[Web4lib] WAP for library web sites

[Matthew J. Dovey]

A very long time ago (2000/2001) I did a WAP to Z39.50 gateway running
against the Oxford library system. It hasn't been running for sometime,
but I could blow the dust of it if there is interest (and possibly add
patron functions via a WAP to 3MSIP gateway)?

The main problem was the screen size - displaying the title, author and
shelmark for a single item effectively filled the available screen
space. Mobile phones have moved on quite a bit since then in terms of
the screen estate but most of the modern GRPS/3G phones tend to have web
browsers in them these days, so the need to write WML and serve via WAP
is decreasing compared to writing XHTML delivered over HTTP but designed
for small screens.

A good tool for testing how your webpages will look on phone and pda web
browsers is Opera. Press Shift-F11 to switch it to small screen
emulation and making sure that your website can still be navigated.

Matthew Dovey
Oxford University

> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org 
> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of 
> Stephen_Francoeur at baruch.cuny.edu
> Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 8:11 PM
> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: [Web4lib] WAP for library web sites
> 
> Can anyone recommend any library web sites or library 
> services that have 
> been optimized for WAP (wireless application protocol)? I'm 
> familiar with 
> the reference services via SMS (text messaging) that a few 
> libraries have 
> been providing via the Reference by SMS software that 
> Altarama provides, 
> but if there any other library services or library web sites 
> designed for 
> WAP, I'd love to hear about them.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> Stephen Francoeur
> Information Services Librarian
> Newman Library, Box H-0520
> Baruch College
> 151 E. 25th St.
> New York, NY 10010
> 
> stephen_francoeur at baruch.cuny.edu
> (646) 312-1620
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