[WEB4LIB] PDA friendly web sites?

[Robin Boulton]

>I bought a Handspring 2 weeks ago just so I could start researching the 
>same issues. Haven't got beyond synching to the calendar yet.


Somewhere in the last week or two I read an authoritative-sounding 
assertion that any ADA-compliant web site will display very well on a 
handheld. I don't know that it's true - I was under the impression that, 
for instance, a site written in XML would scale much more efficiently than 
one done in HTML, as far as seeing everything in the display, etc., 
although a site can be all HTML and still be compliant.

I too am looking for any interesting uses of handhelds. Someone mentioned 
to  me the other day that sometimes she goes into the stacks to look up   a 
book for a patron, finds it's not exactly what was wanted, and has to walk 
a long way back to an OPAC to look again. She wondered if with a PDA she 
could search again from within the stacks. Seems to me that all you would 
need would be a wireless  access point somewhere within line of sight to 
enable that. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

We will be opening a Technology Center this summer, with wireless NICs in 
all machines. This will be our pilot project for wireless in the library. 
I'm hoping to find other ways to leverage the wireless technology and PDAs 
to open up new efficiencies - such as redoing that search from deep in the 
stacks. I too would appreciate feedback, experience and suggestions.