[WEB4LIB] Re: PDA friendly web sites?

[Andrew I. Mutch]

Robin,

As I understand it, if you use CSS to lay out the site and get rid of the
superfluous HTML hacks, the HTML should degrade nicely in the wireless
display. No, you probably won't get the same display. However, as you are
using the HTML to logically mark-up the content instead of for design
tricks, the content should still be presented in a coherent manner. I
can't speak to the efficiency of XML versus HTML. I guess it all depends
on how it is used.

I like the idea of using the wireless PDA to access the catalog in the
stacks. It seems to me that with a well-designed catalog (OK, that's the
first obstacle), that this should be pretty easy to implement. I'm
confident that someone is already doing this successfully. I think at LITA
last fall, one of the presenters was talking about doing that very thing.

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI


> 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.
> 
>