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Bringing the library to your PDA
It is clear that Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are not just some passing fad. In fact, this year the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (SMBS) requires PDAs for all students http://www.smbs. buffalo.edu/pda/index.shtml as a part of its curriculum (See story in this issue of the online Reporter).
Sync sites, which allow PDA users to synchronize their handhelds with information on the Internet and SMBS server, are located in many area hospitals, as well as Cary Hall and the Health Sciences Library on the South Campus http://www.smbs. buffalo.edu/pda/sync_sites.shtml.
A University Libraries survey on PDA use conducted last year received more than 250 responses. The results demonstrated that PDA users want access to library resources from the palm of their hands. More specifically, when asked which sources they would like to receive via their PDAs, 57 percent of survey respondents answered database search results, 36 percent responded departmental faculty/staff contact information, 33 percent said the library catalog and 24 percent replied library forms.
In response to these answers, this semester the Health Sciences Library launched a new service, MobileHSL, with links to databases and services optimized for use on a PDA or other mobile devices. One service linked from MobileHSL is the PubMed mobile channel, a version of MEDLINE optimized for use on a PDA with a wireless connection to the Web.
Other services linked from MobileHSL include the PDA-based version of Google, BISON, the UB Libraries catalog and AskHSL, a Web form for submitting research questions. MobileHSL also includes the HSL's hours of operation and basic contact information.
To add MobileHSL to a PDA, users should visit the HSL support page for mobile computing at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/hsl /mobile/. This page also includes other support for PDA users, including links to tutorials and information about PDA workshop offerings.
The Arts and Sciences Libraries' PDA Reference Library http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/pdareference.html also offers support and information to PDA users. The page includes details on several different platforms for mobile computing, including Palm, PocketPC, Blackberry and Tablet PCs. PDA Reference Library also links to dozens of freeware and shareware applications for handheld computers, as well as information about UB resources, including wireless networking and UBMicro PDA sales.
The University Libraries also are looking into other resources for PDA users. Recently, the Digital Media Resources Center at the HSL added a couple of ebooks for PDAs, and other similar resources are being considered for future purchase.
As adoption of mobile computing and networking platforms continues across the campus, the University Libraries will continue to find new and innovative ways of getting users of these new technologies to the library information they need and deserve.
—Stewart Brower, University Libraries