie, you will find this book, the first pocket computer guide written especially for librarians, to be a highly practical reference.Although written for a wide audience, including academic, public, and special librarians, there is plenty of content in this book for hospital and health sciences librarians.Colleen Cuddy is the assistant director for library systems at the Ehrman Medical Library, New York University, and her book was published in cooperation with the Medical Library Association.Cuddy provides a brief history of PDAs and describes the four operating system platforms: Palm, Windows, Symbian, and Blackberry.She compares various devices; however, the newest models such as the Palm LifeDrive and Palm T|X were not available at time of publication.She predicts that PDAs are not a passing craze but rather will evolve into new technologies such as PDA-phone hybrids.The author explains the four kinds of wireless connectivity: WiFi (wireless fidelity), cellular, Bluetooth, and infrared.Peripherals such as keyboards, cameras, and bar code readers are described, as well as lesserknown ones such as FM radios that plug into the PDA's card slot.We already know about roaming reference; PDA card swipe attachments would enable roaming circulation!In the chapter on PDA applications in the library setting, Cuddy opens by describing how librarians can use PDAs as personal productivity tools (e.g., calendar, address book, to do list, document reader).Next comes the most valuable section of the book -how PDAs can fit into the day-to-day operations of the library.Librarians can use wireless PDAs to answer instant messaging (IM) queries on the fly.Patrons can read e-books on their PDA (but must first download e-book reader software).Overall, says Cuddy, the Internet is not yet ready for PDA Web browsing because most Web sites have not taken the small screen size of PDAs into account.Most integrated library system (ILS) vendors, reports the author, seem to have a product in the works to support viewing the online public access catalogue (OPAC) on a mobile device, enabling users to search the catalogue while in the stacks.For instruction, screen capture software allows librarians to capture PDA screenshots for handouts, presentations, or Web tutorials, and emulators allow students to emulate PDAs on a personal computer.The chapter on collection development demystifies the various PDA product models: free, free with existing licensed product, user add-on purchase, institutional site license, set

Abstract licence: CC BY

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.