This blog making news

Imagine my surprise when I viewed the referral links to Handheld Librarian
and I found ArcStream,
the company working on Blackboard to Go, Up-To-Date, and a number of other
innovative mobile solutions had linked to a post I had written about them
as being newsworth about their company.
Wow! I did not realize this blog rated as newsworthy, but great! Great exposure
for librarians and the role they can play in handheld technology! Thanks, Arcstream!

My boss, Carol Galganski, Peg Burnette and Jo Dorsch from the University of Illinois
Chicago Library of the Health Sciences-Peoria and I met today to discuss the
the PDA Conference. We have a lot of great content to share, and it should be an
exciting day in Peoria on June 7! We are still taking registrations until May 16.
The only cost is $25.00 to cover food costs. Mari Stoddard, from Arizona Library of the
Health Sciences is the keynote speaker. Carol Galganski, our library manager, Jo Dorsch,
Peg Burnette and myself will present an MLA CE on medical content/library applications
for the pda. The other part of the program will feature Tom Peters, project evaluator and
Director of the Center for Library Initiatives, CIC, moderating a panel which will include
Dr. Sara Rusch, Dr. Tom Foster, Dr. John Hafner, and Ken Smith, a medical student.
The company will be good, the food will be great, and our keynote speaker is dynamic!
UIC-LHS in Peoria is the conference site.

On May 7 and May 23, as part of our grant, our hospital library and the UIC LHS will
hostpda previews, which will be in open
house format for 2.5 hours at each location. The open house will be hosted by Peg
Burnette and myself and feature demonstrations of Margi presenter to go, the digital
camera, documents to go, keyboards, and the Total Recall voice recorder. Instead of
scheduling training on each module, we decided it would be better to have an open house
and let people drop in to spend the amount of time they wish and view the applications they
are interested in. Has anyone else tried this format to introduce various aspects of technology?
I would be interested in hearing your views and experiences with sessions like this.

Bill Drew, the wireless librarian, has been keeping traffic going on pdalibraries. What software program
do you use for syncing Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook or other email to your palm? Do you use
Intellisync, Avantgo, or something else? Share any information and I will post it here. We had
a doctor ask today for the same information.

The ILA Resources and Technical Services Forum Technology User Group is meeting in the
Chicago area on May 8 (Wednesday). Demonstrations/presentations will be done by Jenny
Levine, better known as <"http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com">The Shifted Librarian on blogging;
Teri Embrey Ross on pdas; Tom Peters, on ebooks; and the NSLS Answers Unlimited librarians
on virtual reference. The day will be a mixture of hands on, demonstrations, and discussion.
Teri has done an excellent power point and Tom and Jenny are working on them. I hope we
can share these with you after the meeting.

The Shifted Librarian mentions some news
regarding Franklin Electronic Publishers: "Burlington, N.J.-based Franklin, known for its eBookMan handheld device, said it will disseminate books by authors from Warner Books and Little Brown and Co. Featured authors will include Nicholas Sparks, Brad Meltzer, Anita Shreve and Larry King. " Jenny makes some excellent points
in her post about this deal and the current ebook situation. Franklin publishes a lot of good medical
textbooks for the handheld in companion format. They have also tried their hand at ebook reading
devices like the ebookman which was supposed to be an ebook reader with pda features and a dedicated
medical reader which I don't think handles any content besides that in the Franklin format. In our ebook
project which is described in the May 1 Library Journal article E-Books Go to College , Ginny McCoy of Eureka College,
Tom Peters, and I described our experiences with the RCA REB 1100 and the Franklin ebookman in
the college classroom and library.

Have a great weekend!